THE BENEFITS OF WAITING

"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eales; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:30-31 (NIV)

Waiting can be difficult. For me, sometimes it seems impossible. We live in a society that demands things quickly with little to no time to wait. We have gone from sit down meals to fast food (although you can debate that phrase). We sometimes schedule more in a day than we can get accomplished, leaving little time for the important things in life. It is against our nature to wait for things. Think about your driving......I think I can boldly say that some of us have little patience for "slow" drivers and those are probably the ones going the speed limit. And too many times, we carry this impatience over to God. When facing problems or issues in life, we pray to God and we want an answer immediately. We try and put God on a timetable.

Actually, the verse quoted at the beginning of this devotion uses the word wait. The Hebrew word "wait" literally means "to bind together," perhaps by twisting something with a chord, if you can visualize that. It is by twisting ourselves around God's strong nature that we ourselves receive strength and confidence in Him. We don't possess these traits ourselves, but God makes them available to those who wait and hope in Him. God promises to "renew their strength". Some translations say "gain their strength" and the Hebrew word for gain means exchange. So in reality, when we wait on the Lord, he will exchange our weakness for His strength. It is taking all our weaknesses, when we want to quit, or our lack of faith in the middle of trials or our impatience and replacing these with his strength. When we place our weakness at His feet, He will exchange them for his strength. This reminds me of one of my favorite choruses:

His strength is perfect, when our strength is gone

He carries us when we can't carry on

Raised in His power, the weak become strong

His strength is perfect, his strength is perfect

The question is: can you wait on the Lord? or better, will you wait on the Lord?

Are You More Like Cain or Abel?

"Now Adam slept with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When the time came, she gave birth to Cain, and she said, "With the Lord's help, I have brought forth a man!" Later she gave birth to a second son and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a farmer. At harvesttime Cain brought to the Lord a gift of his farm produce, while Abel brought several choice lambs from the best of his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his offering, but he did not accept Cain and his offering. This made Cain very angry and dejected. "Why are you so angry?" the Lord asked him. "Why do you look so dejected? Gen 4:1-6 (NLT)

The two sons of Adam and Eve came to worship God. It is clear from the Scripture that neither of these men had forgotten his Creator. It seemed logical that Cain, a tiller of the ground (farmer) would bring something from his crop; and that Abel, a shepherd, would bring from his flock. Why, then, was God displeased with Cain's offering?

I think by this Scripture, we can see the importance that God places on worship. Worship must not be just what we want to do to honor God, but what God has asked us to do to honor Him.

We are not really told in this Scripture why Cain's offering of worship was rejected by God. We do know that Abel gave of his "firstfruits" meaning of his very best. Perhaps Cain held something back and gave just enough to get him by--or so he thought. Maybe Abel's heart was filled with joy and Cain's was a little bitter--being put out that he had to give something. Maybe Cain felt he was giving only because he was obligated to give. Abel brought so much more than just the newest to the flock--he brought their "fat" portions. What this tells me is that he put quite a bit of care, effort and concern into his offering. He had taken the time to be certain that he was giving to the Lord what the Lord really deserved. Perhaps Cain rushed thru his thought process and just gave from what first entered his mind. We could make a lot of speculations as to why Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's was not. However, I think we would miss the application. How does this story apply to you and I?

Actually, that is for you to answer, but here are some questions that might help you answer it.

1. Do I always give God my best when it comes to worship?
2. Do I prayerfully consider what I can give God?
3. Do I rush thru my worship and give Him what first comes to mind?
4. Do I view my worship as an offering to God?
5. Do I really know who God is in order to give Him my best?

Only you can decide the answers to these questions. But know this: God is interested in your very best. He deserves it! When it is anything but our best (and joyful best at that), we are robbing God. Let's make a commitment to really give God our all, not just our leftovers.

JUST BE STILL!

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still" (Exodus 14:14 NIV).

For the past few years, there's been an ongoing theme in my life. Every time I go to the Lord with a problem or concern, every time I start worrying about something, every time a situation seems too huge for me to understand, the first thing the Lord says to me is "BE STILL."
This is almost an impossible command. I simply can't make my mind be still and forget about all that's going on in my life!

Have you actually ever tried it? I mean, really tried to be truly still? To still your mind from thinking a million different thoughts all at once? I challenge you to pause from reading this devotional and sit in stillness before the Lord for a mere two minutes, right now.
(Seriously, try it before you read on....hard to do isn't it?)

Did you check your watch after 15 seconds? Maybe you made it 30 seconds or even a minute. But, were you really able to get through the entire two minutes without looking at your watch?
Don't worry; you're not the only one who struggles! Even when we have a quiet time in church for prayer time, I know that silence bothers people. Too much silence and people start to get nervous. I have even caught myself on occasion questioning whether the leader fell asleep or something due to the period of silence.

It seems like an easy enough thing to do, doesn't it? To simply stop, be still and cease from all action and thought? But, as we've seen, it's pretty difficult.

Yet, if you can actually become still, your entire perspective changes. Suddenly, God appears huge and whatever you're dealing with shrinks in size.

In Exodus 14, the Israelites had just fled from Egypt, with the Egyptians pursuing closely behind. As the Israelites saw their pursuers quickly gaining on them, they became terrified and cried out to the Lord (v. 10).

Circumstances and their own minds said, "Run for your lives...your pursuers are going to capture you...you're going back into slavery."

But Moses' words told them to do exactly the opposite. "The Lord will fight for you; you need
only to be still" (v. 14).

We have one advantage the Israelites didn't; we know the end of their story. Moses' words were true. The Lord parted the waters of the Red Sea, the Israelites crossed over and the Egyptians drowned in the middle of their pursuit.

Yet, honestly, it's the same for us. We may not know the end of our individual stories, but we know the same God who delivered the Israelites. He's telling us the same thing He told them so many years ago: "I'm in control, even if you don't understand it. You need only to be still."

Learn to let go of the desire to control your life or even the idea that you are in control because in reality, only God is. "Be still and know that I am God..." (Psalm 46:10 NIV).