While I wait

As I was waiting for sleep last night I came across this song by Lincoln Brewster:

“While I Wait”
Deep within my heart, I know You’ve won
I know You’ve overcome
And even in the dark, when I’m undone
I still believe it

I live by faith, and not by sight
Sometimes miracles take time

While I wait, I will worship
Lord, I’ll worship Your name
While I wait, I will trust You
Lord, I’ll trust You all the same

When I fall apart, You are my strength
Help me not forget
Seeing every scar, You make me whole
You’re my healer

I live by faith, and not by sight
Sometimes miracles take time

While I wait, I will worship
Lord, I’ll worship Your name
While I wait, I will trust You
Lord, I’ll trust You all the same

You’re faithful every day
Your promises remain
You’re faithful every day
Your promises remain

Though I don’t understand it
I will worship with my pain
You are God, You are worthy
You are with me all the way

So while I wait, I will worship
Lord, I’ll worship Your name
Though I don’t have all the answers
Still I trust You all the same

I thought not just what tremendous lyrics they are: ‘So while I wait, I will worship”, but what a great attitude to have!

So often we wait for something in fear, or in frustration or anger, what a difference it would make if we used our waiting time for worship!

This is not just something spontaneous when we feel like it, it is intentional, it is something we actively choose to do.  I choose not to wait in fear, I choose to worship.  I choose not to wait in anger, I choose to worship.  I choose not to wait in frustration, I choose to worship.

We wait for many things:- for sleep, for healing, for peace, for tomorrow, for holidays for test results, for exam results, for decisions, for resolutions. We wait.

While I wait I will worship, Lord, I’ll worship Your Name.

We wait to hear from loved ones, we wait for kind words, we wait for a letter, a phone call, we wait to hear.

While I wait I will worship, Lord, I’ll worship Your Name.

We wait for the kettle, we wait for the washing, we wait for ‘paint to dry’, we wait for the rain to stop, for the sun to come out.  We wait.

While I wait I will worship, Lord, I’ll worship Your Name.

We wait in traffic, we wait in waiting rooms, we wait for people, we wait for solutions, we wait for answers.  We wait.

While I wait I will worship, Lord, I’ll worship Your Name.

So while I wait, I will worship
Lord, I’ll worship Your name
Though I don’t have all the answers
Still I trust You all the same

While I wait I will worship, Lord, I’ll worship Your Name.

Bad News

Bad news comes to us all, it takes many shapes and disguises.  Sometimes it is our fears realised, something we dreaded happening now happening.  Sometimes it is unexpected , just like we sometimes get expected good news, so also we get unexpected bad news.  It may be directly about us, or in a more indirect way our loved ones, but bad news all the same! How do we react?  How do we cope?  What do we do?  Do we confidently trust the Lord to care for us?

That’s the thing about bad news, it catches us out.  The things we were relying on, the security we thought we had, the plans we had can all be shaken. What now? Where now? It is the uncertainty of the future and what it means for that.

The Psalmist here in Psalm 112:7 speaks of those who receive bad news.

“They do not fear bad news.

they confidently trust the Lord”

So then their hopes, dreams, confidence, trust are not in those things of themselves, but on the Lord.  Meaning that it doesn’t matter whether those things come about or not, they are still secure because they are trusting in the Lord.  The Lord is bigger and beyond those things.

So where do I place my trust?

Like most people I go along with life and trust that we will have work which will pay for a home and make us comfortable.  But I have really had to reevaluate these things and where I find my security.  I like security, I like things to stay the same, but if my security is shaken, the things I had assumed in life taken away then what?  Every time now I read a promise in the scriptures, I have to take a step back and ask myself do I really believe that?  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”, do I believe that? Am I really able to trust God with these things?

Time to really put faith into action.

Time to really take God at His Word.

Time to really put my confidence for security in the Lord.

Secure that He will never fail , secure that He will never forsake, secure that He is sovereign and will work all things out, secure in the knowledge that He has me in His hands, secure in His love.

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,

 YET I will rejoice in the Lord;

I WILL take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

 

Love that will not let me go.

How vast, how wide, how all encompassing is the love of God.  But the special thing about it is that God loved me BEFORE I even knew Him.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.(Rom 5:8)

You see, God demonstrated His love, He didn’t just say to us “oh, I love you”, He went further, much further and gave up His Son, His one and only, the One He loved, He let Him be crucified, He let Him be punished, He let Him bear the brunt of our sin which was keeping us from God.  And why?  Why did He do this?  Because He loved us.  And in Jesus He is demonstrating His love, He is showing His love, He is revealing His love.

It isn’t just a case of ‘Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so’, no, it is more:  ‘God loves me this I know for He sent His Son to show me so ..’  You see, action has always spoken louder than words.

And this shows to me God’s commitment to me.  If God wasn’t committed, He wouldn’t have gone to that bother, he wouldn’t have put His son through that torment, but He did not even keep back His own Son for me – that is commitment, that is Love, that is Love demonstrated.

God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son–will he not also freely give us all things?  (Rom 8:32) 

So then if God is so committed, I needn’t fear His wrath, I needn’t fear that I am good enough.  Jesus has already paid the price, there is nothing to accuse me of, I am cleared of my debt of sin.

 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Rom 8:33-34)

How deep, how high, how low does this love extend?  It covers the depth of my sin, the secret sin, the inborn, inherent sin, the sin that I just seem to have a natural bent towards.  He loved me when I was still in that sin.  All the past mistakes, all the past hurts, all the past issues, all the broken relationships, broken hearts, broken spirits, all the pain and tears none of these things make any difference to God’s love.  His love is still there despite these things, or rather because of these things.  And every angry word, every unkind thought, every bitterness, every grudge, every time I have reacted out of fear and hurt His love encompasses me still.  Every pain, every worry, every fear, every tear, His love covers that too, none of these things can separate me from His love, nor change His love for me.

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Rom 8:35-38)