LEARNING TO WAIT ON GOD

HERE IS A SHORT MESSAGE FOR THOSE PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE.

I am speaking to those who are in such a trying situation that it will take a miracle to remedy it. Perhaps someone reading this is at the point of total despair.

Thank God for all who are enjoying a season of blue skies, good health, a good job, a good marriage - and all is well. Praise God! Give him much thanks.

But most believers I know are being tested. Some very godly people have endured so much pain and anxiety, they have uttered those desperate words of Isaiah 40:27, "My way is hid from the Lord, and the justice (help) due me escapes the notice of my God." Here is the Word you need: "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" (Isaiah 40:31).

How does one wait on God? I suggest three things:

1. Quit thinking about your situation and begin focusing your mind on the Lord. "As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God." The foundation of waiting on God is making him the object of our thoughts.

2. Be patient, waiting for God to answer prayer in his time and way. Patient waiting is to hope and trust in the face of all discouragement and disappointment. "You have need of patience." In your thinking, God may seem too slow, but he heard your very first cry - and every prayer since. Often,> the answer comes in a way you could not possibly perceive.

3. Pray often - daily - with expectation. Where there is no expectation of an answer, there cannot be waiting on God. That is the heart and soul of this waiting. Why would anybody pray without expecting an answer? "They that come to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." What is his reward? Renewal of your strength.

Love in Christ,DAVID WILKERSON Times Square Church Pulpit Series