WAITING ON THE LORD

 

WAITING ON THE LORD

Lam. 3:25-27 The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. And it is good for the young to submit to the yoke of his discipline. NLT

Waiting for the Lord is hard to do, isn’t it? We want God to act and act now. We want to dictate how and when the Lord acts, but it simply does not work that way. The Lord is sovereign and moves independently from man. When we wait on the Lord and follow where He leads, life can be a very wonder-filled experience. We may wonder why things are the way they are while at the same time be filled with wonder at God’s goodness and faithfulness to us.

Like most in the church, I long for the Lord to come back and take us home. It is so easy to get so caught up in His coming back that we cease to be effective in our living here. There is so much living for Christ in the world to do. We must keep busy serving the Lord. There is a multitude of people all around us who are not saved. They need people to show and tell them the way of salvation. We are mandated by the Lord to go into the world and make disciples. We are to preach and teach the Word. We are to be His ambassadors in the world. Yes, we should be looking forward to the day of our salvation, the day in which we will go to be with Him in heaven, but we must keep busy while we wait.

When we are young is when we most need discipline. Youth are enthusiastic and usually cannot see the bigger picture of things. They generally have a lot of energy and don’t know how to best corral it for their good or the good of others. We tend to be like youth when it comes to our faith. We may be very enthusiastic with a lot of energy to serve the Lord, but we lack discernment and wisdom. We need to learn how to grow and serve. We need to learn how to balance out our longings for heaven with our living here. We need to learn to let the Lord be in charge of His coming. We need to see the world as He sees it, as lost and in need of a Savior. We need to submit to the Lord, serve Him where we are planted, reach out to the lost, and wait quietly for the day of our salvation. We can be too heavenly minded to be much good for the Lord on earth. Seek the Lord and serve Him now, and we will see Him later.