Friday, February 27, 2009

I Wait On The Lord

As I approached the keyboard today, I was under the notion I would impart to you my impression on how tough it is to wait on the Lord. In my mind I had likened "wait" to a dirty four letter word. I have to wait..... Ugh.... How loooonnnnggggg?

Waiting in my childhood was anxiety driven. When is the other shoe doing to drop?!?? Usually when it did, let’s just say it was not a good experience. Needless to say, resting in the Lord and waiting for Him to take me to the next place makes me anxious.

As I have been waiting for my bus to arrive.... To take me to the next place of service, so to say. I have been experiencing much anxiety about the unknown in my future. I like to have a plan you see, and just waiting for the next thing I am called to do is not my way. But it’s His way.

I began a search in the bible on waiting on the Lord. Then I looked up verses with the word wait and was lead to Psalm 104. It put my heart in a different place and gave me the assurance I was looking for. So I wrote my personal Psalm 104 and I'd like to share it with you.

I encourage you if you haven't personalized the Psalms, and sung them back to God, you should. They become a beautiful very personal prayer.

Psalm 104

From my soul, I cry out bless you!
O Lord my God, You are so very great:
As we would put on clothing, your clothing is honor and majesty
You cover Yourself with light as if it were a garment,
You stretch out the heavens like a curtain,
And lay the beams of Your upper chambers in the waters,
You walk on the wings of the wind,
You make Your angels spirits,
And ministers like a flame of fire.

You laid the foundation of the earth,
So that it would be unmovable.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment,
The waters stood above the mountains.
At Your rebuke they fled;
At the voice of Your thunder they hurried away.
They went up over the mountains;
Then went down into the valleys,
To the place which You founded for them.
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
That they may not return to cover the earth.
You send the springs into the valleys;
They flow among the hills,
They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
By the waters the birds have their home;
They sing among the watered tree branches.
You water the hills from Your upper chambers of heaven;
And all earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation to thrive for man,
That we can grow and live from food of the earth,
And wine that makes the heart of man glad,
Oil to make our faces shine,
And bread which strengthens man heart.
The trees the Lord grows are full of sweet sap,
You planted the cedars of Lebanon that grow so tall,
Where the birds make their nests;
The stork has her home in the fir trees,
The high hills are for the goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badger.

You appointed the moon for seasons;
When the sun knows it is going down.
You make darkness, and it is night,
In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their food from God.
When the sun rises, they gather together
And lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work
And to his labor until evening.

O Lord, How many and various forms are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions:
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great,
On it the ships sail about;
There in it is the sea creature
Which You have made to play there

All these creations wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season,
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die
And return to their dust.

You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works,
He looks on the earth and it trembles;
He touches the hills, and they smoke.

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
May my meditation be sweet to Him;
I will be glad in the Lord.
May one day sin be consumed from the earth,
And wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!

With that, how can I consider waiting on my Lord a burden? I can not....

8 comments:

Beth in NC said...

Good point Sherri!

Joy said...

I love making scripture personal and praying it back to God. I know He delights in that.
When we pray God's word we pray God's will.
Moms in Touch has really taught me that and it's comforting just to pray His Word back to Him.
Thank you for sharing this.

Joy

Tamela's Place said...

God gives good gifts and waiting on them can be very hard i agree. It takes me back as a little child waiting until Christmas before i could open my gifts. His gifts and plans for us are good! :)

Tammy said...

I'm not very good at waiting,either.

Psalm 37:7 was the verse that the Lord gave to me. It helps me when I want to go ahead of Him.

~Tammy

Josh M. said...

Thanks for this psalm! It sheds an entirely different light on what "waiting on God" means. I always thought of it as a really long and difficult process too.

Sherri Watt said...

Thanks everyone!!! Love hearing from you all!

Tim said...

The Psalm and message blessed me!In this Psalm, we see a number of natural processes that are expressly attributed to the guiding hand of a creator who is constantly and intimately at work within his creation. Including us!

Anonymous said...

Very nice post. Patience truely is a virtue as it says in the Psalms. If we look to God he is the most patient of all. It is amazing how long he will wait for us and gently guide us along the path while we are off wanting to do our own thing. We should be more patient with others while remembering how patient God has been and will continue to be with us.