Waiting Upon God

In the book of Isaiah, we read in chapter 30 and verse 18, 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.

I submit to you, friends, that one of the hardest things for a Christian to do is to wait upon God, especially if you have a promise from God. A man is inherently an impatient creature who wants things done on his terms and on his own timetable, but God does not act that way. He has a divine purpose for each of us, where it is for our good and his glory.

And to experience that is to be deeply familiar with the theme of waiting upon God. And that's the title of my message today, friends. I've been waiting for years for God's promise in my life to be realized, as my faith has been tried and tested time and time again.

At times I crumble like a dry leaf in the wind as patience runs out, and I go to my Hagar, so to speak. But God in his mercy always grants me the grace to go forward in a life of faith and keep my eyes on him while standing on his promises. Waiting upon God has been the most difficult aspect of my Christian life.

And it is this theme that runs through the pages of my Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The theme of waiting upon God emerges time and time again in scripture, whether it's waiting for the promised Messiah or the coming blessed hope. The theme of waiting upon God runs like a golden thread throughout my Bible, whether the waiting entails a song of deliverance as seen in Psalm 40.

I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. Or the waiting is a time of great reflection and perplexity as seen in the life of Joseph in Genesis. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forgot him.

And it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he stood by the river. Those two long, tedious years in the life of Joseph as he waited upon his God were a refiner's fire to prepare him for his exultation in Egypt. And the great theme of waiting upon God is evidenced in the life of Abraham, who, after receiving the promise of a son from God, had to wait 25 years for that promise to be realized.

We see the theme of waiting upon God 40 years in the life of Moses as he flees Egypt for the Midian desert where F.G. Hegel states it is time. For 40 years on the lonely slopes of Midian, the fiery Moses is schooled. There were graves, if I may so speak, scattered all over the mountainside where hope after hope was buried until at last self went down in utter annihilation.

We see the theme of waiting upon God for service as seen in Luke 24, 49. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And we find the promises of God to those who wait upon him, Isaiah 40, 31 declares.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not be faint.

Next time you read your Bible, friend, look for this theme of waiting upon God and see how God has applied it in your own life.