Waiting on the Lord- Psalm 27

Scripture: Psalm 27

"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!"
~Psalm 27:14

It is one of the hardest lessons to learn as a believer: waiting on the Lord. I'm sure that it was not easy for David to wait on God at times. This was a guy who was anointed as a kid to one day rule a nation. He killed the front man of the biggest enemy of his people with a poor kid's slingshot. He also spent years on the run from the guy that was in charge (incidentally his best friend's dad), hiding in caves and undoubtedly wondering how God was going to make that whole "king" thing happen. Hard to see yourself as royalty when you are sleeping on a stone floor and running for your life from the people who you once considered family. But God used that time to teach David to wait and depend on Him. This wasn't something that the ruddy runt of seven boys could do on his own. He had to trust God to save his life daily. He understood that God really DOES supply all of our needs. Psalm 27 is all about his wanting to be closer to God all the time, and how waiting on the Lord is the right choice because He will prevail for us.

In our lives, it's hard to wait for anything. The traffic light takes that extra 6 seconds, and we are peeved the rest of the drive. Little kids want to grow up immediately. Teenagers want to be adults. Adults want to lose weight and have those anti-wrinkle procedures work NOW. We like things at microwave-speed (or for any Mel Brooks fans out there, Ludicrous Speed), and anything slower than that puts a kink in our plans. God has different plans, though. He works at the perfect timing in our lives, which is sometimes hard to see, and even harder to trust Him for. My time at Check Into Cash is coming to an end. God had a time for me to be there, and now that time is expiring. Ironically, our last day is my 25th birthday. I know that He has a plan for me and what I am supposed to do now. He has provisions for my future in His hands. It's just sometimes hard to trust that it will work out at the perfect time. It's like when you're a kid and playing a video game. For all those old-school, Commodore 64 types out there (when floppy disks were actually floppy...), it's like Oregon Trail. Remember that game? You made up a family (named all the people after your friends and the person you might have had a crush on that week), picked a vocation, bought supplies and headed "out West" from Independence, Missouri. Along the way (a few space bar clicks later), you would face trials, rivers, Indian attacks, disease, and sometimes loss of food. When you lost all your food, and your family was dying of Cholera or Dysentery (usually your crush was the first casualty, as if the computer knew), you would go "hunting" using the arrow keys and the space bar to "shoot" rabbits, bears, deer and so on. The thing about hunting was that you had to hit the space bar at the exact moment to hit the animal, or else you were just wasting your ammo. Real life can be like that, too. You are on this epic journey with your family and your friends, and things happen. Jobs get lost. People get sick. You try to ford the Columbia. Whatever it is, God has the provision to see you through. He has perfect timing to hit the thing that needs to happen exactly when it needs to happen. Isaiah says, "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)" We can't do it in our own strength. Moses understood this too. When God told him to take the Israelites and leave Sinai, he said, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. (Exodus 33:15)" He knew that it wasn't about him, and that all the fancy staff miracles in the world would not be enough to lead. It's like trying to kill the giant with a rubber band and a pebble- it takes God making it count. His timing is perfect, and His plans are worth waiting for.

Lord, help me to wait for Your moving. Help me to say like Moses that I will only go if You go with me. Lead me where You want me to go. I trust You to provide for me. Amen.