The Fruit and the Vine: Waiting on God
Posted on February 20, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters
The Fruit and The Vine: WAITING ON GOD
“I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1 (ESV)
As I come to the end of my study into probably the hardest fruit of the Spirit I know, patience, long-suffering (however you like to envision it) I end with the hardest aspect of it…waiting on God. If I haven’t already told you I ain’t got patience too good but when it comes to waiting for God I flat out stink at it. It’s like waiting for your parents to do that one thing you want them to do with you or even that thing you want them to get for you…then it never comes through (maybe this is where the root of my problem with patience lies). Anyway, waiting on God gives a whole new meaning to long suffering because, quite frankly, God does long suffering better than all of us combined.
I mean let’s face this from The Garden view. There was disobedience, God said what He would do to make things right (Genesis 3:15) and He has been waiting for all of His creation to get in line with it. When we read Psalm 40:1-5 we should see clearly that even a guy (or a King) like David could wait patiently for the Lord’s help while being in what the ESV translates as a pit of destruction and a miry bog. David clearly expresses that it was his God that brought him outta that nonsense and place him on The Rock. Now it doesn’t take being a Biblical scholar or a being a fancy 17th century theologian to tell me that this Rock is Jesus Christ. In just five verses David gives me the answer to what will give me a new song to sing when I am brought outta the on-site Spot-a-Pot!! And yet I sit there and do that thing we shouldn’t do…what was that thing again…some sign on the wall in the Colony Kitchen…oh yeah, complain.
It’s not that there is complaining of what is provided; it’s timing that gets me. When I played in the garage bands that I had been involved with many-a-moon ago a song sounding good depended on timing…and maybe knowing something about the instrument you played. Yes you practice until it gets right but your hope is that what you finally got was a spot-on sound that left you without words but knowing that it was right. But when you are in a band you have trust that you all are on the same page. It is in that “TRUST” where there can be difficulty after all, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”(Psalm 118:8) and yet I seem to still invest into something that God has already told me will fail.
I think the crux of the matter lies in Psalm 40:4, “Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!” David knew right up front that blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust. “A simple single eyed confidence in God is the sure mark of blessedness.” wrote Charles Spurgeon. When I display those moments that are lacking of long suffering, I am displaying my lack of trust in God, ain’t I? My own pride gets in the way of that and here’s how Spurgeon would respond to that… “The proud expect all men to bow down and do them reverence, as if the worship of the golden calves were again set up in Israel; but believing men are too noble to honor mere money bags, or cringe before bombastic dignity. The righteous pay their respect to humble goodness, rather than to inflated self-consequence.”
At the end of the day my whole issue with not having a complete ripening of the Spiritual fruit of patience in my life lies solely with my ability to trust God wholly and to stop squirming off the altar when the 11th hour approaches. I need to really hold on to the truth that I am a blessed man when my trust is in God solely. My wife and I tell others that He isn’t out to makes happy but to make us holy. The thing is He never gave it a time table…He just said be ready when the time comes. That’s the benefit of long suffering, being ready. Amen? Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and is a weekly Freedom Fighter blogger
Daily Bible Reading: Exodus 9-11; 1 Thessalonians 1
Think About This: “A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah, but while his hand of faith can keep its hold on God, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his being numbered among the blessed; but the wealthiest and most prosperous man who has no faith is accursed, be he who he may.”— Charles H. Spurgeon
This Week’s Verse to Memorize: Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24