Don't Hate the Wait

I desire for this blog to be dual purposed. I want it to be both a place where the reader can learn more about and be a part of our missionary journey as well as a place where the reader can be encouraged or challenged in his/her own life. So to satisfy this second element, it is my desire to share things that we've learned in this process from time to time. Today is one of those times.

Yesterday, I shared about our journey to our decision. If you read that post, you may have noticed that our journey has mainly consisted of a season of waiting. The itineration journey we are about to embark on before we leave (which I will discuss further in a future post) will, in some ways, be a continuation of that season of waiting. To be real, I wish we could just leave for Costa Rica tomorrow. We're excited for what God has in store for us and for the people we will be serving there. But that's just not how this works. There is a season of waiting. And that season of waiting has a purpose. I was talking to John Musacchio about this recently and he gave me some sound advice: "Don't hate the wait." With that advice in my mind and heart, I was inspired to preach on this topic this past Sunday after we made our big announcement to the church. I thought it might be useful to offer those sermon notes here. I pray that you might get something from this (as I know I have).

Don't Hate the Wait (sermon notes)

Let's be honest, we have all experienced various times and seasons in our lives when we feel like we're just waiting. Sometimes we're waiting for God to tell us what we need to do. Sometimes we already know what we need to do, be we're waiting for God to tell us when and how to do it. Sometimes, perhaps often times, we're waiting for a combination of the two. Regardless of why we're waiting on God, we sure do seem to do a lot of it. And we often get impatient and sometimes complain. Sometimes, we even decide that we're tired of waiting and start to take matters into our own hands.

Today, I want to talk about why it's important for us to embrace these waiting times instead of hating them. To do this, I thought we could do a brief case study. Our subject: David.

We see three different occasions in the Bible where David is anointed to be king of Israel. Let's look at these occasions:

1. Samuel anoints David (1 Samuel 16)

2. The men of Judah anoint David (2 Samuel 2)

3. The elders of Israel anoint David (2 Samuel 5)

Now I want to look at the timeline surrounding these three occasions:

Using a little basic math we can figure out the length of David's waiting period. As I already mentioned, we're not certain of David's age when he was anointed by Samuel. So, for the sake of the argument, we will use the most conservative figure which would put him at 25 years old. We do know that he was 30 when he was anointed by the men of Judah. So if we take years and subtract 25 years, we get 5 years. If we then add 7.5 years (the time between when David began ruling in only Judah to when he began reigning over all of Israel) to that 5 years, we get 12.5 years. This means that 12 1/2 years is the most conservative estimation of the time it took from when David was anointed by Samuel to when he actually reigned as king over all of Israel! And it may have been as long as 27 1/2 years! Regardless which figure we use, I think we can all agree that David had to wait a long time from when he was initially told he would be the king over all of Israel to when he actually began his reign.

For us too, sometimes it can be a long time between the time when God begins stirring our hearts for something and when we actually do the thing He has stirred in our hearts. I think we can learn something from looking at David's waiting period. More specifically, I want to point out 3 key things that I think we can learn:

1. Waiting ≠ Inactivity

We must be careful not to look at a waiting season in our lives as a season of inactivity. In fact, most typically, just the opposite is true. God doesn't usually put us through these waiting periods for the sake of waiting. There is a valuable purpose to waiting. God uses these times to teach us and prepare us for the task He's going to entrust us with. David wasn't ready to be the king when he was anointed by Samuel; he needed to learn and grow in various ways. And he did. David was far from inactive during this time. Let's look at some of the things he was busy doing:

Like David, we need to take advantage of the opportunities we have for growth and preparation in our waiting periods.

2. Waiting Requires Patience

When we go through a waiting period, we must be careful not to become impatient. This requires a huge element of trust in God. If we truly trust Him, then we will be confident that He knows what is best for us and when it's best for us. The risk we run is that we grow impatient and start trying to rely on our own strength and wisdom. We decide that we can do things better or more efficiently than God, as though we could possibly know better than He knows. That's foolishness, not wisdom. Proverbs 3:5, 6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." David understood the importance of remaining patient and trusting God through the waiting period. David was careful not to take matters into his own hands. We can see this in David's response to Saul:

Like David, we must have an attitude that seeks the Lord's will, wisdom and timing, not our own.

3. It's Always Worth the Wait

No matter how long the waiting period God might have us go through, it is always worth the wait. We can be confident to know that our lives are always better and filled with more joy and success when we don't try to do things our way.

David went on to have an incredibly successful reign as king. No matter which figure we use for David's waiting period, we know with certainty that he served as king over all of Israel for longer. 2 Samuel 5:4 tells us that King David reigned over all of Israel for 33 years. God made a covenant with David that his line would endure forever. 2 Samuel 7:12-16 says, "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" We know that Jesus is the fulfillment of this covenant. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 each offer genealogies connecting Jesus to the line of David. Luke 1:32, 33 says, "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'"

As I said above, I pray that these notes might prove useful to you and that you might be blessed by them.

In our next blog, I will be taking a look at how this decision has affected our perspectives.

Mike