Waiting in Worship

The one thing we hate the most

Every time my daughter asks me for something, the one answer that she dislikes the most is wait. she finds it very difficult to wait and she will ask why must I wait. I want it now! We live in such a fast paced world that we want everything to be instant. We have instant everything today. Instant food, movies, entertainment and if you have the money, you can rent a boyfriend or girlfriend. We don’t like to wait. There are many things that we desire in our lives and if we had our way we want all of it here and now. We hope that God will give us all that we ask for now. But God does not do that. Many times the answer that God gives us is wait. Then just like Allie will say, why must we wait. Today let us look at why it important for us to have patience in our lives.

Many times in our lives, when we are faced with a problem. We need to solve the problem and we are very excited to find a solution for our problems. It could be we need money to solve the problem that we have. Our first reaction is to start looking for a solution for ourselves. This is how we respond to many situations in our lives correct? And there will be people who will offer solutions to us to try to help us. And our natural response is to take the solution that sounds the best. Is this the best way to solve our problems in life? Not really. it’s more of a gamble when we make decisions like that. We don’t know what we are offered is really a solution that can really help us. That’s how many people get cheated of their money. Because when are desperate and are willing to take any solution that comes our way, there are many times when temptations come and try to make us make decisions that will bring us away from God.

We all face problems in our lives and we all need help to solve our problems in our lives. So how should we respond to the issues in our lives? We need to slow down and take more time in making decisions in our lives. We should take time to focus on God who can help us in a real way in our lives.

Waiting on God helps us to trust in God.

Philippians 4:6 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Other than just trying to find a quick solution to our problems. We need to learn how to pray and ask God for help. The natural thing is to run and find a solution. But the thing that we need to do is run to our great help. When we take time to pray and seek God in times of our need, we find peace ans assurance that God is in control. And we are able to wait for God to reveal the solution for us in our situations. Apostle Paul is not telling them not to be interested in the issues of our lives. But he is telling them to find hope in God and not to allow the problems of life cause them to be paralysed and cannot function.

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

There is only so much that we can do in our strength and wisdom. And many times, we make wrong decisions and get ourselves into a bigger mess. In this verse, God asks us to trust the Lord with all our hearts and not to depend on our own understanding. In all things that we do we need to know that God is in control and he will make our paths straight.

God promises to provide for us and to lead us. We all know this, but what does it mean to really trust in God with all our hearts? When we trust the Lord with all our hearts, it means that we give him the right to lead us in our lives. What must we do to allow him to lead us in our lives? God must be able to speak to us and we need to ask God to speak to us. If we are not interested to trust God with all our hearts and ask God to speak to us, God will not speak to us. When we say that we want to trust God, it is not a passive thing. When we want to trust God with all our hearts, we must desire to seek and ask God for his will for our lives. If we don’t ask God for his direction, there is nothing to trust God for. We are to rely on God more than our own understanding.

And when God works in our lives by showing us his will, wisdom and his provision and making our paths straight. That's when we really trust God with all our hearts.

2. Waiting on God helps us to find direction in our lives

Waiting on God helps us to know what God is doing in our lives.

Matthew 6:33 ESV

33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

In , God calls us to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to us. We also all know this verse right? If we want all these things to be added to us, what do we need to seek first? God did not ask us to seek a good life, a good job or a good family first. but God called us to seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness first before all the other things we need in our lives will be added to us. Too many times, we seek the good result but we are not willing to seek God and trust him for the good things. We want all the good things and we want it now on our own terms.

But in the end, when we do this, we get lost in our own desires and eventually we lose sight of God in our lives too. We may have knowledge of what God says to us in the Bible. But unless we come to really know that we are sinners who have no wisdom or ability to save ourselves or to lead ourselves and begin to repent of our sinful rebellion against God, we will all just know about God but not know God. Just as the demons know God and what the right thing to do is but refuse to do it. This is sin when we claim that we know God but do not do what he calls us to do.

Let us examine our lives and ask ourselves who is in the driver’s seat. Is it us or is it Jesus. The day when we received Christ and told God that we know that we are sinners and we have sinned against God and we believe that Jesus died for us on the cross. We invited Jesus to come and sit on the throne of our lives and allowed Jesus to lead us in our lives and give us direction. Is Jesus still on the throne of our lives? Or have we climbed back on the throne of our lives and led our own lives again. Have we lost our identity as children of God and allow the desires of the world to win our heart?

3. We need to get rid of distractions in our lives in order to have time to wait upon God.

Our lives are getting busier everyday and there are many things that we need to do in our lives and we all lose focus of God sometimes. God does not condemn us but Jesus calls us to come back to him again and find new life again.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

It is important and good to stop and look at our lives and how we are doing in our lives at least once a year. So that we can see we we are still on the right track in our lives or have we lost our way in our lives. if we don’t stop to see how we are doing and continue to busy our lives with more and more things that we keep adding to our lives, we will get lost without us even knowing it. We might have returned to our old lives without knowing it. Life will always get busier and busier. Our lives will not slow down automatically or have more space automatically.

We need to intentionally slow down and remove things which are not needed in our lives so that God does not get pushed out of our lives just because we have too many things in our lives that we do not have time to think about God or to red his word or to live our lives for God. Have we spent time to talk to ourselves to find out how we are doing on the inside. We can be so busy doing things that we don’t even know how we feel on the inside. And this is very dangerous because if we don’t find rest and direction in God, we will die on the inside. because we have lost our hope and joy that only God can give us.

I’m sharing this message to you today because it is important for us to actively keep staying close and connected to God. If we don’t do this, we will be swept away by the world and all the desires of the world. Real life and Joy is found in knowing the one who loves us and gave himself for us .

Let us take this time to quieten our busy hearts and lives and ask God to speak to us this morning. Ask the Lord to reveal to us if we have lost our way in our lives. Have we lost our relationship with our lord and saviour? Is there anything in our lives that we need to remove from our lives so that we can have the time and energy to seek God again? Are we still allowing God to lead us in our lives? Or have we decided to run our own lives again? Let us repent before God and invite God to come and help us to live our lives for him again. Let us cry out to him again and ask him to lead us to obey him again. Let us come back to wait upon God and worship God and seek God again our lives. When we do that God will pour out his blessings into our lives.

Phili

Proverbs 3:4–5 ESV

4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

- "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation,be constant in prayer."

- "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation,be constant in prayer."

3. - "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

4. - "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

5. - "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"

6. - "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."