Waiting Patiently for the Lord

The theme for my talks this week is patience, a theme which is greatly neglected in our contemporary Western culture, even among Christians, yet essential for successful Christian living.

There’s something about this word that does not attract most of us. In fact, it’s rather frightening. It suggests something negative, something we’d rather have to turn away from. We would rather listen to almost any other subject. Yet, it’s an essential condition for success in the Christian life to understand and apply what the Bible teaches about patience.

So, don’t let that instinctive, negative reaction keep you from hearing and receiving this message on patience. We need to understand that God’s people are, by definition, a waiting people. This is what Paul says in

“First Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10,”

speaking about what had been happening to the Thessalonian Christians and how their neighbors spoke about them.

“They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

That’s the first change. They turned from idols to the true God to serve Him. But it doesn’t end there.

“And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

You see, there are two things put together there. We are to serve the living God, but we are also to wait for His Son from heaven, Jesus. So, God’s people not merely are called to serve, but they’re called to wait. And that’s where perseverance and patience have their place. We serve with perseverance. We wait with patience.

One of the essential features of patience, which I’ll be emphasizing several times, is that we observe God’s timing. God is the conductor of the orchestra, and we watch His baton. You see, an impatient violinist in an orchestra could spoil the whole thing by being even one fraction of a beat ahead of the score. And somehow, that’s how we have to see ourselves, as instruments in God’s orchestra, with God as the conductor.

And it takes patience to wait for that little nod of the conductor’s head or that little motion of his baton which tells us, now is the time for you to come in. The Bible is just full of the most wonderful promises to those who wait, and I want to take a little time to encourage you in this matter of patience by just quoting a few of these many promises. I think if you were to look up the word wait, or its equivalent, in a concordance, you’d be amazed how many times God recommends to His people that they learn to wait.

For instance, this is what David says in

“Psalm 25 verses 4 and 5:”

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.”

I’m sure that’s a prayer most of us want to pray.

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.”

But the next verse tells us one of the conditions.

“Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

So, being taught by God includes learning to wait. In a certain sense, you can say God does not teach the impatient. At least He does teach them just one thing: that’s patience. But they make no further progress in their lessons till they have learned patience. So, bear that in mind if you want to know God’s ways. And if you want to be wise in His paths, you’ve got to wait. You see, God is the teacher.

He not merely teaches, He chooses the curriculum, and He chooses what subjects we’re to study in what order. We may be very excited about some prophetic theme, but God’s curriculum says, now you need to learn faithfulness. And so, we get impatient when God isn’t teaching us what we want to know. But to learn from God, you’ve got to let Him not merely choose the curriculum, but set the order.

Again, David says in

“Psalm 27 verses 13 and 14,”

and I think if you consider the career of David, you’ll understand why he had so much to say about patience. Later in this week, I’ll be speaking about David as an example of patience. But you remember that he was wonderfully anointed king, and then for the next 10 years, he endured tremendous opposition and persecution. And I’m sure in those 10 years, he had to cultivate patience again and again and again. And this is what he says in

“Psalm 27.”

He gives some good advice.

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

He was faced with a situation in which there seemed to be no hope. He was just overwhelmed by the pressure of despair. But then he comes out with this counsel:

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

So, what do we do when everything seems to be against us? The pressures are mounting. We can’t see a ray of light anywhere. Everything is dark and negative. One of the things we have to do, which is perhaps the hardest, is just wait. Wait until God chooses to intervene on our behalf. Don’t jump the baton. Don’t move ahead of God. God has got the situation under control, and He will move on our behalf, but He’ll move in His time.

And for us to enable Him to do that, we have to be waiting. And then there’s this wonderful description of God in

“Isaiah chapter 64 verse 4:”

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you,”

He’s the only God. And then it specifies one particular characteristic,

“who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”

Remember, He’s the only God. You can trust Him. He’s omnipotent, but He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him, those who are patient.