“Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it.” Psalm 37:34
Perhaps the most difficult task facing Christians, is to wait upon the Lord. Technically, it should be the easiest part of Christianity, i.e., “let the Lord handle it”. But in reality, man is driven by his own feelings and frustrations, to the point where the hardest thing we face many times, is to keep ourselves from taking matters into our own hands.
Why did man invent religious conventions, associations, and other organizations not found in the scriptures? Because man just cannot wait upon God. He thinks he has to do it in a bigger and better way than God’s will and way allows. People get so pumped up in themselves and that which is of man that they equate it to be by spiritual revelation and power, even though it is unscriptural.
Many a servant of God has sidestepped his or her calling simply because they could not wait upon God! They just had to do something about their situation themselves. I have taken things into my own hands before, because I was so stirred up by the situation at hand, that I felt I had to do something or bust!
Serving the Lord is not an easy thing. It involves continuing on when everything says quit. It demands enthusiasm in spite of only discouraging results. It requires doing it again even though the last time we did it, all seemed to no avail. It requires the continued investment of our time and talent into that which appears only to be unsuccessful.
Sometimes our human energies and driving forces work so hard within us that we despair of waiting upon the Lord and start reacting on our own. I believe this to be the tap root of much of the “religious zeal” we see expressing itself today.
A person can become so repressed in spirit by the difficulty of waiting upon God, that they have a reaction unto becoming a self-proclaimed zealot. They denounce the Lord’s church as it is, and blame it for the condition of society. They vigorously proclaim their brand of spiritualism as being the idealistic “fire power” of Christianity. They use a strong, dominant personality to draw followers, who find approval by being a donor and supporter of the cause of their superiors. They intimidate those who do not rally behind them and support their recommendations.
Rather than have reactions to the frustrations involved in doing God’s work God’s way, we need to seek greater humility and self-denial to keep on keeping on, God’s way. Rather than fault the Lord’s work, we need to wait on God in doing His work, His way.
SHARING
