Okay, everyone knows about Amazon, right? Well, in light of that, I’m using it to illustrate “waiting” today. God knows our hearts and our deepest desires, and cares about them. Trust His timing in managing them. Okay, we’re settling soundly into Isaiah today. Let’s go!
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Transcription:
You know how you order something from Amazon and then five minutes later you’re already checking your front porch to see, is it here yet? Is it here? I know that feeling too. Hi, it’s the Bible for Busy People. I’m your host Erica, and this week you and I are studying what it looks like to wait on the Lord. We’re cracking open our Bibles together and going, Lord, show us because we’re all waiting for something or someone, right? We’re waiting for God to move in our lives, and I want to ask you a question right now because I’m asking myself the same one. I feel like God gave me this Amazon picture moments ago. If you and I can click a couple of buttons on our phone and trust that there’s some guy or gal in an Amazon warehouse getting our package ready, how can we not trust that after we say a prayer, or even just think up a prayer in our hearts, God can hear the things we don’t say out loud… Why can’t we trust that the Lord is immediately going to work on that request? No, he’s not a vending machine and I am not a name-it and claim-it believer. I don’t believe that. It’s like you just demand things from God, but the Lord knows your heart. He knows my heart. He knows our deepest desires and he cares about them. He cares about the things that are precious to us and the people who are precious to us.
If you’re like me, most of your prayers are centered around people you love. I know what I’m praying for when it comes to my daughter and my son and my husband and my niece and nephew, and I could keep going down the list. He knows that you and I are asking for good things. So often it comes down to timing. So, in light of that little word, picture, the Amazon example, would you join me in Isaiah chapter 64 beginning in verse one? Yeah. We’re hanging out with the prophet Isaiah, one of God’s male carriers today, prophets, if you’re new to the faith, are just simply people who God tapped to deliver his messages. So here we go.
Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
Isaiah writes.
How the mountains would quake in your presence! 2 As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame! 3 When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! 4 For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!
God is working on your behalf right this minute. I want you to name the thing, the thing that you’re waiting for, or the person that you’re waiting for. Whatever it is, I want to give you a space right now to name it. God knows about that thing. He knows about that person. He is working for you right now. Let me be the voice in this moment to remind you of that. If you and I can trust that there’s somebody busy working on our Amazon order at this moment, and I know they are, right? We can trust that God is working on that thing in our lives. I mean just wow. Right? Okay, jump with me over to Isaiah chapter 30 now because we’re going to find out something really interesting here. God waits for us. How come? Why? Let’s find out Isaiah 30, verse 18.
So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion.
Oh my word. Okay. I’m pitching a small tent here. God is waiting for you and I to come to him, to bring our problems and our praises in a messy, wild bouquet. He’s waiting just so that he can show us his love and compassion. So, when you and I stop in the middle of our day like we’re doing right now, and we’re coming to him and we’re like, Lord, we’re here. This is his opportunity. This is his moment, the one God has been waiting for. He wants to shower you with his love and compassion. Oh, let’s finish verse 18 now.
For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help. 19 O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.
He’s responding the thing that you want him to do, He knows about it, and he knows the right way to answer your prayer. He knows the perfect timing, the perfect situation. He’s factoring in a million different things. This is the God who keeps the world spinning every day, who’s in charge of the universe. Your case is on his desk, your life and your prayers are in his hands, and he is a faithful God. We just read that you and I are blessed when we wait on him. We just read that too. Alright, now we’re going to just jump on over to Isaiah chapter 40, and we’re going to continue to marinate on the awesomeness of a God who works on our behalf, who even waits for us to show up in his presence, so he can show us his love. Isaiah 40 beginning in verse one, I like spending time with the prophet. How about you?
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. 27 O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? 28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
I want to pitch a small tent here too, because maybe you are weak and weary in your waiting right now. God sees your troubles. He does not ignore you. There is a plan in heaven there is no panic. Only plans. One of my favorite people who ever lived, Corrie Ten Boom says that. Verse 29, now.
He gives power to the weak
See, there’s hope for you today.
and strength to the powerless. 30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Okay. You know what I love about eagles? They’re above just about everything. When you are waiting on the Lord, when you are in his presence, receiving his love and his compassion, you can soar above your circumstances. You see, there are blessings in the waiting. God’s waiting room is the place where you get to receive his love and compassion. Don’t try to get out too fast. Trust him in this room, soar above your circumstances, soak up the blessings that he wants to pour out on you. Feel his love and compassion today. Until next time, you are truly loved.
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