CONTROLLING YOUR “WAIT”!

John Clardy - Author

 

Ps 46:10    Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 

Isa 40:28-31

28        Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29         He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30        Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31         But 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.

 

I.          INTRODUCTION

 

Most of us "battle the bulge" at some time in our life, but the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey estimates that there are almost 34 million obese adults in the United States and there has been a dramatic increase of children and youth that are overweight, with about 15 percent of them being obese. Being overweight is a risk factor for health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease and even cancer.

 

Weight control programs and diets have become a multibillion-dollar business in the U.S. We are constantly bombarded with some new diet or pill that claims to be the answer to weight loss. “Low Carb”, “No Carb”, Adkins, Sugar Busters, Weight Watchers, and the list goes on and on.  I have even heard of a banana diet and a cabbage diet.

 

But diets alone cannot control weight. They must be combined with daily exercise and patience. 

 

“Impatience is a leading cause of discouragement in most people who fail in controlling their weight because they do not get immediate results,” says one leading dietician. “A person cannot expect the overnight success that many claim possible. You must be willing to invest time and discipline if there is to be a lasting change. To go from one diet to another or one pill to another is asking for more frustration and eventually failure.  To be successful in their controlling weight, people must be willing to work and wait.”

 

You and I need to learn to control our “wait”.  Now before you get offended  I am not talking about controlling your physical W-E-I-G-H-T, but your spiritual W-A-I-T!

 

Marketers exploit our desire for instant gratification! “Buy Now - Pay Later” or,  “Just 200 easy payments of $29.99 on your Visa/MC/Sears!  That’s why many food items are now microwavable or instant. That’s why we have automobiles that go from 0-60 in less than 10 seconds. There is Express Mail, 1-Hour photo labs, ATM machines that spit-out our cash in seconds, and we have a drive-through for everything. Dayton Beach even has a drive through church – you don’t even have to get out of your car – you just pull up and hang a speaker on the window and listen to the sermon. I believe you can even get a sermon to go if you want to.

 

The fact is, we all hate waiting, and we’ll do just about anything we can to avoid doing it. Many times we not only hurry ourselves but we also try to hurry those around us.

 

A man's car stalled in the heavy traffic as the light turned green. All his efforts to start the engine failed, and a chorus of honking behind him made matters worse. He finally got out of his car and walked back to the first driver and said, "I'm sorry, but I can't seem to get my car started. If you'll go up there and give it a try, I'll stay here and blow your horn for you.

 

We must not become so impatient with waiting on God’s plan that we decide to hurry the process along ourselves.

 

 

II.        IMPATIENCE VS. CONTENTMENT

 

All of us battle impatience.  We want God to answer or needs on our timetable. We struggle to accept the fact that God is sovereign and that His timing is not according to our schedules. 

It is easy for us to accept a yes answer from God.  It is a little harder, but we can even accept a no answer, if we must.  But what we don’t want to hear from God is wait!

 

Being content to wait is not a natural behavior.  Paul lets us know it is a learned behavior! 

 

Phil 4:11            …I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

 

This place of learning to be content is such a difficult attribute to attain that Paul placed it in the same category as godliness.

 

1 Tim 6:6            But godliness with contentment is great gain.

 

There may be those that argue that you can be godly and not patient, but you cannot separate them.  Godliness is the aspiring to a God likeness in or character and nature.  And if there is anything that I have found God to be with us is longsuffering and patient.

 

Paul said that godliness and contentment together are such a high goal, that it is something so foreign to our human nature that to reach it is truly a great gain or accomplishment in our lives.

 

III.       Examples of Controlling Your WAIT.

 

JOSEPH

 

Joseph had a right to be impatient.  He had been a good son.  He had a relationship with God!  He believed the promises of God, and yet when he pursued those promises and dreams it landed him in a pit.  His own  brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. In Egypt he was faithful financially and morally to his master, but an immoral wife’s false accusation landed him in prison.  In prison, he interpreted a butcher and a baker’s dream and asked to be remembered when they were fulfilled but he was forgotten.  Finally, he was promoted to Sec. of Agriculture, second in power only to Pharaoh when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.

 

How did Joseph make it through all that he did?  He learned to control his wait.

 

You meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.   Gen 45:5

 

JOB

 

If anyone had a right to be impatient and frustrated, Job did!  He lost all his possessions!  He lost all his family!  He lost his health!  He lost his friends!  He lost his sense of where God was!   And still Job did not charge God foolishly!

 

JOB:    I don’t know why this is happening.  I don’t know where God is working. I don’t know how long this is going to last. I don’t what God is doing. I don’t know when it is going to be over.  But I do know God is aware of my situation and I do know that this has not come to stay!  I am not going to lose my integrity with God I am going to control my wait!

 

Job 14:14  all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

 

Because Job learned how to control his wait the Lord blessed him above and beyond everything he started with.  He restored his marriage, his children, his possessions, his friends, and his health…

 

IV.       Example of Not Controlling Your Wait

 

ABRAHAM

 

Impatience leads to mistrust-which is the enemy of faith!  If we do not trust God then we begin to dishonor God because we do not believe He will do what He says He will do!

 

How many of you will be honest enough with yourselves to admit that you have allowed impatience to dictate decisions that you have come to regret latter?  I have, because waiting is difficult for our flesh. 

 

Abraham – God promised him he would be the father of many nations!  But He had no son!  Instead of controlling his wait, Abraham got impatient!  Because God delayed the promise he thought it was a denial and took matters into his own hands.

 

He gave into his own impatience:  He was willing to settle for a substitute promise!  In Genesis 15:2 He made his steward, Eliezer of Damascus adopted son and heir.  But God said no!

 

Gen 15:4            And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

 

He gave into the impatience of others: Just one chapter later he gives into Sarah’s impatience and was willing to settle for a substitute promise again!

 

Gen 16:2  And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

It was God’s will that the promise son be born as the fruit of Abraham’s loins and Sarah’s womb!  But because Abraham could not control his wait, he frustrated the will of God!   It is the reason for the trouble we have in the Middle East today.

 

Gen 16:12         And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...

 

The things of God are contrary to the carnal man. God’s way up is down.  To Him first is last and last is first.  It is better to be “over wait” in God than to be “under wait” Over wait in God is to lag behind God.  Under wait in God is to get ahead of God. I’d much rather be a little over wait and still have God in front of me fighting my battles and making a way for me, than to be under wait and get ahead of God and be on my own. When we get ahead of God, we frustrate God’s will and set ourselves up for failure! 

 

Isa 30:15-16

15         For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

16         But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.

 

God’s promises come through process of prayer, of travail and time!  When we do not control our wait, we give into our impatience and others impatience and we appoint adopted sons (substituted programs) and birth half-breed, hybrid sons.

 

We don’t need any more substitutes or wild men!  We need to control our wait until the son of promise comes!

 

V.        Inability to control your wait is a sign of weak faith.

 

Israel- full of doubt because they were surrounded!  They wanted to rush back to their onions and garlic, to the bondage they had just left behind. 

 

Moses- full of faith!  Stand still!  Just wait!  See the salvation of the Lord!  Remember this – Doubt always rushes in, but faith is willing to wait.

 

Story of Lass the Sheep Dog:

 

Hard worker--Loved the Master--Was good with the Sheep but she had one bad habit:  She always wanted to be where the action was. It hindered her performance. Had difficulty with one command:  It was STAY!

 

That brief strong word meant for her to remain patiently where she was.  Sometimes STAY meant to guard a gate or hold a band of ewes while the lambs were tagged.

 

But because she felt left out if nothing was happening near her, or because she felt forgotten, she would leave her place and move about to try and find the master.

 

When she did this the flock would scatter or get mixed up and the work was hindered. When she left her place and didn’t control her wait it was called “Breaking Faith”!

 

Notice: Ps 103:7  He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

We want to be where the action is!  If we aren’t careful we will get ahead of God’s ways trying to see God’s acts, and just like Lass instead of controlling our wait, we end up breaking faith!

 

VI.       Learning to control your wait is a sign of mature faith! 

 

Mature saints do not simply react, but they respond by trusting God’s timing and by understanding that God has a purpose for every delay in their lives.

 

         Sometimes He delays to prepare us for a task

         Sometimes He delays to deal with some weakness

         Sometimes He delays to strengthen our faith

         Sometimes He delays so He might give us the best and not just something adequate

 

VII.     How To Control Your Wait

 

Remember what the doctor said about physical weight control in my introduction? What he said can be applied to us controlling our spiritual wait.

 

“You must be willing to invest time and discipline for they’re to be a lasting change. To go from one diet to another or one pill to another is asking for more frustration and eventually failure.  To be successful in their controlling weight, people must be willing to work and wait.”

 

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

 

Isaiah 30:18 “Blessed are all those who wait for him.”

 

I am preaching about the kind of faith that is not weary in well doing, but is willing to control its wait knowing it shall reap in due season (God’s time) if it faints not!

 

Exod 33:18-19

18         And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

19         And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

 

Moses wanted to see God’s glory, God responded by showing Moses His goodness!

 

Here is what I believe is a secret to controlling our wait!  Be willing to watch for God’s goodness while you are waiting on His glory.

 

Right now – some of you are in a fierce battle.  You may even be entertaining the thought of giving up!  Don’t do it!  Don’t get weary! Stand Still!  Control your Wait!  Your due season is on its way!  Watch for God’s goodness and wait for His glory!

 

Ps 40:1-3

1          I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

2          He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3          And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

 

We cannot control the duration or circumstances of our waiting periods. But, we can control our wait by trusting in God’s faithfulness and allowing our attitude to develop into one of expectation about what God is teaching us while we wait.  And though that doesn’t alleviate the struggle of waiting it does make it easier.

 

Isa 40:31           But 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.