Greetings again my Brethren. Let us begin to look at why God waits in His response to man in the light of Isaiah 30:18. Here we read, “And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” (Isaiah 30:18) In the natural we think time is being wasted. We think does not God know we need to move on this and get it done before more is lost in this situation. Well God knows what He is doing and needs not our help to remind Him of His promises or His words. I hear people say pray God’s promises, read back God’s words to remind Him of His love for man, really? Here Isaiah 30:18 starts off by not doing, but by waiting. All of the things in store for us in the heart of God from this verse comes to us by waiting. The LORD waits and so must we. We wait then receive. Strange how the place of receiving from God comes out from our ability to wait patiently. We would think we receive from God by doing great and marvelous things for Him, well not true. We receive great and marvelous things from God when we can wait. All things in God has a purpose, an intention, even a plan for all things in our lives. If not our life would be random, no purpose or direction. That would make us the captain of our own ship. Those who think like this always end up on the rocks and wonder why. This is not God’s intention for us. God’s purposes and intentions are for us to walk (our choice) in the plan He has for our lives. And that plan always begins with us waiting. There are three reasons why God waits in His response to man. 1. In order to do a work of grace in man God uses the period of waiting as His opportunity to do what cannot otherwise be done. God never does anything singularly. God does many things at the same time that benefits His end goal, and His end goal is to conform us into the character and nature of Jesus Christ.. The work of grace is done through His dealings and judgments in our lives. This waiting period is God’s opportunity (if we wait) to work in our lives. How long does it take God to work in our lives? Does God have a timeline, a scale, or maybe some chart that tells us how long we must endure situations or problems, or circumstances in our lives? No, no. and no. They are God’s dealings and judgments He gets to pick the sacrifices, he gets to pick the waiting time. Now the waiting and work of God in our lives is not to see how we can endure hardships or difficulties. Do we have a happy face pasted to our nose, oh no. The purpose of waiting is so that God can be gracious to us. Who wants God to be gracious to them? Is that you? Okay wait. 2. To accomplish a work which will result in His exaltation and man’s abasement. God always wants man to bring man out of his self, out of his self strength, his self importance to place of lowliness and humbleness. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29) Remember the goal is to be like Jesus and He said, “learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart.” we will not get too far in God if we are not meek and lowly in heart. Oh we may get a big church with 25,000 members, but remember if people are running after you God is not. Greatness in God not from many people liking or even following us, but by becoming like Jesus, becoming meek and lowly in heart. God will be exalted when man steps out of the lime light. Man can arrange many things to make it seem God is behind what we are doing, but in the end the truth will come shining through and we will be exposed for who and what we are. God will not share His glory with no man! He will see to it we will have no place to glory. Many a man of God tried to horn in on God’s glory and He took them totally out. The Bible is full of example after example. Take heed in this area. 3. To manifest His mercy and demonstrate the wisdom of His judgment. The beginning of God’s mercy and grace is always judgment. I wonder why we shy away from the need to judge people, situations, and circumstances in our lives so that we do not get off track? Christians wrap themselves in verses so that they will not have to take a stand for righteousness and then blame God and everyone else for their spiritual failures. The only one to blame for the messes in our lives is our self: not God, not the devil, not our brothers and sisters, our selves. The divine spiritual principle is judgment before mercy. Here God desires to demonstrate His mercy and wisdom. And we think we are so smart full of love, wisdom, and “grace for grace.” Well, God is much smarter. My friend God does know what He is doing. All we have to do is do what my Bible Teacher Charles Haun said to do, “just go along for the ride.”
Next month we will begin to look to what purpose does God keep man waiting in? Do you have time? Will you make time? If you make time for God please know He will make time for you.
