Disciplined 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.

Disciplined Audio & Video

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Disciplined Music

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Reflections to Consider

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Disciplined Publications

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Publications

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Music

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Disciplined Reflection

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Witnesses for Jesus by Tim Keller (Mark 15) +

    Tim Keller discusses the significance of the women and men who saw Jesus die, buried, and resurrected.  Read More
  • Prayer-bringing light into darkness by NT Wright +

    NT Wright discusses the importance of prayer in maintaining a relationship with Jesus. Read More
  • After darkness, light-the reformation by Michael Reeves +

    Michael Reeves discusses the transformative power of bringing Jesus to the world at the heart of the Reformation. Read More
  • The Esther Option-Living in a fallen world by Mike Cosper +

    The following is an excerpt from an article on The Gospel Coalition website. Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Falling in Love With God +

    “falling in love with God,” as Boa’s subtitle for the facet explains. In this approach we attempt to enter into Read More
  • One Holy Fire, Nicky Cruz +

    The introduction to One Holy Fire, Let the Spirit Ignite Your Soul establishes Cruz’s desire to awaken the passion and Read More
  • Transformed +

    Webster defines devotion as “love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity or cause.” How do we fall in love Read More
  • A Christ-Life Through Spiritual Alignment +

    A Christ-Life Through Spiritual Alignment Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. Read More
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