Wait Training and Waiting Well

O. T. #2021 "Wait Training and Waiting Well"

Sept. 9, 2021

Daniel 12-Part 7

And blessed are those who wait and remain until the end of the 1,335 days! (Verse 12b, NLT)

LET IT GLOW

Are you waiting for a prayer to be answered, like me? In our last study, we defined wait as to adhere to; hence to await; long; tarry. Sometimes the wait can be long, as mine has been since January. So let's continue to look at the main points found in Wendy Pope's book, Wait and See:

• Turn our time into Wait Training. Keeping company with God is how we learn to wait well, fight our inner battles, and find rest..
• Read the Truth in the living Word of God, the Bible.
• Pray, talking to God about feelings, etc.
• Praise God. Think on things that are praise worthy, good, kind.
• David's godly character was shaped by every personally intense trial (PIT) he experienced.
• Make God the object of our wait.
• When God calls, do we delay or start on our way?
• Step out of the security of the familiar to find peace in the unfamiliar.
• In our adventures with God, we should expect the unexpected.
• We have to believe the God of possibilities rather than be overwhelmed by the impossibility of our situation.
• What we learn in one wait prepares us for the next wait.

LET IT GROW

Our waiting can feel like a wilderness experience rather than an exhilarating adventure. Don't we get antsy when our wait exceeds our limits of acceptable time?  (We think we have waited long enough.) David had trouble waiting patiently too. In anguish, he cried out to the Lord four times, "How long?" (Ps. 13:1-2)

When we get desperate to end the wait, we often feel we are in despair and :

• Help God by manipulating circumstances to rush our desire outcome. When the waiting is long, the enemy us to move on anyway.
• Turn the object of our wait into an idol. Anything that replaces God in our heart is an idol.
• Or we continue to seek the Lord Jesus, and tend to our sheep.

Read 2 Corinthians 4:8-9. How many but's did Paul use? (4) We are hard pressed, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despaired; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.

Back to Wendy's words of encouragement:

• Pauses are places meant to strengthen our resolve, not weaken our faith.
• What we are waiting on is too good to hurry!
• David waited well by focusing on God, not the problems, the people, or the palace.
• Don't let depression, discouragement, or doubt have victory. (Let Jesus bring your victory.)
• Things don't always turn out exactly as we planned, but things always turn out as God planned.
• Sometimes the wait ends better than expected or different than expected.

 

LET IT GO

We must wait well, arise to the challenge, and resist temptations. While waiting, we must continue to love God and love others; keep on doing Kingdom work; sharing what God is doing in our life. Believe God even if my feelings tell me something else. He is faithful and trustworthy.