Waiting God's Way
Download MP3Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine encouragement. This is Joy in Every Step with your host, beloved preacher, retired teacher, and faithful faithful servant of the Lord, Sarita Bernadette. Each week, Sarita shares heartfelt messages rooted in the word of God, filled with wisdom, joy, and the gentle reminder that God cares deeply for you. Whether you're walking through the valleys or dancing on the mountaintops, Sarita's voice will guide you back to his promises step by step. So open your heart, settle your spirit, and take the next step in faith with Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette:Hi, I'm Sarita Bernadette and welcome back to another episode of Joy in Every Step. I'm glad you're here. Micah seven:seven But as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
Sarita Bernadette:Isaiah 3zero 18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you. Therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him. If we're honest, most of us hate to wait. It takes patience and we don't have much of that these days, do we?
Sarita Bernadette:We live in a pretty fast paced world and we want what we want now. With the technology we have today, it's possible to accomplish that too, right? High speed internet, video conferencing, microwave and convection cooking, overnight package delivery, on demand streaming services, the list goes on. In a lot of instances, we don't have to wait long for what we want. Most of us have a worldly view of what waiting looks like.
Sarita Bernadette:It usually involves staying where you are or delaying action until a particular time, right? Think about it. Picture the waiting room at a doctor's office. We sit for a period of time and there is very little movement or action. You might recall time waiting in those long lines at the airport.
Sarita Bernadette:The line moves or creeps along ever so slowly. Yes, we might pass the time by reading a book or scrolling on our phones, but generally speaking time is at a standstill. This is one of the ways that Webster describes waiting remaining stationary in readiness or expectation. The Bible's definition of waiting is slightly different. In the scriptures, the word wait means to have hope.
Sarita Bernadette:Believers wait in anticipation. Believers trust in God's plan. Believers hope and trust in the Lord as they wait and and that means activating one's faith. That means remaining humble and practicing patience. Lastly and most importantly it requires obedience.
Sarita Bernadette:Obedience. As we wait, we listen to the Lord's directives and we follow them. As we wait, we remain steadfast and committed to doing things God's way. Biblical waiting often requires that we do something. None of that makes waiting any less difficult.
Sarita Bernadette:We just don't like it. The prophet Habakkuk knew a little something about waiting for God. His story took place during the seventh century BC or about six hundred years before the birth of Jesus, But the lessons from his book are still relevant today and eerily meaningful when you think about the society we are living in right now. Habakkuk lived in Judah during a time when the society around him was heavily influenced by injustice and idolatry. So in this short book in the Bible he records his words of lament to the Lord.
Sarita Bernadette:He sees all that is going on around him and he struggles to believe that a good God would allow all of these awful things to take place and do nothing about it. He watches in anguish as the brutal Babylonian Empire, also known as the Chaldeans, come into power using ruthless violence to conquer nations including his very own beloved Judah. The book is basically a conversation between Habakkuk and the Lord. In Habakkuk one:two-four we read, O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen or cry to you violence and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?
Sarita Bernadette:Destruction and violence are before me. Strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous therefore judgment comes forth perverted. Habakkuk whose name means one who embraces was distraught about the state of his world and he goes to God asking when he was going to make things right.
Sarita Bernadette:Waiting is hard. Again, we want what we want and we want it right now. Well, the Lord comes back with a surprising answer. Listen, he says in verse five, Look at the nations and see be astonished, be astounded, for a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told. Sounds exciting right?
Sarita Bernadette:Well it's not what one would expect. God goes on to tell Habakkuk that he's going to use the Babylonians to punish Israel for all of its wrongdoing. Wait, wait, what? What? Doesn't sound right, does it?
Sarita Bernadette:Habakkuk objects, of course, and he tells the Lord that his plan doesn't make sense. He says the Babylonians are even worse than Israel. They're greedy. They're evil. They treat people like animals.
Sarita Bernadette:In verse 14 he says, Are we but fish to be caught and killed? Are we but creeping things that have no leader to defend them from their foes? Must we be strung up on their hooks and dragged out in their nets while they rejoice? Then they will worship their nets and burn incense before them. These are the gods who make us rich, they'll say.
Sarita Bernadette:Verse 17, Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless wars? Habakkuk was having a hard time understanding God's way of doing things. Sound familiar? So in the next chapter Habakkuk decides he will position himself on the watchtower and await the Lord's answer.
Sarita Bernadette:The Lord tells him to get a tablet and chisel out the plan that he hears. He says the plan is for an appointed time and though it may take a while it will surely come to pass. The Lord goes on to tell him he will bring justice to his land. And get this part, God describes the wickedness in detail. I won't share those verses here.
Sarita Bernadette:Feel free to read them on your own, but what really struck me as I read through them was the fact that God saw it all. He was watching the whole time and he let Habakkuk know he had no plans to allow the Babylonians behavior to go unchecked. He's telling Habakkuk, Don't worry, I got this. He ends his response in chapter two verse 20 with this: The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.
Sarita Bernadette:This verse recognizes God's ultimate authority over everything. All things human regimes and empires cannot compare. God will always have the final say. You remember Psalm 4six 10 Be still and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations.
Sarita Bernadette:I am exalted in the earth. He's sovereign, beloved. Listen, I can only imagine what Habakkuk must have felt at that moment: validation, affirmation, inspiration, maybe even frustration, all of it. He comes back with a prayer that begins like this as chapter three opens. He says, O Lord, I have heard of your renown and I stand in awe, O Lord of your work in our own time revive it in our own time make it known in wrath may you remember mercy.
Sarita Bernadette:In other words, I hear you Lord. I know you've done it before. I know you're a just God and I know you'll do it again. You are indeed our God, a God of justice. Elohei Mishpat Elohei Mishpat, the Hebrew term for a God of justice.
Sarita Bernadette:God is the ultimate place that we can find our hope, beloved. That's where we should put our confidence. We should find our hope and our confidence in our God. He is our security. He is our protector.
Sarita Bernadette:Waiting is not easy, but I believe the Bible gives us strategies for doing it God's way and his way has lasting benefits for us. Lamentations three twenty five-twenty six The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. So here are some takeaways. First, read the Word.
Sarita Bernadette:Read the word. Get in there beloved and mind those verses that speak to you while you wait. He will answer you just as he answered Habakkuk and so many others in his word. Then stay in his presence, pray, meditate, then record what the Lord tells you in your quiet time with him. He may not share the whole plan, you may not get the entire picture, but he'll confirm that he's with you and that he's ordering your steps.
Sarita Bernadette:Next, seek his way of doing things and obey his instructions. So important. Some things may not make sense in the moment, but remember God's perspective is far superior to ours. He sees way ahead in the words of Charles Tindley and that famous hymn will understand it better by and by. Next, trust his timing.
Sarita Bernadette:Beloved, surrender your timeline to his. Be patient. He's always working behind the scenes. You can trust him even when you can't track him. Lastly, practice gratitude.
Sarita Bernadette:Thank God for all the times he's come through for you in the past and go ahead and thank him in advance for what's coming. His promises are yes and amen. Two final scriptures Isaiah forty and thirty one but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint And Psalm 2seven 14 Wait for the Lord be strong and let your heart take courage wait for the Lord. You've been listening to Joy in Every Step. I'm Sarita Bernadette and I'm grateful you chose to spend some time here with me.
Sarita Bernadette:Feel free to share this episode with someone you know would appreciate it. You can find Joy in Every Step wherever you listen to your podcasts and give us a follow there. Do check out the website at joyineverystep.org. See you next time.
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