Dr. Richard L. Strauss
December 27, 1992
I’m a fairly punctual person. I'm seldom late. Once in a while I've been late for an appointment, but not often. And my wife is the same way. And I'm thankful for that. I'm not one of those husbands that gets ready and then has to sit around and wait for his wife to leave. And I'm glad about that, because I don't like to wait. Has happened a few times in our marriage, and quite frankly, I haven't always handled it quite well. I've gotten a little edgy and irritable at times. I can even remember at least once sitting in the car in the garage, blowing the horn.
I'm sure you've heard the story of the wife who was getting the children ready and her husband was getting irritable. He should have been helping, but he wasn't. And he was out in the car waiting and blowing the horn. Finally she came out and said, dear, why don't you go in and get the children ready and I'll blow the horn for you for a while.
You who have spouses who consistently keep you waiting, have my deepest sympathy. And that's not always the husband who waits. I've learned that it is the wife who waits for the husband sometimes, too.
Waiting is one of life's most difficult disciplines. And yet it seems as though we have to do so much of it, don't we? We wait in lines at the bank and the grocery store and the post office. And we sit in waiting rooms at doctors’ offices and dentists’ offices and sometimes hospital waiting rooms. Some of you have been there this year waiting for the birth of a baby or news of the surgery of a loved one. Most of us have waited at airports for loved ones or friends. And if the plane's been exceptionally late, we begin to imagine that maybe something's gone wrong. Or you've waited at home in the evening for a spouse to return from some activity, or teenage son or daughter to get home. And as the evening drags on, you begin to worry about some awful thing that could have happened, some tragedy. It isn't fun to wait.
Some of you have waited for weeks for a special letter to arrive or a loan to come through that you've desperately needed. Those of you who are out of work have experienced the agony of waiting for a job to open up. Some of you who are not married know the anxiety of waiting for the right life partner to come along. Some of you, with loved ones near death, are waiting expectantly for God to take them home. You're almost afraid to admit that, aren't you? Lest someone think that you're selfish and uncaring. But it's not wrong to feel that way. Their home going may not only be a relief to you, but the most blessed thing that could happen to them. If they're believers in the Lord Jesus, they enter the presence of their Savior, which Paul said would be far better. So you wait and you wait, and it isn't enjoyable to wait.
Some of you with serious illnesses have waited longingly for healing. And even if total healing is unlikely, the illness has produced numerous other occasions when you've had to wait. I know that's the way it's been with me. When I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in August of 1989, I started a journal. Every once in a while, I'll go back and read through what I've written. And it amazes me how many times I've referred to waiting in that journal. The necessity of waiting, and how difficult it's been to wait. The medicine wasn't available yet, so we had to wait. Or it didn't do what it was supposed to do and so now we're going to try something different and then wait again to see if it works. Or some treatment has been recommended, but they can't schedule it yet. We wait and we wait. And the waiting isn't over yet. As a matter of fact, I'm of the opinion that the coming year may provide more opportunities to wait than we have yet seen, not only for me personally, but for all of us as a congregation.
That's why I've chosen to talk about waiting on this Sunday before the new year begins. Because there are questions in the minds of many of you, I know; you've asked me these questions. You've asked each other these questions, and they've been reported to me. Questions. What's going to happen to Pastor Strauss? How long will this illness last? Will he ever be back to normal? Suppose he can't continue? What are we going to do? Who's going to replace him and carry on the teaching ministry at Emmanuel Faith?
Questions. We wish we had answers to those questions right now, but we don't. We have to wait. And some of you are going to have to wait in your own personal life this year for many, many different things. Maybe wait for a job or wait for a raise, or wait for wayward children to come back to the Lord, or wait for a mate or wait for a special friend. You need one so badly and you long for one. And pray for one and haven't found that one yet.
That may be why the Bible says so much about waiting. I counted more than 40 references to waiting in the Scripture, most of them in the Old Testament. Waiting on God. I thought it might be helpful to examine some of them today. As we stand on the threshold of a new year, it might help to equip us for the difficult discipline of waiting, which we surely will face this year. And it seems logical to begin by defining what it means to wait on God.
Let's talk about the meaning of waiting on the Lord. Would you believe that there are 19 different Hebrew words that are translated "wait" in the Old Testament? They're synonyms. All mean essentially the same thing, but yet all have a slightly different shade of meaning. Nineteen of them. There are few—about four—that are used more than the rest of them. And from these we learn essentially what it means to wait on God. Here's what it means.
1. Waiting Means Trusting God
First of all, it means trusting God. This is probably the most prominent idea in waiting. Trusting in the Lord, resting in His promises, believing Him, believing He is whom He claims to be and will do what He said He will do. And it isn't just trusting Him, but it's the firmness and resoluteness of our trust. It's emphasized in these words. We just keep trusting Him, no matter how difficult the situation may look or how long the answer may be in coming. We're not going to give up. We're going to keep trusting.
And now is your Bible open to Psalm 33? Let me begin reading.
"Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name"
(Psalm 33:20-21).
See how, in those two verses, waiting is linked to trusting? And did you notice how our trust here is in God's name? That's an interesting thought. It's repeated again in Psalm 52:9, where the Psalmist writes:
"I will wait on Your name, for it is good" (Psalm 52:9b).
We wait on God's name. We trust in God's name.
Think about God's name for a moment. El Shaddai, the Almighty One. El Elyon, the most High God. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. There are so many others in the Old Testament that reveal His love and His compassion and His kindness, His faithfulness and His grace and His power.
We can trust Him. And we can keep on trusting Him, even when the situation is the darkest, because He will be true to His name. We can wait for Him.
But not only is our trust in God's name, it is also in God's Word. Psalm 130. You want to flip over to it quickly and find it?
"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope"
(Psalm 130:5).
God has made certain promises in His Word and we can count on Him keeping those promises. For example, in Philippians 4, He promised to meet all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Some of you have been doubting that, haven't you? You've been out of work, wondering whether He really will continue to meet your physical, material and financial needs. Some of you are in marriages that could not be explained in any other way than just a mess. That's what they are. And you're convinced that your needs are never going to be met in this relationship, and you're thinking seriously about bailing out. And then you read in God's Word that we are to wait on Him, and it means to continue trusting Him. So you're going to keep on trusting Him. Even in that rocky marriage. You're going to hang in there and you're going to continue to become more and more of the person God wants you to be, even though there's no sign that your spouse wants to change as yet.
You're going to grow by God's grace, keep on growing closer to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, because you know that God will be faithful to His Word. So you're going to keep on trusting Him.
Waiting is trusting in God, trusting in His name, trusting in His Word. But it's more than that.
2. Waiting is Expecting God to Answer
Waiting is expecting God to answer. Let me read you what one Hebrew lexicon says about the most common word for "wait" in the Old Testament, the one most frequently used. I quote:
This root means to wait or to look for with eager expectation. It means enduring patiently in confident hope that God will act decisively.
See the action there? Some people seem to think waiting on God is sitting around tapping their feet, twiddling their thumbs, and doing nothing. It isn't that at all. On the contrary, it is not passive, but actively seeking God, eagerly expecting Him to work. Jeremiah said that:
"The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him" (Lamentations 3:25).
See how he links seeking God with waiting on Him? That isn't sitting around doing nothing. Seeking is an action. Seeking involves spending time in His Word, looking for answers, spending time in His presence, in intimate conversation, expecting Him to answer. That's action. Expectancy.
David also links waiting to expectation in that familiar passage in Psalm 62.
"My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him"
(Psalm 62:5).
It's a great verse to memorize if you haven't already done it. "My expectation is from Him."
Waiting on God is not stoic indifference to what happens. It's brimming with confidence and hope. It's like what goes on in the waiting room in the maternity wing of the hospital. Parents are there, friends are there. Husbands used to be there. Now they can go into the labor room. Husbands couldn't go into the labor room when my four were born; I had to wait in the waiting room. But I can tell you I was not apathetic or indifferent to what was happening. I was alive and alert and excited and expectant, waiting any moment for the good news that I felt was imminent.
It was imminent when Tim was born. No sooner did Mary get in the labor room than here she comes wheeling out with the doctor, smiling. And he's saying, "Guess. Was it a boy or a girl?"
And she said, "Oh, don't make him guess. Tell him." And I knew it was a fourth boy!
See, waiting is trusting God and expecting Him to answer. But it's more than that.
3. Waiting Is Being Quiet before God
It's being quiet before God. Being quiet before Him. It's right there twice in Psalm 62. Maybe you should look at it.
"Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him."
(Psalm 62:1, 5).
Jeremiah talks about waiting quietly in Lamentations.
"It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:26).
What does that mean? This particular word has the idea of waiting in silent expectation. Quietly waiting. That would eliminate grumbling and complaining about our plight, like so many of us do. It would eliminate criticizing others for contributing to our unhappiness. And we do that too. We like to blame our spouses most of all. It's their fault we're so unhappy.
It would certainly eliminate accusing God of being unfair and unjust in allowing us to suffer like this. And we do that too, don't we? It's such a common reaction when trials come and God doesn't work them out the way we think He should. Or as quickly as we think He should, we begin to complain and grumble and bellyache. You know, "God doesn't love me anymore. God doesn't care about me. Maybe He cares about others, but He has no compassion for me. He doesn't understand how serious this situation is or how much I'm really suffering. Maybe He doesn't have as much power as He claims to have." And so we grumble and complain.
Dear friends, if we're truly waiting on the Lord, we are learning to be quiet before Him, to quit our complaining and to hold our peace. Waiting not only means trusting in God and expecting Him to answer, but being quiet before Him.
4. Waiting Is Being Patient before God
There's one more major idea in these words, and that is being patient before Him with our problems. Waiting is linked to patience in a number of Scriptures.
"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7a).
Waiting patiently may be the toughest part of all, because waiting kind of eats at us, doesn't it? We chafe under it. We get unsettled and disturbed and distressed, irritated. We chafe and try everything in our power to work the problem out our own way, and so we can get on with our lives the way we want to get on with them. We may try to manipulate people. Sometimes we try to adjust the circumstances to make them more to our liking. We're anything but patient.
Go back to the hospital again for a moment, and this time let's go to the labor room instead of the waiting room. No matter how unpleasant this expectant mother is, she's going to wait until that baby is good and ready to come. That's the way it is, except for cesarean section, which we assume on this case is not called for. She's going to wait. She knows that. I mean, there isn't any alternative. There's nothing else to do. And that's the way we need to view it. We need to wait on God, learn to wait for His scheduling, His timing. It may be different from our timing, but He assures us that His timing is always best. And so we wait patiently.
To wait on God, then, if we want to define it in one sentence—to wait on God is to keep trusting Him, expecting Him to answer in His own perfect time and His own perfect way, being quiet and being patient before Him.
Now, nobody said that was going to be easy. As a matter of fact, it's going to be very, very difficult. If you've done any waiting, you know how hard it is. David talked about how hard it was in Psalm 69.
"I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
My eyes fail while I wait for my God"
(Psalm 69:3).
That doesn't sound like much fun at all, does it? He's weary, his throat is dry, his eyes fail. I say it again: Waiting is one of life's most difficult disciplines. And if you've done any of it, you know that's true. But if you've done any of it, you also know that the benefits make it more than worthwhile. That's God's promise.
So let's look at some of those benefits of waiting on God, shall we? Maybe that will encourage us to keep on waiting even when it's tough.
5. The Benefits of Waiting on God
Nowhere is the wonder of it all more clearly stated than in Isaiah 30. Just to set the scene, the people of Israel were facing a serious threat from the north in the person of the Assyrians. They were marching south. Invasion was imminent. No hope was on the horizon. They were getting irritated and upset with God. They were getting fearful and fidgety and impatient and anxious and worried.
"Where's God? Why doesn't He do something to protect us?" Their temptation is to take things into their own hands and work it out their way. And their way was to get the Egyptians to help them. Turn to the south, make a treaty with Egypt, let them come with their horses and chariots and defeat the Assyrians. And Isaiah's plea is over and over again, "Don't do it. Don't do it! Wait on the Lord."
"For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength'" (Isaiah 30:15a).
Not in running around and looking for people to help you, but in waiting upon God quietly, you see. Confidently wait. That's the message of that verse.
No, they don't want to wait. See the last part of the verse?
"But you would not" (Isaiah 30:15b).
"You would not." They preferred to trust in the swift horses of Egypt than to wait upon God. And Isaiah warns them that they're going to ride horses all right, but it's not going to be in victory. It's going to be in defeat and in retreat.
"Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him" (Isaiah 30:18).
You see, the longer they wait, the more serious the situation becomes, and the more marvelous and spectacular His deliverance will be. "For the Lord is a God of justice, and blessed are all those who wait for Him." You see, the longer they wait, the more serious the situation becomes and the more marvelous and spectacular His deliverance will be. That's why He waits: so the situation gets more desperate. So we can see that it is God who works it out. It is definitely Him, not us, who accomplishes the deliverance, who does the work. And He gets the glory for it.
See, He does it that He may be exalted (verse 18). That He may be gracious, and that He may be exalted.
And it's the same with us. We think we have the answers, don't we? We know what's best for us. We can work everything out to our best interests. And so we run around and we make our plans and we do our thing, and usually we botch it up. And God says, "Wait on Me. Wait on Me."
Yes, I know the situation may look more desperate every day, but the more desperate it becomes, the more marvelous and magnificent will be God's work. He wants to do a more powerful work on your behalf. And so He waits. And He waits, that He may be gracious to you. And He will be exalted when He shows mercy to you. And blessed are all those who wait for Him.
Jeremiah reaffirmed it over there in Lamentations 3.
"The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him" (Lamentations 3:25).
Good. What are some of the good things that God does for those who wait on Him? What are some of these benefits? Let's talk about them for a few moments, shall we?
a. Stability and Strength Is a Benefit of Waiting on the Lord
Number one is stability and strength. Turn over a few pages to chapter 40 of Isaiah, where the prophet is addressing the Jewish captives who are ready to return from their captivity in Babylon and rebuild their temple. They're going to need strength daily strength for the trip back and then for the task ahead of them when they reach Jerusalem. Where are they going to get that strength they so desperately need? It's right there in that verse that's so familiar to so many of you. Most of you could probably quote it by memory.
"But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).
Whatever they need to do, whether it's soar heavenward in some spectacular accomplishment like build the temple, or whether it's merely trudge along the path of daily responsibility which walking would symbolize. Whatever it is, waiting on God will provide the strength that they will need. That's where it will come from, waiting on Him.
And it's the same for us. While people around us are collapsing from exhaustion, we can carry on with fresh energy. While others are paralyzed with worry and fear, we can go forward with peace and confidence, with renewed strength for the task God has given us to do.
Whatever it is will come as we wait on Him, as we keep on trusting Him, expecting that He will answer, maintaining a posture of quietness and patience before Him.
John Wesley was a man who knew what it meant to wait on the Lord. At 82 years of age, he wrote this:
I am never tired in my work. From the beginning of the day or the week or the year to the end, I do not know what weariness means. I am never weary of writing or preaching or traveling, but just as fresh at the end as at the beginning.
Isn't that incredible for 82 years of age? He got that strength by waiting on the Lord.
The psalmist said much the same thing in what is probably the most familiar verse in all the Bible on waiting.
"Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!" (Psalm 27:14).
When we continue to trust Him, He strengthens our inner person. He provides the inner resources we need. He strengthens our hearts in other words, so we can cope with the problems that we face, so that we can have the emotional stability we need to keep on keeping on in spite of the difficulties. He will strengthen your heart. He says, "Wait." Wait on Him.
Stability and strength. It's the first great benefit of waiting on the Lord. But there's more.
b. Safety and Security Is a Benefit of Waiting on the Lord
There's safety and security. Let's go back to that passage of Scripture we started with this morning, Psalm 33.
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.
Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
Just as we hope in You"
(Psalm 33:18-22).
So many people have fear in our day: fear of sickness, fear of death, fear of the dark, fear of intruders, fear of the future. The psalmist assures us that the eye of the Lord is on those who reverence Him. That's what "fear" means in verse 18: those who reverence Him. He is a help and a shield for those who wait on Him as protection against the dangers around us. There's no need to fear with the Lord as our help and our shield. There’s safety and security in Him.
"My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God"
(Psalm 62:5-7).
David was a man who faced many enemies and fought many battles. And a rock and a stronghold could be important factors in the defense system of a person who's fighting battles in that day. He depended on them for safety and security. He needed them. They could make the difference between victory and defeat, between life and death. So long as he stayed behind the rock, or so long as he stayed holed up in that stronghold, he was safe and he was secure. But the moment he ventured out, he made himself vulnerable.
What he's saying to us here is that in the final analysis, God is our rock and our stronghold. God is our defense. He is our safety and our security. When we start running ahead of Him, when we start taking things into our own hands and putting our trust in our own strategies and our own devices, our own plans, then we're in trouble. So long as we are waiting on Him, we are safe and secure.
What a wonderful promise. What a fantastic blessing. Safety and security. They're ours by waiting on the Lord.
c. Direction and Joy Is a Benefit of Waiting on the Lord
But there's one more thing I want to share with you, and that is direction and joy. It's found in another familiar passage on waiting. Psalm 40.
"I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord"
(Psalm 40:1-3).
Now, we're not sure what pit experience in David's life he is referring to here, but we know he had a lot of them. And some of them were horrifying, literally horrifying. On a few occasions, he took things into his own hands, as you remember, and made a mess of them, as we always do when we take them into our own hands. But this time, whatever situation it was—and he doesn't tell us which one he's referring to—he waited on the Lord, and God delivered him from the pit and as a part of that deliverance, he set his feet upon a rock and established his goings. That is, God established his steps.
In other words, He gave him clear meaning and purpose and direction. That's what "established his goings" means. He gave him guidance, directed his path.
That's one of the things we desire as a congregation in these uncertain days: clear direction from God, clear guidance from Him, clear knowledge of what He wants us to do, and wisdom in every decision we face. Where does it come from? Here it is, folks:. It comes from waiting patiently for the Lord.
It comes from trusting Him, keeping on trusting, expecting Him to direct us, maintaining a posture of quietness and patience before Him.
But that's not all God did for David. When he waited upon him in this passage of Scripture, He put a new song in his mouth, that is, fresh praise to the Lord. He worshiped God with new and joyful enthusiasm that literally bubbled spontaneously from his heart and which attracted other people to his God. See it?
"Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord" (Psalm 40:3b).
What a wonderful consequence that was of waiting on God! And the same is true for us. God can do those same things for us in spite of the uncertainty we face in these days. He can make our worship joyful and wonderful, so wonderful that it attracts unbelievers to our Savior. He can do that. How is He going to do it? He's going to do it as we wait patiently for Him. That's the key, you see. Waiting patiently on the Lord.
Now, I wish I knew what the future holds. I wish I could sit down here with you and map it all out and know exactly what's going to happen and where we're going and what will take place in the next five years. That would be wonderful if we could do that, wouldn't it? I wish I could sit down with all you personally and individually, answer all the questions you have, solve the problems you're struggling with that are getting you edgy and unsettled and upset. I wish I could do that.
Unfortunately, God hasn't made it possible for us to do that. But He has promised that He will guide us and direct us and meet our needs fully as we wait on Him.
"Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed" (Psalm 25:3a).
Indeed, none of those who wait on God will be ashamed or disappointed. That's what the idea of this word is: disappointed. None of those who wait on Him will be disappointed. We can't go wrong by waiting on Him. That's what the psalmist is saying. We can't go wrong by waiting.
Let's take God at His word, shall we? Let's do what He encourages us to do and wait on Him. Let's trust Him and keep on trusting Him. However dark the days may look, let's expect Him to answer. Let's maintain that posture of quietness and patience before Him, and then joyfully watch Him work in wonderful ways to accomplish His perfect purposes and plans, to accomplish His perfect will. Let's wait on Him.
Trusting Jesus as Your Savior
You know, there's something else in the Scripture that we receive by waiting on God. It's there in Psalm 62.
"From Him [God] comes my salvation" (Psalm 62:1b).
David was probably talking about physical salvation from some imminent physical danger. But the Scripture is clear that spiritual salvation also comes to us in the same way.
What does waiting on God mean? Trusting Him. What brings salvation to us? Trusting Him, believing in Him, faith in Him. As Paul put it to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved" (Acts 16:31).
Salvation comes by trusting. Not by working. Not by keeping track of our good deeds or our religious activities and presenting them to God. Rather, by acknowledging that we're sinners and we're not worthy of God's salvation, and by putting our trust fully and completely in the Lord Jesus Christ and leaving it there. That's waiting on Him and that brings to us eternal salvation.
Have you received that salvation that God offers to you by faith? What a wonderful time this would be to receive that gift of eternal life and His forgiveness of sins.
Here we are at the threshold of a new year. Why not let Him wash the slate clean? You'll have more than a clean calendar. You'll have a clean life. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
You can start over, literally. Begin again right now. Will you receive his gift of forgiveness and life? Will you trust Him?
Let's bow before Him quietly and reverently and prayerfully. May I ask you, as we're bowed together in His presence, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior from sin? Have you put your trust in Him? Are you waiting on Him? Not on your own devices, your own good deeds, your own religious activities, your own church membership. No. No. Salvation comes from Him. It's a gift. "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
Would you receive His gift right now? A clean slate, a cleansed life, everlasting salvation? I'd suggest that you express your faith to Him in prayer, just in the quiet of your own heart and mind and soul right now. Something like this:
Lord, I'm a sinner. I believe my sin separates me from You forever. But I also believe that Jesus died in my place and paid for my sin. And Lord Jesus, I turn from my sin right now to You in faith and ask You to come into my heart and save me from sin.
Would you make that decision? Would you open your heart to the Savior?
If you've already made that decision, it's quite possible that even as a Christian, you've been worrying and fretting and stewing over something, struggling with God's timing. Would you be willing to commit right now to wait on Him in total trust, expecting Him to answer, maintaining a posture of quietness and patience before Him? Tell Him so right now, will you?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for those who have made the decision to trust You as Savior right now. And thank You for the believers who have committed themselves to wait on You. Oh God, give us the grace to follow through. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Memory Verse
My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5, NKJV