Wait On God

Wait On God

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry."
Psalm 40:1

I want to follow up on the previous devotional and talk some more about waiting for God. When we don't receive the answers we want from God, we become impatient and make hasty decisions, which so often are not the best ones. To see the consequences of not waiting on God, we can look at King Saul. In the early part of his rule as king, he did battle with the Philistines. God had instructed Him to wait for Samuel to pray and offer a sacrifice for the battle. When Samuel was delayed and did not get there, Saul began to get pressure from the people, and took the place of Samuel and offered the sacrifice himself. That sin led to other weaknesses in Saul, and in the end he lost his entire kingdom. If Saul had only waited a few more hours, Samuel would have arrived and the requirements of the Lord would have been met. If Saul had only been patient and waited as per God's instructions, he would have been a victorious king, instead of being a defeated man. There are times in my life when I have run ahead of God, often because I was being pressured by other people, just as Saul was, and I did not wait for God to direct me. Sometimes, we think that God may be slow in answering our prayers, or speaking to us, but really He is always on time--His time. When we pray and wait for God to direct our paths, and get our timing aligned with His, and wait until we get a word from Him before we proceed, then we will have the results that we desire. I pray that God will help you to know how to wait on His counsel, and let you be victorious in all that you do.