Wait Upon the Lord |
Psalm
37:9 Psalm
123:2 Isaiah
30:18 Isaiah
40:31 Jeremiah
14:22 Psalm
27:14 Psalm
37:34 Proverbs
20:22 There
is in genuine faith a buoyancy, a steadfastness of principle, and a
fixedness of purpose that neither time nor toil can weaken. "Even
the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall: 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 faint." Isa. 40:30, 31. There
are many who long to help others, but they feel that they have no
spiritual strength or light to impart. Let them present their petitions
at the throne of grace. Plead for the Holy Spirit. God stands back of
every promise He has made. With your Bible in your hands say, I have done
as Thou hast said. I present Thy promise, "Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you We
must not only pray in Christs name, but by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. This explains what is meant when it is said that the Spirit
"maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be
uttered." Rom. 8:26. Such prayer God delights to answer. When with
earnestness and intensity we breathe a prayer in the name of Christ,
there is in that very intensity a pledge from God that He is about to
answer our prayer "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think." Eph. 3:20. (Christ Object Lessons
147) It
is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of
the Lord. Lam. 3:26. There
are precious promises in the Scriptures to those who wait upon the Lord.
We all desire an immediate answer to our prayers, and we are tempted to
become discouraged if our prayer is not immediately answered. Now my
experience has taught me that this is a great mistake. The delay is for
our special benefit. Our faith has a chance to be tested to see whether
it is true, sincere, or changeable like the waves of the sea. We must
bind ourselves upon the altar with the strong cords of faith and love,
and let patience have her perfect work. Faith strengthens through
continual exercise. (Our High Calling
134) Our desires and
interests should be lost in His will. These experiences that test faith
are for our benefit. By them it is made manifest whether our faith is
true and sincere, resting on the word of God alone, or whether depending
on circumstances, it is uncertain and changeable. Faith is strengthened
by exercise. We must let patience have its perfect work, remembering that
there are precious promises in the Scriptures for those who wait upon the
Lord. (Ministry of Healing
231) A worker cannot gain success while he hurries through his prayers to God, and rushes away to look after something that he fears may be neglected or forgotten. He takes time to give only a few hurried thoughts to God, that is all. He does not give himself time to think, to pray, to wait upon the Lord for a renewal of spiritual and physical strength. (Lift Him Up 263)
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