He Is Working In The Wait Exodus 17:3-7 Psalms 130:5-7 Isaiah 30:18 Psalms 27:13-14 Psalms 37:5-11 Psalms 37:34-40 Romans 8:18 Romans 8:28-39 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Titus 2:11-14 12.04.19

HE IS WORKING IN THE WAIT

BREAD

³ But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”  ⁴ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”  ⁵ The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”  Exodus 17:3-7 (NIV)

⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. ⁶ My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. ⁷ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.  Psalms 130:5-7 (NIV)

¹⁸ Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)

¹³ I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.  Psalms 27:13-14 (NIV)

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: ⁶ He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. ⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. ⁸ Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil. ⁹ For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. ¹⁰ A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. ¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.  Psalms 37:5-11 (NIV)

³⁴ Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. ³⁵ I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, ³⁶ but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found. ³⁷ Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace. ³⁸ But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off. ³⁹ The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. ⁴⁰ The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.   Psalms 37:34-40 (NIV)

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  Romans 8:18 (NIV)

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. ³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39 (NIV)

⁷ To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.   2 Cor 12:7-10 (NIV)

¹¹ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.  Titus 2:11-14 (NIV)

BUTTER

“I am waiting on Thee, Lord, to open the way.”  J. Hudson Taylor  

“Simply wait upon Him.  So doing, we shall be directed, supplied, protected, corrected, and rewarded.”  Vance Havner

“Let me carefully mark the inward workings of thy grace, and the outward tokens of thy providence, so as daily to have a true sense of thy gracious presence in every thing, more or less important; and thereby to be ever strengthened in faith, and kept in a composed state of mind; considering that nothing happens by mere chance, but all is wisely ordered by thy providential care to our good; firmly believing, if anything goes contrary to expectation, that something better will follow in its stead, if we only can be quiet, and wait the time.”  K.H. Von Bogatzky

“Our timing is almost invariably faster than God’s because His agenda for a situation includes deep workings and intricate details.  We just aim for superficial symptoms.  He intends to grind His grain very, very fine – an excruciating work on our character that will not let coarseness remain.  Or, to use another metaphor, He burns His ore long and hot, removing not just the impurities that can be seen with the naked eye, but all that exist.  We usually don’t care about such thoroughness.  We want to get out of our difficult situation quickly or to achieve our successes suddenly.  For us, time is of the essence.  For God, time is essential.”  Chris Tiegreen

“Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of spiritual life.”    Simone Weil

“Keep bringing your prayers to God. If you think your request is legitimate, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. God wants to teach us through persistent praying to wait on Him and to watch. While we're praying and waiting for God to answer our prayers, do you know what He's doing? He's working on us, conforming us more and more to the image of Christ. And when we're ready, the answer will surely come.”   David Jeremiah

“Waiting is just a gift of time in disguise — a time to pray wrapped up in a ribbon of patience — because is the Lord ever late?”    Ann Voskamp

“God aims to exalt Himself by working for those who wait for Him.”   John Piper

“Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain.  It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life.  Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding.  We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us.”    Charles H. Spurgeon

“A thousand people wait on the other side of your obedience.”   Anonymous

“How do we wait for God? We wait with patience. But patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the full in order to find there the signs of the One we are waiting for.  The word patience comes from the Latin verb ‘patior’ which means ‘to suffer.’ Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the full, and letting the seeds that are sown in the ground on which we stand grow into strong plants. Waiting patiently always means paying attention to what is happening right before our eyes and seeing there the first rays of God's glorious coming.”   Henri Nouwen

“At times you will feel as the Israelites did before I worked through Moses to part the Red Sea. They gazed with fear into a sea of hopelessness as their Egyptian enemies headed toward them. However, as My people discovered, hopelessness is just an illusion created by the enemy. The truth is, there is no such thing as a futile situation. I am the God of hope, even when everything you love and live for appears to be drowning. When you can’t swim any longer, I am your lifesaver. I am the author of your life who can rewrite and transform any tragedy to triumph. I am the one who will work all things together for your good even when it appears all has gone bad. When you don’t know what to do, be still long enough to allow Me to calm the storm in your heart and part the sea that seems to lie in the way of My promises for you. If you will wait on Me, you will witness My wonders!”  Sheri Rose Shepherd

HEART SAVOR

• ·         God is working on us in the wait.  He is in the process of conforming us into the image of His Son.
• ·         We are to wait in hopeful expectation about what He is bringing about in our lives.  Also, we are not to wait inactively.  God is always working, so too should we be.
• ·          Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.