HOSEA 12:6 – “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”
THEME OF THE DAY: WAITING ON THE LORD. Waiting is hard, especially when we are in the depths of sorrow needing God’s comfort, in the depths of trial needing God’s strength, and in the depths of loneliness needing God’s felt Presence. Yet, waiting on the Lord is a significant place He takes us to teach us lessons so valuable and important in the Christian life. But before I offer a couple of those lessons, we must do what today’s scripture says – return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.
The picture we get from the prophet Hosea is God’s people being told to do three things; return or turn back to the Lord, be resolved to cling to love and do right, and wait on Him to restore and show them favor. They were under judgment for turning from the Lord, and now do right and wait on Him. In those periods when God calls us to wait, there will be at least two lessons we must learn.
First, God’s sovereign work in our lives unfolds on His timing, not ours. It is true what the Apostle Paul encourages us with about God’s work in our lives – Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). What is also true is the God who works in us will require us to recognize it is His work, His way, and His timing. So, the first step to growing spiritually through waiting on the Lord is the lesson that recognizes His sovereignty at work.
The second lesson we learn when God calls us to wait on Him is one of the most important words in the Christian life – submission, and it is not easy! We know well by experience the challenge of waiting on God to intervene in our lives with comfort, strength, and direction when we feel none of them! Yet, God is still at work. Remember, grace works all the time, even when we don’t feel grace working at any time.
And what happens when we submit to God in His school of waiting? Many things, but two revealed in the one hundred thirtieth Psalm are high on the list – I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning (Psalm 130:5-6) . Do we see the direction the Psalmist’s waiting goes? To God’s Word. God wants us to draw near to Him as we wait on Him through His Word, for it is there the promises become more precious as we are called to wait on the Lord. Another thing we hear from the Psalmist is intense desire for the Lord. Twice he identifies his waiting as an intense longing for morning as a watchman would for the dawn to be relieved from watch or to see the light of day. Waiting is designed to intensify our longing for God, and applying this to the scripture of the day, it is to be continual, never ceasing as we wait on the Lord’s intervention of help and Presence in our lives.
PRAYER: “Father, thank You for never giving up on me, and always providing me much needed help.”
QUOTE: “Tried and weary Christian, the Lord will be there for you. Wait on Him. He will prove faithful.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim