July 24, 2012
My
soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him. -- Psalm 62: 5 (NKJV)
Have you ever been on an airplane that has arrived at the destination but has not received permission to land yet? The plane goes into what is called a "holding pattern" where it basically flies around and around the airport until it has permission to complete its journey. This happened to me once where we were literally in the holding pattern for an hour. Circling for an hour, over and over again. Anxiety starts to creep in. Thoughts start to race ahead of reality. What's wrong with the plane? What's wrong with the runway? What's wrong with the airport? With each pass over the same territory you start to wonder about fuel. How much longer can we stand this? I can tell you it was not a fun place to be. It was a place full of doubt and fear.
Well, in our walk with the Lord we sometimes experience a spiritual holding pattern. We are all on a journey and sometimes the leg of the journey we are on requires a season of waiting. Perhaps we are waiting on the Lord or perhaps He is waiting on us. Remember, Joseph received the dream at 16 but it wasn't delivered until he was 30. Now that is a long holding pattern! David was anointed king but waited over a decade for the throne. The Bible says that our time is not like God's time -- not even close. We want everything now but God is writing a grander story. The part He has for us to play requires His timing to be successful for us. So there will be times when we will not have permission yet to land. Maybe there is something we have yet to learn before we can receive permission. I have written on Joseph a lot and I believe that a great portion of the 13 years in prison God had to work out of him all of the bitterness and anger anyone of us would have felt about the lot his life was cast into. Joseph isn't some plaster saint; he was a human being. His famous statement in Genesis 50 about God using what the brothers meant for evil for the saving of many lives was not innate. He had to develop the perspective during the 13 year holding pattern God had him in.
When seeking the Lord for a verse that I could expound upon regarding the waiting seasons of our lives I was given the above simple little verse from Psalm 62. Thirteen little words but so much meat from God for us to chew on today. First of all David reflects this message to his soul. Remember that we are made up of body, soul and spirit. If you are born again of God then you have His Spirit living inside of you. The Spirit is what leads us into the truth of God. It is not in our Spirit that we face the worries and anxieties of life. Those reside in our soul. Our soul is where we feel, fear, and doubt. There is a line in the Bible that says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The flesh is within our soul nature. As difficult as it is sometimes, we are supposed to crucify the flesh and live in the spirit:
Those
who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful
nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us
follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. -- Galatians 5: 24-25
(NLT)
So here is David reminding his
soul, what his spirit already knows. Secondly, the word "wait" stands out to
me. I have preached before about the microwave mentality we all possess where
we want what we want and we want it yesterday. When God has us in the spiritual
holding pattern we should not be trying to force the landing! First of all, if
the airport is not ready yet for you to land the ending will probably not be
pretty. God knows what runway you belong on -- you don't! Secondly if the plane
isn't ready to land the result will not be pretty either. God knows if your
landing gear is functioning beloved. Maybe there is still healing or growth to
found in the pattern. God has the plan. Thirdly and most important -- who is
flying the plane? If God is your co-pilot you are in the wrong seat! The Bible
says when we are saved we turn over our lives to Him. We hand Him the keys!
Stop trying to take them back and let God be God.
The very next word screams at me --
silently! Let's be honest; we talk too much. When God has us waiting we do not
usually do it very gracefully. We complain and tend to complain loudly. We find
someone we can blame sometimes and talk about them. We can be mad at God and
talk about Him. We can talk talk talk. Some of us have a PhD in talking. But
talking is not always beneficial. Talking can veer into gossip. Talking to the wrong
people can result in poor advice. The world systems embrace talking. It
embraces talking about your problems for years and years instead of resolving
them. Not only that, but what is the one thing you cannot do if you are
talking? Listen. Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. Wait. Silently.
For who? God alone. Don't wait for
your therapist. Don't wait for your pharmacist. Don't wait for your best
friend, your mother or even your pastor. You are in a "spiritual" holding
pattern, not a worldly one. The answer will come on a spiritual level. It
requires spiritual attention. It requires prayer and fasting. It requires
feasting on the Word of God and having faith in the promises God has made:
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 (NKJV)
It is hard to renew your strength when you are too busy trying to land your own plane. It is impossible to mount up on eagle's wings when you are trying to figure out God's timing. We grow weary and faint because we tire so easily in the holding pattern. We tire so easily because we fail to see the spiritual side of it. To understand what God is trying to do in our lives, even during the difficult times. But as the key verse concludes -- our expectation must be from Him. Another version says our hope must be in Him. We can end up hoping in so many other things than God. We can hope in our ministries, our leadership, our family and friends. We can put God in a box and place our own expectation on Him. We can force our own emergency landing instead of waiting in our spiritual holding pattern until we have permission to land. When we do that however we have taken the wheel from God. We have taken the keys back from God and that situation never ends up to our benefit. Our expectation and hope needs to be in the Almighty God of heaven and earth. Wait. Silently. For God He knows when we are cleared to land beloved. He Knows.
Rev. Anthony
