Things have not been going well with me since the start of the year so I couldn’t think of anything but I had a commitment to keep, to share on 15 and 22 of January. With a sad heart I asked for special grace to know what God had in mind.
So the first topic that came to mind was, “To Wait upon Our Lord!” Waiting at the beginning of the year seems inappropriate. Everyone is seemingly launching forward, eager to move on and yet stop and wait is rather passive indeed. Isaiah 40:27-31 came to mind and I was wondering what it has in store for me. This message came in December, a month before the sharing, but I took no notice until I was forced to think deeper as 15th January was right at the corner.
Isaiah 40:27-31 said, “Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
For two weeks, like the Bible said, I was grumbling, crying and having tantrums like a child. I asked and complained and nagged at God. When I read these verses again and again after calming down, God had foreseen the happening and the situation I would be in and had provided a message for me to heed and learn.
Indeed, standing before the congregation, I wept and laughed telling how and why waiting for the Lord is important. I told them my incident of the theft on 31 December 2016 and the lessons I had to learn the hard way. Listening to the Lord is crucial in our daily life.
What does waiting mean? W means WILLING to obey. Obedience in the Christian spiritual journey is of prime importance! A is to be AVAILABLE, spending time with the LORD. I is INSTILLING the right attitude or mindset. Often we misread God’s message and are not in line with his mind or after his heart. We are busily on own venture. S is taking a rest while necessary. The world is screaming, shouting at us to go ahead. Telling us to rush like madness in the rat-race, saying time is money. Never lose out from the beginning, or else you will fall far behind! T is Turning round. Sometimes, U-turns are important to make the right journey. Without stopping for a turn back, we are only heading farther away from God.
Thinking hard, I was asking myself. Is waiting idle? That is doing nothing. Many people are afraid to be let alone, doing nothing. They become restless and reckless and suffocated. They want to be on the move rather than to sit still. But God commanded us to be STILL. Psalm 46:10 said, Be still, for I am God, meaning that he is in charge. Just trust and believe and hold on.
Thus, waiting and resting come together as a coin of two sides. What is REST then? After searching for suitable words to make sense of it, God wants us to RESTORE, to be EXPECTANT of what he will do soon, to STOP while we can manage, to give God his way to handle the situation and then TRY again when Got lets go of the hand. God just wants to give us a space to replenish, regain confidence, refurnish with the best and regenerate; living to the fullest again.
I set off in tears but God wipes them away. What I lost is also a gain. What I lost is just material things that will be useless in heaven; what God has given me is a new mindset, learning to right my wrong and put my mind to focus what will be kept in heaven when God calls me home one day. Pray that God will continue to set my mind in the right path and learn to be a good steward with his gifts.
By Chris
Tawau, Sabah