PSALM 69:1-3 – Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE PAIN AND BLESSINGS IN WAITING ON GOD. Every spiritual lesson learned will come with two experiences. First, there will be pain. Yes, I know. I don’t like it either, but it is one of God’s choice tools to teach us life-changing spiritual lessons. The Psalmist knew this truth when he wrote, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes (Psalm 119:71). But don’t be discouraged. I am sure he didn’t arrive to the point of recognizing the good in his suffering overnight. Neither will we, and that leads us to a second thing about learning spiritual lessons. God will cause us to wait on Him, and that too, will be painful. It was for the Psalmist in today’s scripture. Feel the emotional upheaval in his life – For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim (Psalm 69:1-3b). What was causing this excruciating pain? Waiting on God. Huh? Really? God would allow such heart-wrenching experiences in His children? Before we answer, stop, and remember the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. We need no other response.

Yes, there is much pain in waiting on God, but also great blessings; great lessons to be learned that we would not apart from being in this season of painful waiting on Him. Here are just two, though there are more.

First, we learn what is noticeably absent in the world we live in – patience. James writes, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (James 1:2-3). And as we learn patience, we “stick out like a sore thumb” in an impatient world giving us Gospel opportunities to share the One who builds patience in us.

Another lesson of blessing we learn in waiting on the Lord is perseverance in prayer. Prayer is the true measurement of our spiritual condition before the Lord. And true prayer is persevering prayer. When God waits on answering our prayers, we will know how serious we are in praying by our continuing to seek Him even when He delays. Jesus taught us a key mark in true faith is persevering prayer – And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:1-8). We learn true prayer, true persevering prayer, when God says, “Wait on me.”

So, be informed and be aware, God uses many things to teach us spiritual lessons. One of those means is the pain associated with waiting on Him. Don’t rebel, don’t complain, but ask the Lord to give us a heaping of grace to help us respond when the pain of waiting on Him is upon us. As we do, we will sing His praise for what we could only have learned in the pain of waiting on the Lord.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me when I grow impatient waiting on You and miss the lessons I may learn.”

QUOTE: “God’s delays in answering our cries are not necessary denials, just delays to teach us to wait on Him.”