Waiting On The Lord

Hurrying up to wait seems to be the mantra of modern day society. How many of us have made appointments with our doctors, lawyers, hair care professionals, tax consultants and others, only to arrive on time and find ourselves waiting. Waiting seems to be a way of life and yet it is one of the most uncomfortable activities we engage on a regular basis. It seems that the longer we wait, the more our minds wander, the more our thoughts are provoked and the greater our anxiety becomes. Waiting is never easy; in fact, many of our regrettable decisions were made during times of waiting. So, what does it mean to wait, who and what are we waiting for, why should we wait, and if we do, for how long?

While waiting has caused some regrettable decisions and often makes us feel uncomfortable, as Christians, there are some positive benefits associated with waiting, especially when waiting on the Lord. We are told to wait on the Lord and be of good courage and the Lord will strengthen our heart. Scripture also affirms that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. We are also admonished to be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently on the Lord to act.

While these passages of scripture sound good, they often raise our level of anxiety because waiting from a secular perspective is counter-cultural to the sacred reality of the Lord. To wait on the Lord is to wait knowing that a preferred end will happen. To wait on the Lord is based on knowledge and trust that the Lord’s word never returns void but will accomplish that to which it was intended.

Waiting is an action and because it is an action, it involves doing something; both positive and negative. It involves adding and taking away, making adjustments, reassessing what was and envisioning what can be. Waiting gives courage, patience, endurance and strength. According to one author, waiting involves things we do – doing things right; the things we are not to do- refraining from the wrong things; and things that happen to us, in us, and for us as we wait.

Ultimately, waiting is a choice, just like choosing God. And if we choose God then waiting is only a matter of time because with God, things may not come when we want them, but they will always be right on time; God’s time.

The Ongoing Gift

At a recent ministers meeting, the group reflected on how we would redesign Christmas. Celebrating, giving, receiving, sharing, doing, transforming, teaching, delivering, expecting, caring, loving, living, and finding were some of the words that identified what we would do. After personal reflection a few days later, I realized that the words that expressed our collective redesign of Christmas were words that exemplified the life and ministry of Jesus. Each word describes a positive and transformative action. Each word when acted upon can aid in our personal and collective spiritual growth. I wonder, what would happen if we took action on each of these words daily, weekly or monthly; it would truly become a gift that keeps on giving long after December 25^th has come and gone. I welcome and challenge you to join me in giving this gift at Christmas and watch how God provide our increase.

How Many By When

As the church positions herself to engage another year of service unto the Lord and the people of God, having an expectation of desired outcomes is going to be important. Critical to making such determinations is being aware of the pulse of the society around us. For many churches, the pews already know with certainty what the people are reluctant to acknowledge; empty pews is a sign of dissatisfaction and a lack of relevance. No matter what is said or done, at the end of the day the pews tell the true story; when the church meets the relevant needs of the people, the pews  become full and when it does not, the pews remain empty.

Attracting people to church is not as complicated as many may think. It first begins with asking the right questions in order to receive right answers. Finding out the relevant needs of people is a first step in working to meet those needs. When people’s needs are met, they usually return to the source of those met needs. Truth is, Sunday’s between 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. is possibly the most prime time of the entire weekend. During this time a plethora of events, activities and opportunities are present for people to engage themselves in lieu of being in worship.

As ardent churchgoers, we must be honest with ourselves; worship may catch them but it will not keep them. People are looking for something tangible to do for and with the church and the body of Christ. When the people of God are not engaged in ministry and activities that meet their needs during the week, they find some other means to stimulate their interest and satisfy their longings. Therefore, as we look toward 2012, the critical question for the church is how many unmet needs are there in the church and how many of those needs will the church satisfy within a reasonable period of time. Unmet needs are a sign of dissatisfaction, but when those same needs are met, signs of vitality will emerge throughout the congregation.

 I urge the church to identify the unmet needs within its body and find creative and innovative ways to meet and satisfy them.   

Timeless Tradition: Thankgiving

For me, Thanksgiving 2011 has come and gone, and with it, I'm afraid to say, took with it many of the cherished and sacred traditions that ushered family, friends and loved ones into the spirit of Christmas. And it seems that with each passing Thanksgiving, families are systematically being separated. And what was once a day of giving thanks, appreciating one another and showing unconditional love, is being reduced to an up-scaled drive-by meals-on-wheels where family members drive-by for a meal on their way to various other destinations. And as I was sinking into the reality of the moment, my heart was filled with the song that says, "Time is filled with swift transition, Naught of earth unmoved can stand, Build your hopes on things eternal, Hold to God’s unchanging hand." And while I realize that upcoming generations march to the beat of a different drummer from me; I too marched to the beat of a different drummer from my parents, yet, the timeless traditions that make Thanksgiving a God-moment and family event is critical to be taught, observed and lived out.

In reality, Thanksgiving is more than the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock; it is a biblical mandate from God found in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. In Leviticus, God ordained a practice of specific instructions to show gratitude. Clearly, gratitude is the door that opens peace in our hearts. God's design for mankind is that giving thanks means receiving peace. Giving thanks in the Bible is the formula for peace, because when we are truly thankful to God, we can be at peace with ourselves, and when we are at peace with ourselves, being at peace with others becomes easier. Sometimes, we go all year long searching for peace, and somehow find it during the season of Thanksgiving; much like when all hell is breaking lose in our lives and we cannot wait to get to church to fellowship with the saints and be at peace.

Not so long ago, Thanksgiving carried with it great expectations of love, fun and fellowship. Food was the main course; football was the desert while catching-up conversations served as snacks and appetizers. The family would sit around for hours mending fences, securing relationships and sharing a love that transcended any and all circumstances. By the time Thanksgiving was said and done, everybody disbursed with lots of left-over’s, memories and the anticipation of Christmas when they would get back together to extend the timeless traditions of old.

I know my children's generation is different from mine, and I appreciate their lives of self-expression and self-indulgences that carry with it a value system that fits the circumstances of their lives. And while I appreciate and love them for being themselves, I also appreciate and love a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. I appreciate and love a God who established the timeless blessing of loving us in spite of us and the timeless encouragement of love, peace, hope, joy, grace and mercy; for without these timeless blessings and encouragements from God, how could we praise, worship and adore the One who made it possible for us to be grateful and thankful in the first place. The timeless tradition of Thanksgiving; I hope you are able to extend the time and the tradition during your lifetime; savoring every moment not knowing when it will be your last.

Are You Next In Line For A Blessing

For some of us, being blessed happens in our lives without us giving it much thought. We wake up each morning to the dawn of a brand new day, we have a reasonable portion of health and strength; we are clothed and are in our right minds and we have fresh air to breathe signifying that we are alive and in the land of the living. Many of us have been provided rest from our labor in the form of retirement, some of us have gainful employment, others are in school working toward being productive citizens and a few of us are unemployed for various reasons; but blessed non-the-less. We have family, friends and loved ones, significant relationships, strong friendships and ongoing associations with a variety of people. We are able to eat and have our being and function in a democratic society that provides certain inalienable rights that have become basic privileges that provide for a significant quality of life. Yes, many of us are blessed without giving it much thought.

I am reminded of the words of a song that say, "Count your blessings, and name them one by one. Count your blessings and see what God has done." And yet, with so many blessings at our disposal, too many of us still don't give it much thought; as if blessings are something we are entitled to. On the other hand, there are those who look at others and marvel and sometimes become jealous because it seems that showers of blessings are being poured out on everybody but them. They moan and groan at those who they believe are the haves of life while simultaneously viewing themselves as the have not’s.

The truth of the matter is that God is no respecter of persons and that it rains on the just as well as the unjust. Said differently, God provides blessing to everybody; whether we acknowledge God as the giver of every good and perfect gift or not. Therefore, it order to be next in line for a blessing, several things must be in place in your life. First, you must constantly acknowledge God as the source of all blessings. Secondly, you must practice bestowing human blessings to others and finally, you must pray constantly for God to bless you by giving you the desires of your heart. When you do these things, you will be next in line for a blessing.

Forgiveness: A Prerequisite For Problem-Solving

Forgiveness is about making a fresh start in the most important and fundamental part of life —relationships. Would you like to get along better with your husband, wife, sister, brother, friends and significant others….. Would you like to have less anxiety, less destructive conflict, less ill-will, and less fault finding and replace this behavior with more genuine affection, more respect, more appreciation, and more real love? Praise the Lord because this is what God wants for your life as well. In fact, God is doing everything in God’s power to convince us to make some adjustments in who we are. God desires that we have better relationships with God and everyone in life.

Forgiveness is about repairing relationships that have been bent, bruised and broken. Forgiveness is about restoring relationships with those who have hurt us—and with those whom we’ve hurt. Forgiveness is about resurrecting relationships which have been so damaged that they’re all but dead. It’s about taking the high road and doing what is right for the sake of God and our soul salvation. This is why Roman 3:10 says that there is no one righteous; it’s so that we can get real with ourselves and realize that all of us stand in need of forgiveness. All of us stand in need of being restored.

The good news about forgiveness is that it doesn’t require the approval of those who won’t and don’t receive it. But the difficulty is that those who won’t and don’t allow the devil to steal, kill and destroy that which God has deemed good. Therefore, in order for forgiveness to manifest itself in positive ways in your lives, we’ve got to be willing to be open to the Holy Spirit moving in our lives and changing who we are. We’ve got to resolve in our own spirit that if God forgives us, then we MUST forgive others, and allow others to forgive us. Then and only then will we be able to let stuff go and move on in the name of Jesus. We must accept the fact that this can only happen in the supernatural and not the natural realm; forgiveness comes from the author of peace and not the author of confusion and the father of lies. And so, in order to embrace forgiveness as the solution to the problems in our lives, we’ve got to be convinced and convicted that there really is a problem, and we’ve got to understand the nature of that problem.

Just to be clear, the problem is sin. And the nature of sin is that we all do it. So don’t think you’re exempt just because you’re in the church. We sin against God, against ourselves and others; and this is why relationships are so bad today. It’s all because of our sinful nature and our sinful condition. Unless we forgive, life will be full of conflict and tension. Unless we forgive, life will be one problem after another and it will destroy our chance for everlasting life.

And so, the doctrine of sin says that all of us need to be forgiven; first by God, and then by others. Unless we’re willing to recognize our own sin and our own need of forgiveness, we’ll never be able to truly forgive others. If we can’t forgive others, we are implicitly saying that we are comfortable with the confusion and conflict in our lives. But if we see our need for extending forgiveness and being forgiven, we will be on our way to a higher quality of life based on God’s will for our lives.

A Break And A Blessing

A Break and A Blessing
In the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 32, is the story of how God deals with Jacob as a part of God's plan of salvation history. Since his birth, Jacob has been a manipulative, conniving and calculating opportunist. While it would seem that Jacob's actions would not make him a worthy candidate for God's affection and adoration; we are reminded that God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Ultimately, God has to break Jacob and his undesirable ways in order for Jacob to recognize blessings beyond measure. Said differently, until we are broken by God, we will never realize the magnitude of God's desire for our lives.

The Hebrew word used in this text  for break is the same word used for offering a sacrifice to God; a lifting up. In order for Jacob to be lifted up, he first had to be broken. In order for us to present ourselves as living sacrifices unto God, we must first come to God with a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart; these are the sacrifices of God. We must be broken. Even our Lord Jesus demonstrated this in his life. The Bible says that Jesus took two fishes and five loaves, blessed them, and broke them. Once broken, over 5,000 were fed with 12 baskets left over. On the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. The broken bread represents the prophetic breaking of the body of Jesus that we may have life and life more abundantly. Therefore, the real blessing for Jacob was in his breaking. Because when he was broken, he could no longer stand on his own. All he had was God to hold on to. He went from defying God to depending on God; from rebellion to reliance; and from striving to surrendering. Jacob was able to get a blessing when he gave up depending on his own wit and will and leaned and depended on God.

 Many of us wonder why we are going through what we are going through. Maybe just maybe, God wants us to totally depend on God. When we allow our self reliance to give way to God's sanctifying grace and when we allow our inadequacy to give way to God's sufficiency we will discover the joys of living by faith and not by sight. Depend on God. Hold on to God. Trust God to bless you and provide your increase. 

I welcome your comments in the space provided at the end of this post.