Devotional Spirituality

 

SylviaLet's face it. Waiting is hard.

The good news is it is not up to us.  The Holy Spirit enables us to wait. Gal 5:5 "Through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope." Through the Spirit by faith... that means we get the opportunity to draw nearer the Holy Spirit while we wait for God to work our miracle(s) of righteousness. That puts my focus where it should be... on Him, not myself or others. It is usually stubborn family situations that get to me, of course, for they have been going on the longest and require the most patient endurance in the midst of waiting.  Waiting is an invitation to stillness. 

A faithful brother added this insight to the subject of waiting on God: "The Hebrew word 'qavah,' which is translated 'wait' in Isaiah 40:31, means 'to bind together like a cord.' As we wait on the Lord in stillness before Him with our hearts in a quiet state, it is like adding strands to a rope to strengthen it. Picture the process of making a rope by twisting or weaving (binding) thin cords together to form the rope. The more strands that are twisted or woven together in a rope, the greater its strength. We can assume that the more we are still to listen to God, the stronger we become. Ecclesiastes 4:12 says '... a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.'

"As we wait, we can choose to soak in the Lord Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. David wrote that he had "quieted his soul like a weaned child on his mother's breast." God speaks to our spirits, and our ears are trained to hear His voice (Isa 50:4). The mind wants to "go go go," but God says this is serious error (Isa 30). Our noisy souls must be told to be quiet and submit to our spirits and to God's Spirit. In this age of incessant cell phones, texting, Internet, and TV, we have to choose to be intentional to wait to hear God's still small voice." 

What is God trying to say to you about who He is and who you are in Him during this time of waiting? 

Two Scriptural examples of people who did not wait on God show us the disastrous consequences of not waiting. God took the kingdom from Saul because of his impatience (1 Sam 13:8-14). When God's people forgot Him and did not wait for His counsel, He sent upon them wasting disease or leanness of soul (Ps 106:13,15). You are probably painfully aware of times when you did not seek God's counsel and ran ahead of Him. You have repented of these and asked God's forgiveness. Ask Him to encourage you when you are impatient with waiting for the answer to prayer that you have desired the longest. Ask Him to give you grace to keep your hope fixed in the God-of-the-impossible.

Devotional Audio & Video

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Reflections to Consider

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Devotional Publications

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Publications

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Devotional Music

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Music

  • Jesus be the centre

    Center is a song that speaks of the essence of our life in Christ, and echoes the words the Christ Read More
  • I Lift My Hands

    A powerful hymn of adoration and praise Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir. This succinctly captures the joy of knowing our savior. Read More
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Devotional Reflection

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Christ is a Great Savior: a review of the movie Amazing Grace +

    Amazing Grace is a historical drama about William Wilberforce who was elected to British Parliament at the age of 21 Read More
  • Wilberforce, Hollywood's Amazing Grace, Charlotte Allen +

    William Wilberforce's relentless campaign eventually led the British Parliament to ban the slave trade, in 1807, and to pass a Read More
  • Making Beauty out of Ugly Things: Grace by U2 +

    Grace, she takes the blame She covers the shame Removes the stain It could be her name Grace, she carries Read More
  • The True Nature of Grace and Love: a movie review of the Soloist +

    The 2009 movie The Soloist is based on a book by the same name, written by Los Angeles Times columnist Read More
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