The Waiting Game (Part 2)

Hey, it's not Thursday, but I just couldn't wait to post a blog on waiting. ;-)

Despite what you might think, or hear others say, there are good things that happen while we wait. Waiting does a couple of good things in our lives and I want to share with you one of those things to encourage you in the Lord.

First…Waiting Builds Character

David was familiar with waiting. He had to wait on God to sort out all the mishaps and confusion with his rise to kingship. Do you remember his story? A lot of tension existed between him and King Saul. There were times when David had to literally get out of dodge, leave Jerusalem, because his life was in trouble. He had Saul’s men looking for him to kill him. During that very difficult time David learned to wait upon the Lord. David also had opportunity to speed up the waiting process. David could have ended the waiting. In 1 Samuel 24 we read that David, while hidden deep within a cave, had a perfect opportunity to kill King Saul.

Read 1 Samuel 24:1-4

David chose to wait upon the Lord. The waiting process for David built character in his life. It made him a better person. David’s men saw this opportunity as a God-given moment. Remember they said,“This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” But David said to them in verse 6,“The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.”

Think of the respect David’s men gave him that day because he chose to wait upon the Lord. Would you have been able to do that?

You see I didn’t understand waiting when God first called me into ministry. I was on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic when I answered God’s call to ministry. I didn’t think waiting would be a part of that call. I guess I thought I would answer the call to ministry and have a job preaching the next day. Little did I know that it would be 6 long years before I entered the ministry fulltime. You see God needed to build character in me because I was a character. God used that time to shape and mold me into the man He wanted me to be. He's not done either. I had to wait and I like to think that something good happened because of it.

I believe David became the greatest king Israel ever had because he was described as a man, “after God’s own heart,” but he was also a man who knew how to wait upon the Lord.

I know this is a bit of a re-hash of what I said last week, but I'm stuck on it.