Plethora Ministries
WORD WEEK 06-11-06
WAIT ON THE LORD
ISAIAH 40:28-31
KJV28Hast 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. 29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31But 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.
WAIT ON THE LORD
Fear, anxiety, brokenness, helplessness, disempowerment, hopelessness, suffering, and oppression are a few of the daily dynamics that hundreds and hundreds of the BELOVED of GOD experience far too frequently. Pandemic suffering is so great that the motivation to live and the intrinsic desire to wait on GOD appear too great of a charge to fathom much less implement. Consequently, far too many of the LORD'S people have given up, given out, and have given in because waiting on the LORD appears to require too much work and does not appear to abate one's present suffering!
This "weight to wait" is one dynamic that causes the dedicated, the humble, the committed, and the courageous to question not only the issue of whether or not GOD hears, but question at a more profound level if GOD really cares about the concerns that matters to each of us! Help us GOD! We reside in a world that provides each of us with implicit and explicit messages that speed as well as instant gratification equals proficiency. While the aforementioned is far too often an occurrence, there are other instances when real progress and transformation are and can only be authenticated by the SLOW WORK OF GOD!
Success is heralded as money equals movement equals prestige. While many can access and generate revenue and while the media attempts to dictate to whom should be rendered the spotlight, the aforementioned indicators are not necessarily markers of success nor do they indicate consultation with the LORD. However, “the weight of the wait” becomes greater as we see the secular world making strides and gains and the faith community appearing as though it is stuck in freeze-frame!
This dynamic of waiting is one that is tempered by the gracious presence of The Holy Spirit. When we wait in anticipation for the movement and the manifestation of the blessings of the LORD in the pulling down of strongholds, the release of shackles, the manifestation of healing in the presence of sickness, the activation of congregational growth, and the answering of petitions, the "weight of the wait" will become lighter if we trust GOD. The Prophet, Isaiah, reminds us that they who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength, fortitude, vision, hope, song, and their spirit as it is the breath of GOD that carries the Beloved of GOD over mountains, through valleys, and around oceans like the winds that supports the wings of eagles causing them to soar!
While we wait on the LORD, this act of trust, faith, and grace is one of a myriad of ways in which we are grown by the LORD and purified by the SPIRIT. Blessings authenticated by GOD do not necessarily happen over night though they could should GOD desire.
Throughout history we are witness bearers of those who saw the vision and trusted GOD in the midst of their disenchantment and suffering. If the truth were investigated, each of us would arrive at the conclusion that it is the presence of the LORD that sustains us in the period of the "wait without weights!"
Far too often the Beloved of GOD get the waiting process confused with the secular world's perspective of waiting which is often a softer way to abandon the well being of others. Consequently, believers embrace the weights of what they perceive as inactivity and abandonment and become weighted-down! Help us GOD! In essence, waiting on the LORD should not weigh us down but lighten the burdens because we know that GOD is in control! Each and everyday that we encounter the news, we get stanch glimpses of the myriad of ways that this whole dynamic of waiting gets played-out in the lives of the rich and poor; the white, black, yellow, and red; the famous and the unknown; the controllers of power and those oppressed by such power; the strong and the weak; the embraced and those for whom an embrace is feared; the restored and the broken; the accepted and heralded; the rejected and the outcast.
However, "the weight of the wait" should motivate the Beloved of GOD to action! Actions such as Prayer, Active Listening, Meditation, Spiritual Reading, Praise, Reflection, Contemplation, Self-Reflection, and Mission, all of which will bring about a glorious transformation in the Christian man/woman! Consequently, the wait is not a weight but a holy invitation for each of us to engage in an intimate relationship with a GOD who loves us with a love that is deeper then any ocean, wide as any valley, and high as any mountain top! Now, that is LOVE!
In times of distress, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of brokenness, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of confusion, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of grief, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of despair, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of sickness, WAIT ON THE LORD, In times of disappointments, WAIT ON THE LORD, In times of what appears as stagnation, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of family disintegration, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of betrayals, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of transition, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of uncertainty, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of woundedness, WAIT ON THE LORD! In times of abandonment, WAIT ON THE LORD! Yes, Beloved of GOD WAIT ON THE LORD who fainteth not, nor is GOD weary for when we call upon the LORD GOD, GOD always answers!
As the events unfold in the text of Isaiah, Chapter 40, we are reminded that we should be of good cheer as we wait upon the undefeatable presence and power of YAHWEH! Subsequently, as the events unfold, we become witness bearers as we are reminded of the an unnamed woman who yearns for healing and quests for deliverance from twelve long years of suffering whom we encountered in the prior week's reflection. As she recognizes that JESUS is present, it is likely that she recollects via flashbacks, her twelve years of suffering, praying, disappointments, fears, letdowns, betrayals, and watching others receive their blessings, all of which became days that have acquiesced into nights, nights that have acquiesced into days. She had to WAIT! However, when her deliverance was at hand, there was not a force in humanity nor nature that dared stand between her and GOD! In essence, we WAIT ON THE LORD, we are in actuality, waiting for the LORD to set things and motion for supernatural movement! When we encounter Jesus in our suffering and when everything familiar to us appears at risk because we are required to wait, Jesus touches us in a way that causes our suffering and brokenness to become the launch pad that catapults us to higher and greater dimensions in the LORD! In other words, your weakness becomes your strength, your brokenness becomes your fortress, and your faith becomes the reality!
Throughout the sacred text; i.e., from the book Genesis to the book of Revelation, we as the Beloved Community of GOD are petitioned to embrace the spiritual necessity that the Divine Journey will call into question, the necessity of the wait, which could cause some weight at times! Oftentimes, the require of sacrifice and the delay of gratification accompanies the life of him/her who thirsts, follows, and is compelled by the intimately transformative presence of GOD! Far too frequently, many of the Beloved of GOD are dismayed, while others are disconcerted, still even others abducted by fear when events and plans do not occur according to plan. Moreover, such distress is ignited like wildfire by the harsh reality when fear, disappointment, loss, and suffering occur when the Beloved of GOD is petitioned by the Spirit to wait. Waiting while we struggle with "It might happen, It could happen, It is likely to happen, and/or What if it did happen!" While our faith in GOD is couched in NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, so is the capacity and the power of the wait!
As we look at current events, both nationally and internationally, injury, destruction, suffering, and the pleasure principle are all at pandemic levels. Sensitivity, patience, morality, the necessity of being our brothers' and sisters' keepers, the honoring of those in their senior years, the feeding of the hungry, team work, the sheltering of the homeless, the liberation of the oppressed, and the readiness to die to CHRIST are all being sacrificed, because the dynamic of wait relies on GOD'S vision verses that of humanity.
We deepen our faith walk and our relationship with CHRIST when our journey is accompanied by such a dynamic because waiting is a very active process! The spiritual life in CHRIST causes each of us to take risks, walk out on cliffs, venture down unknown paths, abandon that which is familiar and predictable, stand against the crowd, and remain loving and forgiving in the face of betrayals and trap layers while we WAIT!! When we abandon the parameters of human reason alone and "tap" the consciousness of GOD, our lives become transformed in our realization that our lives are really not our own, but gifts birthed by the unfathomable love of GOD! The Holy Spirit causes something to happen to us, with us, and in us as we know that victory and triumph can only come from divine intervention via the LORD! In essence, Beloved of GOD, rejoice in the LORD and be of good courage, wait I say on the LORD! For your waiting is not the indicator that life is taking you under, but is in actuality a door for the LORD GOD to endow your life with greater possibilities and blessings then eyes have seen and ears have heard! YOU are an aspect of GOD'S DREAM being fulfilled and GOD'S LOVE regenerating itself! They that wait upon the LORD shall RENEW their Strength!
ISAIAH 55: 11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
K. Mason
(c) 2005
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