__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Title: Waiting On God!<\/p>\n
Creator(s): Murray, Andrew<\/p>\n
Print Basis: New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1894<\/p>\n
Rights: Public Domain<\/p>\n
CCEL Subjects: All; Christian Life<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Note: In Scripture references, Murray used Roman numerals. For the sake<\/p>\n
of the modern reader, these have been converted to Arabic numerals in<\/p>\n
the following public domain text. Also, the convention of dividing the<\/p>\n
verse from the chapter with a colon has been implemented in place of<\/p>\n
the period.<\/p>\n
WAITING<\/p>\n
on<\/p>\n
GOD!<\/p>\n
DAILY MESSAGE FOR A MONTH<\/p>\n
by<\/p>\n
Rev. ANDREW MURRAY<\/p>\n
AUTHOR OF “WITH CHRIST,” “ABIDE IN CHRIST,” ETC., ETC.<\/p>\n
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY<\/p>\n
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO<\/p>\n
Publishers of Evangelical Literature<\/p>\n
TO<\/p>\n
MR. AND MRS. ALBERT A. HEAD<\/p>\n
WHOSE LOVE GAVE US SUCH A BRIGHT HOME<\/p>\n
DURING OUR ABSENCE FROM OUR OWN<\/p>\n
AND TO WHOSE LABOURS AND PRAYERS<\/p>\n
THE DAYS OF QUIET WAITING ON GOD<\/p>\n
IN WHITECHAPEL<\/p>\n
AND THE DAY OF UNITED PRAYER<\/p>\n
IN EXETER HALL<\/p>\n
OWED SO MUCH<\/p>\n
THIS LITTLE VOLUME<\/p>\n
IS<\/p>\n
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Wait Thou only upon God.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God. ‘ – Ps. 62:5<\/p>\n
A God . . which worketh for him that waiteth for Him.’ -Isa. 64:4(R.V.)<\/p>\n
WAIT only upon God;’ my soul, be still,<\/p>\n
And let thy God unfold His perfect will,<\/p>\n
Thou fain would’st follow Him throughout this year,<\/p>\n
Thou fain with listening heart His voice would’st hear,<\/p>\n
Thou fain would’st be a passive instrument<\/p>\n
Possessed by God, and ever Spirit-sent<\/p>\n
Upon His service sweet–then be thou still<\/p>\n
For only thus can He in thee fulfil<\/p>\n
His heart’s desire. Oh, hinder not His hand<\/p>\n
From fashioning the vessel He hath planned.<\/p>\n
Be silent unto God,’ and thou shalt know<\/p>\n
The quiet, holy calm He doth bestow<\/p>\n
On these who wait on Him; so shalt thou bear<\/p>\n
His promises, and His life and light e’en where<\/p>\n
The night is darkest, and thine earthly days<\/p>\n
Shall shew His love, and sound His glorious praise<\/p>\n
And He will work with head unfettered, free<\/p>\n
His high and holy purposes through thee.<\/p>\n
First on thee must that hand of power be turned,<\/p>\n
Till in His love’s strong fire thy dross is burned,<\/p>\n
And thou come forth a vessel for thy Lord,<\/p>\n
So frail and empty, yet, since He hath poured<\/p>\n
Into thine emptiness His life, His love<\/p>\n
Henceforth through thee the power of God shall move<\/p>\n
And He will work for thee. Stand still and see<\/p>\n
The victories thy God will gain for thee;<\/p>\n
So silent, yet so irresistible,<\/p>\n
Thy God shall do the thing impossible.<\/p>\n
Oh, question not henceforth what thou canst do;<\/p>\n
Thou canst do naught. But He will carry through<\/p>\n
The work where human energy had failed<\/p>\n
Where all thy best endeavours had availed<\/p>\n
Thee nothing. Then, my soul, wait and be still;<\/p>\n
Thy God shall work for thee His perfect will.<\/p>\n
If thou will take no less, His best shall be<\/p>\n
Thy portion now and through eternity.<\/p>\n
FREDA HANBURY<\/p>\n
EXTRACT<\/p>\n
FROM<\/p>\n
ADDRESS IN EXETER HALL<\/p>\n
May 31st 1895<\/p>\n
I HAVE been surprised at nothing more than at the letters that have<\/p>\n
come to me from missionaries and others from all parts of the world,<\/p>\n
devoted men and women, testifying to the need they feel in their work<\/p>\n
of being helped to a deeper and a clearer insight into all that Christ<\/p>\n
could be to them. Let us look to God to reveal Himself among His people<\/p>\n
in a measure very few have realized. Let us expect great things of our<\/p>\n
God. At all our conventions and assemblies too little time is given to<\/p>\n
waiting on God. Is He not willing to put things right in His own divine<\/p>\n
way? Has the life of God’s people reached the utmost limit of what God<\/p>\n
is willing to do for them? Surely not. We want to wait on Him; to put<\/p>\n
away our experiences, however blessed they have been; our conceptions<\/p>\n
of truth, however sound and scriptural we think they seem; our plans,<\/p>\n
however needful and suitable they appear; and give God time and place<\/p>\n
to show us what He could, what He will do. God has new developments and<\/p>\n
new resources. He can do new things, unheard of things. Let us enlarge<\/p>\n
our hearts and not limit Him. When Thou camest down, Thou didst<\/p>\n
terrible things we looked not for; the mountains flowed down at Thy<\/p>\n
presence.’<\/p>\n
A. M.<\/p>\n
CONTENTS<\/p>\n
DAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE<\/p>\n
Preface. . . . . . 13<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
1. The God of our Salvation.–Ps. 62:1. . . 17<\/p>\n
2. The Keynote of Life.–Gen. 49:18. . . 21<\/p>\n
3. The True Place of the Creature.–Ps. 104:27, 28. . . 25<\/p>\n
4. For Supplies.–Ps. 114:14, 15. . . 29<\/p>\n
5. For Instruction.–Ps. 25:4, 5. . . 33<\/p>\n
6. For all Saints.–Ps. 25:3. . . 37<\/p>\n
7. A Plea in Prayer.–Ps. 25:21. . . 41<\/p>\n
8. Strong and of Good Courage.–Ps. 27:14. . . 45<\/p>\n
9. With the Heart.–Ps. 31:24. . . 49<\/p>\n
10. In Humble Fear and Hope.–Ps. 33:18-22. . . 54<\/p>\n
11. Patiently.–Ps. 37:7,9. . . . 59<\/p>\n
12. Keeping His Ways.–Ps. 37:34. . . 63<\/p>\n
13. For More than we Know.–Ps. 39:7, 8. . . 67<\/p>\n
14. The Way to the New Song.–Ps. 40:1-3. . . 71<\/p>\n
15. For His Counsel.–Ps. 56:12. . . 75<\/p>\n
16. And His Light in the Heart.–Ps. 80:5, 6. . . 79<\/p>\n
17. In Times of Darkness–Isa. 8:17. . . 84<\/p>\n
18. To Reveal Himself.–Isa. 25:9. . . 89<\/p>\n
19. As a God of Judgment.–Isa. 26:8, 9. . . 93<\/p>\n
20. Who Waits on Us.–Isa. 30:18. . . 97<\/p>\n
21. The Almighty One.–Isa. 40:31. . . 101<\/p>\n
22. Its Certainty of Blessing.–Isa. 49:23. . . 105<\/p>\n
23. For Un-looked for Things.–Isa. 64:4. . . 110<\/p>\n
24. To Know His Goodness.–Lam. 3:25. . . 114<\/p>\n
25. Quietly.–Lam. 3:26. . . 118<\/p>\n
26. In Holy Expectency.–Mic. 7:7. . . 133<\/p>\n
27. For Redemption.–Lu. 2:25,38. . . 126<\/p>\n
28. For the Coming of His Son.–Lu. 12:36. . . 130<\/p>\n
29. For the Promise of the Father.–Acts 1:4. . . 135<\/p>\n
30. Continually.–Hos. 12:6. . . 140<\/p>\n
31. Only.–Psa. 62:5, 6. . . 145<\/p>\n
Note: The Power of the Holy Spirit. By W. Law. . . . 150<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
PREFACE<\/p>\n
PREVIOUS to my leaving for England last year, I had been much impressed<\/p>\n
by the thought of how, in all our religion, personal and public, we<\/p>\n
need more of God. I had felt that we needed to train our people in<\/p>\n
their worship more to wait on God, and to make the cultivation of a<\/p>\n
deeper sense of His presence, of more direct contact with Him, of<\/p>\n
entire dependence on Him, a definite aim of our ministry. At a welcome’<\/p>\n
breakfast in Exeter Hall, I gave very simple expression to this thought<\/p>\n
in connection with all our religious work. I have already said<\/p>\n
elsewhere that I was surprised at the response the sentiment met with.<\/p>\n
I saw that God’s Spirit had been working the same desire in many<\/p>\n
hearts.<\/p>\n
The experiences of the past year, both personal and public, have<\/p>\n
greatly deepened the conviction. It is as if I myself am only beginning<\/p>\n
to see the deepest truth concerning God, and our relation to Him,<\/p>\n
centere in this waiting on God, and how very little, in our life and<\/p>\n
work, we have been surrounded by its spirit. The following pages are<\/p>\n
the outcome of my conviction, and of the desire to direct the attention<\/p>\n
of all God’s people to the one great remedy for all our needs. More<\/p>\n
than half the pieces were written on board ship; I fear they bear the<\/p>\n
marks of being somewhat crude and hasty. I have felt, in looking them<\/p>\n
over, as if I could wish to write them over again. But this I cannot<\/p>\n
now do. And so I send them out with the prayer that He who loves to use<\/p>\n
the feeble may give His blessing with them.<\/p>\n
I do not know if it will be possible for me to put into a few words<\/p>\n
what are the chief things we need to learn. In a note at the close of<\/p>\n
the book on Law I have mentioned some. But what I want to say here is<\/p>\n
this: The great lack of our religion is, we do not know God. The answer<\/p>\n
to every complaint of feebleness and failure, the message to every<\/p>\n
congregation or convention seeking instruction on holiness, ought to be<\/p>\n
simply, What is the matter: Have you not God? If you really believe in<\/p>\n
God, He will put all right. God is willing and able by His Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
Cease from expecting the least good from yourself, or the least help<\/p>\n
from anything there is in man, and just yield yourself unreservedly to<\/p>\n
God to work in you: He will do all for you.<\/p>\n
How simple this looks! And yet this is the gospel we so little know. I<\/p>\n
feel ashamed as I send forth these very defective meditations; I can<\/p>\n
only cast them on the love of my brethren, and of our God. May He use<\/p>\n
them to draw us all to Himself, to learn in practice and experience the<\/p>\n
blessed art of Waiting only upon God. Would God that we might get some<\/p>\n
right conception of what the influence would be of a life given, not in<\/p>\n
thought, or imagination, or effort, but in the power of the Holy<\/p>\n
Spirit, wholly to waiting upon God.<\/p>\n
With my greeting in Christ to all God’s saints it has been my privilege<\/p>\n
to meet, and no less to those I have not met, I subscribe myself, your<\/p>\n
brother and servant,<\/p>\n
ANDREW MURRAY.<\/p>\n
Wellington<\/p>\n
3rd March 1896<\/p>\n
[Page 16 is blank]<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
First Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
The God of Our Salvation.<\/p>\n
My soul waiteth only upon God [marg:is silent unto God]; from Him<\/p>\n
cometh my salvation.’–Ps. 62: 1(R.V.).<\/p>\n
IF salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as<\/p>\n
our creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and<\/p>\n
highest duty is to wait on Him to do that work as it pleases Him.<\/p>\n
Waiting becomes then the only way to the experience of a full<\/p>\n
salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our<\/p>\n
salvation. All the difficulties that are brought forward as keeping us<\/p>\n
back from full salvation, have their cause in this one thing: the<\/p>\n
defective knowledge and practice of waiting upon God. All that the<\/p>\n
Church and its members need for the manifestation of the mighty power<\/p>\n
of God in the world, is the return to our true place, the place that<\/p>\n
belongs to us, both in creation and redemption, the place of absolute<\/p>\n
and unceasing dependence upon God. Let us strive to see what the<\/p>\n
elements are that make up this most blessed and needful waiting upon<\/p>\n
God: it may help us to discover the reasons why this grace is so little<\/p>\n
cultivated, and to feel how infinitely desirable it is that the Church,<\/p>\n
that we ourselves, should at any price learn its blessed secret.<\/p>\n
The deep need for this waiting on God lies equally in the nature of man<\/p>\n
and the nature of God. God, as Creator, formed man, to be a vessel in<\/p>\n
which He could show forth His power and goodness. Man was not to have<\/p>\n
in himself a fountain of life, or strength, or happiness: the<\/p>\n
everliving and only living One was each moment to be the Communicator<\/p>\n
to him of all that he needed. Man’s glory and blessedness was not to be<\/p>\n
independent, or dependent upon himself, but dependent on a God of such<\/p>\n
infinite riches and love. Man was to have the joy of receiving every<\/p>\n
moment out of the fulness of God. This was his blessedness as an<\/p>\n
unfallen creature.<\/p>\n
When he fell from God, he was still more absolutely dependent on Him.<\/p>\n
There was not the slightest hope of his recovery out of his state of<\/p>\n
death, but in God, His power and mercy. It is God alone who began the<\/p>\n
work of redemption; it is God alone who continues and carries it on<\/p>\n
each moment in each individual believer. Even in the regenerate man<\/p>\n
there is no power of goodness in himself: he has and can have nothing<\/p>\n
that he does not each moment receive; and waiting on God is just as<\/p>\n
indispensable, and must be just as continuous and unbroken, as the<\/p>\n
breathing that maintains his natural life.<\/p>\n
It is, then, because Christians do not know in their relation to God of<\/p>\n
their own absolute poverty and helplessness, that they have no sense of<\/p>\n
the need of absolute and unceasing dependence, or of the unspeakable<\/p>\n
blessedness of continual waiting on God. But when once a believer<\/p>\n
begins to see it, and consent to it, that he by the Holy Spirit must<\/p>\n
each moment receive what God each moment works, waiting on God becomes<\/p>\n
his brightest hope and joy. As he appreciates how God, as God, as<\/p>\n
Infinite Love, delights to impart His own nature to His child as fully<\/p>\n
as He can, how God is not weary of each moment keeping charge of his<\/p>\n
life and strength, he wonders that he ever thought otherwise of God<\/p>\n
than as a God to be waited on all the day. God unceasingly giving and<\/p>\n
working; His child unceasingly waiting and receiving: this is the<\/p>\n
blessed life.<\/p>\n
Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him cometh my salvation.’ First we<\/p>\n
wait on God for salvation. Then we learn that salvation is only to<\/p>\n
bring us to God, and teach us to wait on Him. Then we find what is<\/p>\n
better still, that waiting on God is itself the highest salvation. It<\/p>\n
is the ascribing to Him the glory of being All; it is the experiencing<\/p>\n
that He is All to us. May God teach us the blessedness of waiting on<\/p>\n
Him.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Second Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
The Keynote of Life.<\/p>\n
I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!’–Gen. 49: 18.<\/p>\n
IT is not easy to say exactly in what sense Jacob used these words, in<\/p>\n
the midst of his prophecies in regard to the future of his sons. But<\/p>\n
they do certainly indicate that both for himself and for them his<\/p>\n
expectation was from God alone. It was God’s salvation he waited for; a<\/p>\n
salvation which God had promised and which God Himself alone could work<\/p>\n
out. He knew himself and his sons to be under God’s charge. Jehovah the<\/p>\n
Everlasting God would show in them what His saving power is and does.<\/p>\n
The words point forward to that wonderful history of redemption which<\/p>\n
is not yet finished, and to the glorious future in eternity. They<\/p>\n
suggest to us how there is no salvation but God’s salvation, and how<\/p>\n
waiting on God for that, whether for our personal experience, or in<\/p>\n
wider circles, is our first duty, our true blessedness.<\/p>\n
Let us think of ourselves, and the inconceivably glorious salvation God<\/p>\n
has wrought for us in Christ, and is now purposing to work out and to<\/p>\n
perfect in us by His Spirit. Let us meditate until we somewhat realize<\/p>\n
that every participation of this great salvation, from moment to<\/p>\n
moment, must be the work of God Himself. God cannot part with His<\/p>\n
grace, or goodness, or strength, as an external thing that He gives us,<\/p>\n
as He gives the raindrops from heaven. No; He can only give it, and we<\/p>\n
can only enjoy it, as He works it Himself directly and unceasingly. And<\/p>\n
the only reason that He does not work it more effectively and<\/p>\n
continuously is, that we do not let Him. We hinder Him either by our<\/p>\n
indifference or by our self-effort, so that He cannot do what He would.<\/p>\n
What He asks of us, in the way of surrender, and obedience, and desire,<\/p>\n
and trust, is all comprised in this one word: waiting on Him, waiting<\/p>\n
for His salvation. It combines the deep sense of our entire<\/p>\n
helplessness of ourselves to work what is divinely good, and the<\/p>\n
perfect confidence that our God will work it all in His divine power.<\/p>\n
Again, I say, let us meditate on the divine glory of the salvation God<\/p>\n
purposes working out in us, until we know the truth it implies. Our<\/p>\n
heart is the scene of a divine operation more wonderful than Creation.<\/p>\n
We can do as little towards the work as towards creating the world,<\/p>\n
except as God works in us to will and to do. God only asks of us to<\/p>\n
yield, to consent, to wait upon Him, and He will do it all. Let us<\/p>\n
meditate and be still, until we see how appropriate and right and<\/p>\n
blessed it is that God alone do all, and our soul will of itself sink<\/p>\n
down in deep humility to say: I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’<\/p>\n
And the deep blessed background of all our praying and working will be:<\/p>\n
Truly my soul waiteth upon God.’<\/p>\n
The application of the truth to wider circles, to those we labor among<\/p>\n
or intercede for, to the Church of Christ around us, or throughout the<\/p>\n
world, is not difficult. There can be no good but what God works; to<\/p>\n
wait upon God, and have the heart filled with faith in His working, and<\/p>\n
in that faith to pray for His mighty power to come down, is our only<\/p>\n
wisdom. Oh for the eyes of our heart to be opened to see God working in<\/p>\n
ourselves and in others, and to see how blessed it is to worship and<\/p>\n
just to wait for His salvation!<\/p>\n
Our private and public prayer are our chief expression of our relation<\/p>\n
to God: it is in them chiefly that our waiting upon God must be<\/p>\n
exercised. If our waiting begin by quieting the activities of nature,<\/p>\n
and being still before God; if it bows and seeks to see God in His<\/p>\n
universal and almighty operation, alone able and always ready to work<\/p>\n
all good; if it yields itself to Him in the assurance that He is<\/p>\n
working and will work in us; if it maintains the place of humility and<\/p>\n
stillness and surrender, until God’s Spirit has quickened the faith<\/p>\n
that He will perfect His work: it will indeed become the strength and<\/p>\n
the joy of the soul. Life will become one deep blessed cry: I have<\/p>\n
waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Third Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
The True Place of the Creature.<\/p>\n
These wait all upon Thee;<\/p>\n
That Thou mayest give them their meat in due season.<\/p>\n
That Thou givest unto them, they gather;<\/p>\n
Thou openest Thine hand, they are satisfied with good.<\/p>\n
Ps. 104:27, 28(R.V.).<\/p>\n
THIS Psalm, in praise of the Creator, has been speaking of the birds<\/p>\n
and the beasts of the forest; of the young lions, and man going forth<\/p>\n
to his work; of the great sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable,<\/p>\n
both small and great beasts. And it sums up the whole relation of all<\/p>\n
creation to its Creator, and its continuous and universal dependence<\/p>\n
upon Him in the one word: These all wait upon Thee!’ Just as much as it<\/p>\n
was God’s work to create, it is His work to maintain. As little as the<\/p>\n
creature could create itself, is it left to provide for itself. The<\/p>\n
whole creation is ruled by the one unalterable law of–waiting upon<\/p>\n
God!<\/p>\n
The word is the simple expression of that for the sake of which alone<\/p>\n
the creature was brought into existence, the very groundwork of its<\/p>\n
constitution. The one object for which God gave life to creatures was<\/p>\n
that in them He might prove and show forth His wisdom, power, and<\/p>\n
goodness, inHis being each moment their life and happiness, and pouring<\/p>\n
forth unto them, according to their capacity, the riches of his<\/p>\n
goodness and power. And just as this is the very place and nature of<\/p>\n
God, to be unceasingly the supplier of every want in the creature, so<\/p>\n
the very place and nature of the creature is nothing but this–to wait<\/p>\n
upon God and receive from Him what He alone can give, what He delights<\/p>\n
to give. (See note on Law, The Power of the Spirit.)<\/p>\n
If we are in this little book at all to appreciate what waiting on<\/p>\n
Godis to be to the believer, to practice it and to experience its<\/p>\n
blessedness, it is of consequence that we begin at the very beginning,<\/p>\n
and see the deep reasonableness of the call that comes to us. We shall<\/p>\n
understand how the duty is no arbitrary command. We shall see how it is<\/p>\n
not only rendered necessary by our sin and helplessness. It is simply<\/p>\n
and truly our restoration to our original destiny and our highest<\/p>\n
nobility, to our true place and glory as creatures blessedly dependent<\/p>\n
on the All-Glorious God.<\/p>\n
If once our eyes are opened to this precious truth, all Nature will<\/p>\n
become a preacher, reminding us of the relationship which, founded in<\/p>\n
creation, is now taken up in grace. As we read this Psalm, and learn to<\/p>\n
look upon all life in Nature as continually maintained by God Himself,<\/p>\n
waiting on God will be seen to be the very necessity of our being. As<\/p>\n
we think of the young lions and the ravens crying to Him, of the birds<\/p>\n
and the fish and every insect waiting on Him, until He give them their<\/p>\n
meat in due season, we shall see that it is the very nature and glory<\/p>\n
of God that He is a God who is to be waited on. Every thought of what<\/p>\n
Nature is, and what God is, will give new force to the call: Wait thou<\/p>\n
only upon God.’<\/p>\n
These all wait upon Thee, that thou maygive.’ It is God who gives all:<\/p>\n
let this faith enter deeply into our hearts. Ere yet we fully<\/p>\n
understand all that is implied in our waiting upon God, and ere we ever<\/p>\n
have been able to cultivate the habit, let the truth enter our souls:<\/p>\n
waiting on God, unceasing and entire dependence upon Him, is, in heaven<\/p>\n
and earth, the one only true religion, the one unalterable and<\/p>\n
all-comprehensive expression for the true relationship to the<\/p>\n
ever-blessed One in whom we live.<\/p>\n
Let us resolve at once that it shall be the one characteristic of our<\/p>\n
life and worship, a continual, humble, trustful waiting upon God. We<\/p>\n
may rest assured that He who made us for Himself, that He might give<\/p>\n
Himself to us and in us, that He will never disappoint us. In waiting<\/p>\n
on Him we shall find rest and joy and strength, and the supply of every<\/p>\n
need.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Fourth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For Supplies.<\/p>\n
The Lord upholdeth all that fall,<\/p>\n
And raiseth up all those that be bowed down.<\/p>\n
The eyes of all wait upon Thee;<\/p>\n
And Thou givest them their meat in due season.’<\/p>\n
–Ps. 145:14, 15.<\/p>\n
PSALM 104 is a Psalm of Creation, and the words, These all wait upon<\/p>\n
Thee,’ were used with reference to the animal creation. Here we have a<\/p>\n
Psalm of the Kingdom, and The eyes of all wait upon Thee’ appears<\/p>\n
especially to point to the needs of God’s saints, of all that fall and<\/p>\n
them that be bowed down. What the universe and the animal creation does<\/p>\n
unconsciously, God’s people are to do intelligently and voluntarily.<\/p>\n
Man is to be the interpreter of Nature. He is to prove that there is<\/p>\n
nothing more noble or more blessed in the exercise of our free will<\/p>\n
than to use it in waiting upon God.<\/p>\n
If an army has been sent out to march into an enemy’s country, and<\/p>\n
tidings are received that it is not advancing, the question is at once<\/p>\n
asked, what may be the cause of delay. The answer will very often be:<\/p>\n
Waiting for supplies.’ All the stores of provisions or clothing or<\/p>\n
ammunition have not arrived; without these it dare not proceed. It is<\/p>\n
no otherwise in the Christian life: day by day, at every step, we need<\/p>\n
our supplies from above. And there is nothing so needful as to<\/p>\n
cultivate that spirit of dependence on God and of confidence in Him,<\/p>\n
which refuses to go on without the needed supply of grace and strength.<\/p>\n
If the question be asked, whether this be anything different from what<\/p>\n
we do when we pray, the answer is, that there may be much praying with<\/p>\n
but very little waiting on God. In praying we are often occupied with<\/p>\n
ourselves, with our own needs, and our own efforts in the presentation<\/p>\n
of them. In waiting upon God, the first thought is of the God upon whom<\/p>\n
we wait. We enter His presence, and feel we need just to be quiet, so<\/p>\n
that He, as God, can overshadow us with Himself. God longs to reveal<\/p>\n
Himself, to fill us with Himself. Waiting on God gives Him time in His<\/p>\n
own way and divine power to come to us.<\/p>\n
It is especially at the time of prayer that we ought to set ourselves<\/p>\n
to cultivate this spirit.<\/p>\n
Before you pray, bow quietly before God, just to remember and realize<\/p>\n
who He is, how near He is, how certainly He can and will help. Just be<\/p>\n
still before Him, and allow His Holy Spirit to waken and stir up in<\/p>\n
your soul the childlike disposition of absolute dependence and<\/p>\n
confident expectation. Wait upon God as a Living Being, as the Living<\/p>\n
God, who notices you, and is just longing to fill you with His<\/p>\n
salvation. Wait on God until you know you have met Him; prayer will<\/p>\n
then become so different.<\/p>\n
And when you are praying, let there be intervals of silence, reverent<\/p>\n
stillness of soul, in which you yield yourself to God, in case He may<\/p>\n
have aught He wishes to teach you or to work in you. Waiting on Him<\/p>\n
will become the most blessed part of prayer, and the blessing thus<\/p>\n
obtained will be doubly precious as the fruit of such fellowship with<\/p>\n
the Holy One. God has so ordained it, in harmony with His holy nature,<\/p>\n
and with ours, that waiting on Him should be the honor we give Him. Let<\/p>\n
us bring Him the service gladly and truthfully; He will reward it<\/p>\n
abundantly.<\/p>\n
The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due<\/p>\n
season.’ Dear soul, God provides in Nature for the creatures He has<\/p>\n
made: how much more will He provide in Grace for those He has redeemed.<\/p>\n
Learn to say of every want, and every failure, and every lack of<\/p>\n
needful grace: I have waited too little upon God, or He would have<\/p>\n
given me in due season all I needed. And say then too–<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Fifth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For Instruction.<\/p>\n
Shew me thy ways, O Lord; Teach me Thy paths.<\/p>\n
Teach me Thy paths.<\/p>\n
Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me;<\/p>\n
For Thou art the God of my salvation;<\/p>\n
On Thee do I wait all the day.’– Ps. 25:4, 5.<\/p>\n
I SPOKE of an army, on the point of entering an enemy’s territories,<\/p>\n
answering the question as to the cause of delay: Waiting for supplies.’<\/p>\n
The answer might also have been: Waiting for instructions,’ or, Waiting<\/p>\n
for orders.’ If the last despatch had not been received, with the final<\/p>\n
orders of the commander-in-chief, the army dared not move. Even so in<\/p>\n
the Christian life: as deep as the need of waiting for supplies, is<\/p>\n
that of waiting for instructions.’<\/p>\n
See how beautifully this comes out in Ps. 25. The writer knew and loved<\/p>\n
God’s law exceedingly, and meditated in that law day and night. But he<\/p>\n
knew that this was not enough. He knew that for the right spiritual<\/p>\n
apprehension of the truth, and for the right personal application of it<\/p>\n
to his own peculiar circumstances, he needed a direct divine teaching.<\/p>\n
The psalm has at all times been a very favourite one, because of its<\/p>\n
reiterated expression of the felt need of the Divine teaching, and of<\/p>\n
the childlike confidence that that teaching would be given. Study the<\/p>\n
psalm until your heart is filled with the two thoughts–the absolute<\/p>\n
need, the absolute certainty of divine guidance. And notice, then, how<\/p>\n
entirely it is in this connection that he speaks, On Thee do I wait all<\/p>\n
the day.’ Waiting for guidance, waiting for instruction, all the day,<\/p>\n
is a very blessed part of waiting upon God.<\/p>\n
The Father in heaven is so interested in His child, and so longs to<\/p>\n
have his life at every step in His will and His love, that He is<\/p>\n
willing to keep his guidance entirely in His own hand. He knows so well<\/p>\n
that we are unable to do what is really holy and heavenly, except as He<\/p>\n
works it in us, that He means His very demands to become promises of<\/p>\n
what He will do, in watching over and leading us all the day. Not only<\/p>\n
in special difficulties and times of perplexity, but in the common<\/p>\n
course of everyday life, we may count upon Him to teach us His way, and<\/p>\n
show us His path.<\/p>\n
And what is needed in us to receive this guidance? One thing: waiting<\/p>\n
for instructions, waiting on God. On Thee do I wait all the day.’ We<\/p>\n
want in our times of prayer to give clear expression to our sense of<\/p>\n
need, and our faith in His help. We want definitely to become conscious<\/p>\n
of our ignorance as to what God’s way may be, and the need of the<\/p>\n
Divine light shining within us, if our way is to be as of the sun,<\/p>\n
shining more and more unto the perfect day. And we want to wait quietly<\/p>\n
before God in prayer, until the deep, restful assurance fills us: It<\/p>\n
will be given–the meek will He guide in the way.’<\/p>\n
On Thee do I wait all the day.’ The special surrender to the Divine<\/p>\n
guidance in our seasons of prayer must cultivate, and be followed up<\/p>\n
by, the habitual looking upwards all the day.’ As simple as it is, to<\/p>\n
one who has eyes, to walk all the day in the light of the sun, so<\/p>\n
simple and delightful can it become to a soul practiced in waiting on<\/p>\n
God, to walk all the day in the enjoyment of God’s light and leading.<\/p>\n
What is needed to help us to such a life is just one thing: the real<\/p>\n
knowledge and faith of God as the one only source of wisdom and<\/p>\n
goodness, as ever ready, and longing much to be to us all that we can<\/p>\n
possibly require–yes! this is the one thing we need. If we but saw our<\/p>\n
God in His love, if we but believed that He waits to be gracious, that<\/p>\n
He waits to be our life and to work all in us,–how this waiting on God<\/p>\n
would become our highest joy, the natural and spontaneous response of<\/p>\n
our hearts to His great love and glory!<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Sixth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For all Saints.<\/p>\n
Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.’– Ps. 25:3<\/p>\n
LET us now, in our meditation of today, each one forget himself, to<\/p>\n
think of the great company of God’s saints throughout the world, who<\/p>\n
are all with us waiting on Him. And let us all join in the fervent<\/p>\n
prayer for each other, Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.’<\/p>\n
Just think for a moment of the multitude of waiting ones who need that<\/p>\n
prayer; how many there are, sick and weary and solitary, to whom it is<\/p>\n
as if their prayers are not answered, and who sometimes begin to fear<\/p>\n
that their hope will be put to shame. And then, how many servants of<\/p>\n
God, ministers or missionaries, teachers or workers, of various name,<\/p>\n
whose hopes in their work have been disappointed, and whose longing for<\/p>\n
power and blessing remains unsatisfied. And then, too, how many, who<\/p>\n
have heard of a life of rest and perfect peace, of abiding light and<\/p>\n
fellowship, of strength and victory, and who cannot find the path. With<\/p>\n
all these, it is nothing but that they have not yet learned the secret<\/p>\n
of full waiting upon God. They just need, what we all need, the living<\/p>\n
assurance that waiting on God can never be in vain. Let us remember all<\/p>\n
who are in danger of fainting or being weary, and all unite in the cry,<\/p>\n
Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed’!<\/p>\n
If this intercession for all who wait on God becomes part of our<\/p>\n
waiting on Him for ourselves, we shall help to bear each other’s<\/p>\n
burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.<\/p>\n
There will be introduced into our waiting on God that element of<\/p>\n
unselfishness and love, which is the path to the highest blessing, and<\/p>\n
the fullest communion with God. Love to the brethren and love to God<\/p>\n
are inseparably linked. In God, the love to His Son and to us are one:<\/p>\n
That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me, may be in them.’ In Christ,<\/p>\n
the love of the Father to Him, and His love to us, are one: As the<\/p>\n
Father loved me, so have I loved you.’ In us, He asks that His love to<\/p>\n
us shall be ours to the brethren: As I have loved you, that ye love one<\/p>\n
another.’ All the love of God, and of Christ, are inseparably linked<\/p>\n
with love to the brethren. And how can we, day by day, prove and<\/p>\n
cultivate this love otherwise than by daily praying for each other?<\/p>\n
Christ did not seek to enjoy the Father’s love for Himself; He passed<\/p>\n
it all on to us. All true seeking of God and His love for ourselves,<\/p>\n
will be inseparably linked with the thought and the love of our<\/p>\n
brethren in prayer for them.<\/p>\n
Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.’ Twice in the psalm David speaks<\/p>\n
of his waiting on God for himself; here he thinks of all who wait on<\/p>\n
Him. Let this page take the message to all God’s tried and weary ones,<\/p>\n
that there are more praying for them than they know. Let it stir them<\/p>\n
and us in our waiting to make a point of at times forgetting ourselves,<\/p>\n
and to enlarge our hearts, and say to the Father, These all wait upon<\/p>\n
Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season.’ Let it inspire us<\/p>\n
all with new courage–for who is there who is not at times ready to<\/p>\n
faint and be weary? Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed’ is a promise<\/p>\n
in a prayer, They that wait on Thee shall not be ashamed’! From many<\/p>\n
and many a witness the cry comes to everyone who needs the help,<\/p>\n
brother, sister, tried one, Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and<\/p>\n
He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. Be of good<\/p>\n
courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that wait on the<\/p>\n
Lord.’<\/p>\n
Blessed Father! we humbly beseech Thee, Let none that wait on Thee be<\/p>\n
ashamed; no, not one. Some are weary, and the time of waiting appears<\/p>\n
long. And some are feeble, and scarcely know how to wait. And some are<\/p>\n
so entangled in the effort of their prayers and their work, they think<\/p>\n
that they can find no time to wait continually. Father! teach us all<\/p>\n
how to wait. Teach us to think of each other, and pray for each other.<\/p>\n
Teach us to think of Thee, the God of all waiting ones. Father! let<\/p>\n
none that wait on Thee be ashamed. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Seventh Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
A Plea in Prayer.<\/p>\n
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on Thee.’– Ps.<\/p>\n
25:21<\/p>\n
FOR the third time in this psalm we have the word wait. As before in<\/p>\n
ver. 5, On Thee do I wait all the day,’ so here, too, the believing<\/p>\n
supplicant appeals to God to remember that he is waiting on Him,<\/p>\n
looking for an answer. It is a great thing for a soul not only to wait<\/p>\n
upon God, but to be filled with such a consciousness that its whole<\/p>\n
spirit and position is that of a waiting one, that it can, in childlike<\/p>\n
confidence, say, Lord! Thou knowest, I wait on Thee. It will prove a<\/p>\n
mighty plea in prayer, giving ever-increasing boldness of expectation<\/p>\n
to claim the promise, They that wait on Me shall not be ashamed’!<\/p>\n
The prayer in connection with which the plea is put forth here is one<\/p>\n
of great importance in the spiritual life. If we draw near to God, it<\/p>\n
must be with a true heart. There must be perfect integrity,<\/p>\n
wholeheartedness, in our dealing with God. As we read in the next Psalm<\/p>\n
(26: 1,11), Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,’ As<\/p>\n
for me, I will walk in my integrity,’ there must be perfect uprightness<\/p>\n
or single-heartedness before God. As it is written, His righteousness<\/p>\n
is for the upright in heart.’ The soul must know that it allows nothing<\/p>\n
sinful, nothing doubtful; if it is indeed to meet the Holy One, and<\/p>\n
receive His full blessing, it must be with a heart wholly and singly<\/p>\n
given up to His will. The whole spirit that animates us in the waiting<\/p>\n
must be, Let integrity and uprightness’–Thou seest that I desire to<\/p>\n
come so to Thee, You know I am looking to Thee to work them perfectly<\/p>\n
in me;–let them preserve me, for I wait on Thee.’<\/p>\n
And if at our first attempt truly to live the life of fully and always<\/p>\n
waiting on God, we begin to discover how much that perfect integrity is<\/p>\n
wanting, this will just be one of the blessings which the waiting was<\/p>\n
meant to work. A soul cannot seek close fellowship with God, or attain<\/p>\n
the abiding consciousness of waiting on Him all the day, without a very<\/p>\n
honest and entire surrender to all His will.<\/p>\n
For I wait on Thee’: it is not only in connection with the prayer of<\/p>\n
our text but with every prayer that this plea may be used. To use it<\/p>\n
often will be a great blessing to ourselves. Let us therefore study the<\/p>\n
words well until we know all their bearings. It must be clear to us<\/p>\n
what we are waiting for. There may be very different things. It may be<\/p>\n
waiting for God in our times of prayer to take his place as God, and to<\/p>\n
work in us the sense of His holy presence and nearness. It may be some<\/p>\n
special petition, to which we are expecting an answer. It may be our<\/p>\n
whole inner life, in which we are on the lookout for God’s putting<\/p>\n
forth of His power. It may be the whole state of His Church and saints,<\/p>\n
or some part of His work, for which our eyes are ever toward Him. It is<\/p>\n
good that we sometimes count up to ourselves exactly what the things<\/p>\n
are we are waiting for, and as we say definitely of each of them, On<\/p>\n
Thee do I wait,’ we shall be emboldened to claim the answer, ‘For on<\/p>\n
Thee do I wait.’<\/p>\n
It must also be clear to us, on Whom we are waiting. Not an idol, a God<\/p>\n
of whom we have made an image by our conceptions of what He is. No, but<\/p>\n
the living God, such as He really is in His great glory, His infinite<\/p>\n
holiness, His power, wisdom, and goodness, in His love and nearness.<\/p>\n
Itis the presence of a beloved or a dreaded master that wakens up the<\/p>\n
whole attention of the servant who waits on him. It is the presence of<\/p>\n
God, as He can in Christ by His Holy Spirit make Himself known, and<\/p>\n
keep the soul under its covering and shadow, that will awaken and<\/p>\n
strengthen the true waiting spirit. Let us be still and wait and<\/p>\n
worship until we know how near He is, and then say, ‘On Thee do I wait.<\/p>\n
And then, let it be very clear, too, that we are waiting. Let that<\/p>\n
become so much our consciousness that the utterance comes<\/p>\n
spontaneously, On Thee I do waitall the day; I wait on Thee.’ This will<\/p>\n
indeed imply sacrifice and separation, a soul entirely given up to God<\/p>\n
as its all, its only joy. This waiting on God has hardly yet been<\/p>\n
acknowledged as the only true Christianity. And yet, if it be true that<\/p>\n
God alone is goodness and joy and love; if it be true that our highest<\/p>\n
blessedness is in having as much of God as we can; if it be true that<\/p>\n
Christ has redeemed us wholly for God, and made a life of continual<\/p>\n
abiding in His presence possible, nothing less ought to satisfy than to<\/p>\n
be ever breathing this blessed atmosphere, I wait on Thee.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Eighth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Strong and of Good Courage.<\/p>\n
Wait on the Lord: be strong,<\/p>\n
And let your heart take courage:<\/p>\n
Yea, wait thou on the Lord.’– Ps. 27:14 (R.V.)<\/p>\n
THE psalmist had just said, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see<\/p>\n
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.’ If it had not been<\/p>\n
for his faith in God, his heart had fainted. But in the confident<\/p>\n
assurance in God which faith gives, he urges himself and us to remember<\/p>\n
one thing above all,–to wait upon God. Wait on the Lord: be strong,<\/p>\n
and let your heart take courage: yea, wait on the Lord.’ One of the<\/p>\n
chief needs in our waiting upon God, one of the deepest secrets of its<\/p>\n
blessedness and blessing, is a quiet, confident persuasion that it is<\/p>\n
not in vain; courage to believe that God will hear and help; that we<\/p>\n
are waiting on a God who never could disappoint His people.<\/p>\n
Be strong and of good courage.’ These words are frequently found in<\/p>\n
connection with some great and difficult enterprise, in prospect of the<\/p>\n
combat with the power of strong enemies, and the utter insufficiency of<\/p>\n
all human strength. Is waiting on God a work so difficult, that, for<\/p>\n
that too, such words are needed, Be strong, and let your heart take<\/p>\n
courage’? Yes, indeed. The deliverance, for which we often have to<\/p>\n
wait, is from enemies, in presence of whom we are impotent. The<\/p>\n
blessings for which we plead are spiritual and all unseen; things<\/p>\n
impossible with men; heavenly, supernatural, divine realities. Our<\/p>\n
souls are so little accustomed to hold fellowship with God, the God on<\/p>\n
whom we wait so often appears to hide Himself. We who have to wait are<\/p>\n
often tempted to fear that we do not wait aright, that our faith is too<\/p>\n
feeble, that our desire is not as upright or as earnest as it should<\/p>\n
be, that our surrender is not complete. Our heart may well faint and<\/p>\n
fail. Amid all these causes of fear or doubt, how blessed to hear the<\/p>\n
voice of God, Wait on the Lord! Be strong, and let your heart take<\/p>\n
courage! Yea, wait thou upon the Lord! Let nothing in heaven or earth<\/p>\n
or hell–let nothing keep you from waiting on your God in full<\/p>\n
assurance that it cannot be in vain.<\/p>\n
The one lesson our text teaches us is thus, that when we set ourselves<\/p>\n
to wait on God, we ought beforehand to resolve that it shall be with<\/p>\n
the most confident expectation of God’s meeting and blessing us. We<\/p>\n
ought to make up our minds to this, that nothing was ever so sure, as<\/p>\n
that waiting on God will bring us untold and unexpected blessing. We<\/p>\n
are so accustomed to judge of God and His work in us by what we feel,<\/p>\n
that the great probability is that when we begin more to cultivate the<\/p>\n
waiting on Him, we shall be discouraged, because we do not find any<\/p>\n
special blessing from it. The message comes to us, Above everything,<\/p>\n
when you wait on God, do so in the spirit of abounding hopefulness. It<\/p>\n
is God in His glory, in His power, in His love longing to bless you<\/p>\n
that you are waiting on.’<\/p>\n
If you say that you are afraid of deceiving yourself with vain hope,<\/p>\n
because you do not see or feel any warrant in your present state for<\/p>\n
such special expectations, my answer is, it is God, who is the warrant<\/p>\n
for your expecting great things. Oh, do learn the lesson. You are not<\/p>\n
going to wait on yourself to see what you feel and what changes come to<\/p>\n
you. You are going to WAIT ON GOD, to know first, WHAT HE IS, and then,<\/p>\n
after that, what He will do. The whole duty and blessedness of waiting<\/p>\n
on God has its root in this, that He is such a blessed Being, full, to<\/p>\n
overflowing, of goodness and power and life and joy, that we, however<\/p>\n
wretched, cannot for any time come into contact with Him, without that<\/p>\n
life and power secretly, silently beginning to enter into us and<\/p>\n
blessing us. God is Love! That is the one only and all-sufficient<\/p>\n
warrant of your expectation. Love seeks not its own: God’s love is just<\/p>\n
His delight to impart Himself and His blessedness to His children.<\/p>\n
Come, and however feeble you feel, just wait in His presence. As a<\/p>\n
feeble, sickly invalid is brought out into the sunshine to let its<\/p>\n
warmth go through him, come with all that is dark and cold in you into<\/p>\n
the sunshine of God’s holy, omnipotent love, and sit and wait there,<\/p>\n
with the one thought: Here I am, in the sunshine of His love. As the<\/p>\n
sun does its work in the weak one who seeks its rays, God will do His<\/p>\n
work in you. Oh, do trust Him fully. Wait on the Lord! Be strong, and<\/p>\n
let your heart take courage! Yea, wait on the Lord’!<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Ninth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
With the Heart.<\/p>\n
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,<\/p>\n
All ye that wait for the Lord.’– Ps. 31: 24. (R.V.)<\/p>\n
THE words are nearly the same as in our last meditation. But I gladly<\/p>\n
avail myself of them again to press home a much-needed lesson for all<\/p>\n
who desire to learn truly and fully what waiting on God is. The lesson<\/p>\n
is this: It is with the heart we must wait upon God. Let your heart<\/p>\n
take courage.’ All our waiting depends upon the state of the heart. As<\/p>\n
a man’s heart is, so is he before God. We can advance no further or<\/p>\n
deeper into the holy place of God’s presence to wait on Him there, than<\/p>\n
our heart is prepared for it by the Holy Spirit. The message is, Let<\/p>\n
your heart take courage, all you that wait on the Lord.’<\/p>\n
The truth appears so simple, that some may ask, Do not all admit this?<\/p>\n
where is the need of insisting on it so specially? Because very many<\/p>\n
Christians have no sense of the great difference between the religion<\/p>\n
of the mind and the religion of the heart, and the former is far more<\/p>\n
diligently cultivated than the latter. They know not how infinitely<\/p>\n
greater the heart is than the mind. It is in this that one of the chief<\/p>\n
causes must be sought of the feebleness of our Christian life, and it<\/p>\n
is only as this is understood that waiting on God will bring its full<\/p>\n
blessing.<\/p>\n
Proverb 3: 5 may help to make my meaning plain. Speaking of a life in<\/p>\n
the fear and favor of God, it says, Trust in the Lord with all your<\/p>\n
heart, and lean not upon your own understanding.’ In all religion we<\/p>\n
have to use these two powers. The mind has to gather knowledge from<\/p>\n
God’s word, and prepare the food by which the heart with the inner life<\/p>\n
is to be nourished. But here comes in a terrible danger, of our leaning<\/p>\n
to our own understanding, and trusting in our understanding of divine<\/p>\n
things. People imagine that if they are occupied with the truth, the<\/p>\n
spiritual life will as a matter of course be strengthened. And this is<\/p>\n
by no means the case. The understanding deals with conceptions and<\/p>\n
images of divine things, but it cannot reach the real life of the soul.<\/p>\n
Hence the command, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not<\/p>\n
upon your own understanding.’ It is with the heart man believes, and<\/p>\n
comes into touch with God. It is in the heart God has given His Spirit,<\/p>\n
to be there to us the presence and the power of God working in us. In<\/p>\n
all our religion it is the heart that must trust and love and worship<\/p>\n
and obey. My mind is utterly impotent in creating or maintaining the<\/p>\n
spiritual life within me: the heart must wait on God for Him to work it<\/p>\n
in me.<\/p>\n
It is in this even as in the physical life. My reason may tell me what<\/p>\n
to eat and drink, and how the food nourishes me. But in the eating and<\/p>\n
feeding my reason can do nothing: the body has its organs for that<\/p>\n
special purpose. Just so, reason may tell me what God’s word says, but<\/p>\n
it can do nothing to the feeding of the soul on the bread of life–this<\/p>\n
the heart alone can do by its faith and trust in God. A man may be<\/p>\n
studying the nature and effects of food or sleep; when he wants to eat<\/p>\n
or sleep he sets aside his thoughts and study, and uses the power of<\/p>\n
eating or sleeping. And so the Christian needs ever, when he has<\/p>\n
studied or heard God’s word, to cease from his thoughts, to put no<\/p>\n
trust in them, and to awaken his heart to open itself before God, and<\/p>\n
seek the living fellowship with Him.<\/p>\n
This is now the blessedness of waiting upon God, that I confess the<\/p>\n
impotence of all my thoughts and efforts, and set myself still to bow<\/p>\n
my heart before Him in holy silence, and to trust Him to renew and<\/p>\n
strengthen His own work in me. And this is just the lesson of our text,<\/p>\n
Let your heart take courage, all you that wait on the Lord.’ Remember<\/p>\n
the difference between knowing with the mind and believing with the<\/p>\n
heart. Beware of the temptation of leaning upon your understanding,<\/p>\n
with its clear strong thoughts. They only help you to know what the<\/p>\n
heart must get from God: in themselves they are only images and<\/p>\n
shadows. Let your heart take courage, all ye that wait on the Lord.’<\/p>\n
Present it before Him as that wonderful part of your spiritual nature<\/p>\n
in which God reveals Himself, and by which you can know Him. Cultivate<\/p>\n
the greatest confidence that, though you cannot see into your heart,<\/p>\n
God is working there by His Holy Spirit. Let the heart wait at times in<\/p>\n
perfect silence and quiet; in its hidden depths God will work. Be sure<\/p>\n
of this, and just wait on Him. Give your whole heart, with its secret<\/p>\n
workings, into God’s hands continually. He wants the heart, and takes<\/p>\n
it, and as God dwells in it. Be strong, and let your heart take<\/p>\n
courage, all ye that wait on the Lord.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Tenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING FOR GOD:<\/p>\n
In Humble Fear and Hope.<\/p>\n
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him,<\/p>\n
Upon them that hope in His mercy;<\/p>\n
To deliver their soul from death,<\/p>\n
And to keep them alive in famine.<\/p>\n
Our soul hath waited for the Lord;<\/p>\n
He is our help and our shield.<\/p>\n
For our heart shall rejoice in Him,<\/p>\n
Because we have trusted in His holy name.<\/p>\n
Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us,<\/p>\n
According as we wait for thee.’<\/p>\n
–Ps. 33:18-22(R.V.).<\/p>\n
GOD’S eye is upon His people: their eye is upon Him. In waiting upon<\/p>\n
God, our eye, looking up to Him, meets His looking down upon us. This<\/p>\n
is the blessedness of waiting upon God, that it takes our eyes and<\/p>\n
thoughts away from ourselves, even our needs and desires, and occupies<\/p>\n
us with our God. We worship Him in His glory and love, with His<\/p>\n
all-seeing eye watching over us, that He may supply our every need. Let<\/p>\n
us consider this wonderful meeting between God and His people, and mark<\/p>\n
well what we are taught here of those on whom God’s eye rests, and of<\/p>\n
Him on whom our eye rests.<\/p>\n
The eye of the Lord is on them that fear Him, on them that hope in His<\/p>\n
mercy.’ Fear and hope are generally thought to be in conflict with each<\/p>\n
other; in the presence and worship of God they are found side by side<\/p>\n
in perfect and beautiful harmony. And this because in God Himself all<\/p>\n
apparent contradictions are reconciled. Righteousness and peace,<\/p>\n
judgment and mercy, holiness and love, infinite power and infinite<\/p>\n
gentleness, a majesty that is exalted above all heaven, and a<\/p>\n
condescension that bows very low, meet and kiss each other. There is<\/p>\n
indeed a fear that has torment, that is cast out entirely by perfect<\/p>\n
love. But there is a fear that is found in the very heavens. In the<\/p>\n
song of Moses and the Lamb they sing, Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord,<\/p>\n
and glorify Thy name?’ And out of the very throne the voice came,<\/p>\n
Praise our God, all His servants, and ye that fear Him.’ Let us in our<\/p>\n
waiting ever seek to fear the glorious and fearful name, The Lord thy<\/p>\n
God.’ The deeper we bow before His holiness in holy fear and adoring<\/p>\n
awe, in deep reverence and humble self-abasement, even as the angels<\/p>\n
veil their faces before the throne, the more will His holiness rest<\/p>\n
upon us, and the soul be fitted to have God reveal Himself; the deeper<\/p>\n
we enter into the truth that no flesh glory in His presence,’ will it<\/p>\n
be given us to see His glory. The eye of the Lord is on them that fear<\/p>\n
Him.’<\/p>\n
On them that hope in His mercy.’ So far will the true fear of God be<\/p>\n
from keeping us back from hope, it will stimulate and strengthen it.<\/p>\n
The lower we bow, the deeper we feel we have nothing to hope in but His<\/p>\n
mercy. The lower we bow, the nearer God will come, and make our hearts<\/p>\n
bold to trust Him. Let every exercise of waiting, let our whole habit<\/p>\n
of waiting on God, be pervaded by abounding hope–a hope as bright and<\/p>\n
boundless as God’s mercy. The fatherly kindness of God is such that, in<\/p>\n
whatever state we come to Him, we may confidently hope in His mercy.<\/p>\n
Such are God’s waiting ones. And now, think of the God on whom we wait.<\/p>\n
The eye of the Lordis on them that fear Him, on them that hope in His<\/p>\n
mercy; to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in<\/p>\n
famine.’ Not to prevent the danger of death and famine–this is often<\/p>\n
needed to stir up to wait on Him–but to deliver and to keep alive. For<\/p>\n
the dangers are often very real and dark; the situation, whether in the<\/p>\n
temporal or spiritual life, may appear to be utterly hopeless; there is<\/p>\n
always one hope: God’s eye is on them.<\/p>\n
That eye sees the danger, and sees in tender love His trembling waiting<\/p>\n
child, and sees the moment when the heart is ripe for the blessing, and<\/p>\n
sees the way in which it is to come. This living, mighty God, oh, let<\/p>\n
us fear Him and hope in His mercy. And let us humbly but boldly say,<\/p>\n
Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. Let Thy<\/p>\n
mercy be upon us, O Lord, according as we wait for Thee.’<\/p>\n
Oh, the blessedness of waiting on such a God! a very present help in<\/p>\n
every time of trouble; a shield and defense against every danger.<\/p>\n
Children of God! will you not learn to sink down in entire helplessness<\/p>\n
and impotence, and in stillness to wait and see the salvation of God?<\/p>\n
In the utmost spiritual famine, and when death appears to prevail, oh,<\/p>\n
wait on God. He does deliver, He does keep alive. Say it not only in<\/p>\n
solitude, but say it to each other–the psalm speaks not of one but of<\/p>\n
God’s people–Our soul waits on the Lord: He is our help and our<\/p>\n
shield.’ Strengthen and encourage each other in the holy exercise of<\/p>\n
waiting, that each may not only say it of himself, but of his brethren,<\/p>\n
We have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Eleventh Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Patiently.<\/p>\n
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.<\/p>\n
Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land.’–Ps. 37:<\/p>\n
7,9(R.V.).<\/p>\n
IN patience possess your souls.’ Ye have need of patience.’ Let<\/p>\n
patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire.’<\/p>\n
Such words of the Holy Spirit show us what an important element in the<\/p>\n
Christian life and character patience is. And nowhere is there a better<\/p>\n
place for cultivating or displaying it than in waiting on God. There we<\/p>\n
discover how impatient we are, and what our impatience means. We<\/p>\n
confess at times that we are impatient with men and circumstances that<\/p>\n
hinder us, or with ourselves and our slow progress in the Christian<\/p>\n
life. If we truly set ourselves to wait upon God, we shall find that it<\/p>\n
is with Him we are impatient, because He does not at once, or as soon<\/p>\n
as we could wish, do our bidding. It is in waiting upon God that our<\/p>\n
eyes are opened to believe in His wise and sovereign will, and to see<\/p>\n
that the sooner and the more completely we yield absolutely to it, the<\/p>\n
more surely His blessing can come to us.<\/p>\n
It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that<\/p>\n
shows mercy.’ We have as little power to increase or strengthen our<\/p>\n
spiritual life, as we had to originate it. We were born not of the will<\/p>\n
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the will of God.’ Even so,<\/p>\n
our willing and running, our desire and effort, avail nought; all is of<\/p>\n
God that showeth mercy.’ All the exercises of the spiritual life, our<\/p>\n
reading and praying, our willing and doing, have their very great<\/p>\n
value. But they can go no farther than this, that they point the way<\/p>\n
and prepare us in humility to look to and to depend alone upon God<\/p>\n
Himself, and in patience to await His good time and mercy. The waiting<\/p>\n
is to teach us our absolute dependence upon God’s mighty working, and<\/p>\n
to make us in perfect patience place ourselves at His disposal. They<\/p>\n
that wait on the Lord shall inherit the land; the promised land and its<\/p>\n
blessing. The heirs must wait; they can afford to wait.<\/p>\n
Rest in the lord, and wait patiently for Him.’ The margin gives for<\/p>\n
Rest in the Lord,’ Be silent to the Lord,’ or R.V., Be still before the<\/p>\n
Lord.’ It is resting in the Lord, in His will, His promise, His<\/p>\n
faithfulness, and His love, that makes patience easy. And the resting<\/p>\n
in Him is nothing but being silent unto Him, still before Him. Having<\/p>\n
our thoughts and wishes, our fears and hopes, hushed into calm and<\/p>\n
quiet in that great peace of God which passeth all understanding. That<\/p>\n
peace keeps the heart and mind when we are anxious for anything,<\/p>\n
because we have made our request known to Him. The rest, the silence,<\/p>\n
the stillness, and the patient waiting, all find their strength and joy<\/p>\n
in God Himself.<\/p>\n
The needs be, and the reasonableness, and the blessedness of patience<\/p>\n
will be opened up to the waiting soul. Our patience will be seen to be<\/p>\n
the counterpart of God’s patience. He longs far more to bless us fully<\/p>\n
than we can desire it. But, as the husbandman has long patience until<\/p>\n
the fruit be ripe, so God bows Himself to our slowness and bears long<\/p>\n
with us. Let us remember this, and wait patiently: of each promise and<\/p>\n
every answer to prayer the word is true: I the Lord will hasten it in<\/p>\n
its time.’<\/p>\n
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.’ Yes, for Him. Seek not<\/p>\n
only the help, the gift, you need; seek Himself; wait for Him. Give God<\/p>\n
His glory by resting in Him, by trusting him fully, by waiting<\/p>\n
patiently for Him. This patience honors Him greatly; it leaves Him, as<\/p>\n
God on the throne, to do His work; it yields self wholly into His<\/p>\n
hands. It lets God be God. If your waiting be for some special request,<\/p>\n
wait patiently. If your waiting be more the exercise of the spiritual<\/p>\n
life seeking to know and have more of God, wait patiently. Whether it<\/p>\n
be in the shorter specific periods of waiting, or as the continuous<\/p>\n
habit of the soul; rest in the Lord, be still before the Lord, and wait<\/p>\n
patiently. They that wait on the Lord shall inherit the land.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twelfth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Keeping His Ways.<\/p>\n
Wait on the Lord, and keep His way,<\/p>\n
And He shalt exalt thee to inherit the land.’–Ps. 37: 34.<\/p>\n
IF we desire to find a man whom we long to meet, we inquire where the<\/p>\n
places and the ways are where he is to be found. When waiting on God,<\/p>\n
we need to be very careful that we keep His ways; out of these we never<\/p>\n
can expect to find Him. Thou meetest him that rejoices and worketh<\/p>\n
righteousness; those that remember Thee in Thy ways.’ We may be sure<\/p>\n
that God is never and nowhere to be found but in His ways. And that<\/p>\n
there, by the soul who seeks and patiently waits, He is always most<\/p>\n
surely to be found. Wait on the Lord, and keep His ways, and He shall<\/p>\n
exalt thee.’<\/p>\n
How close the connection between the two parts of the injunction. Wait<\/p>\n
on the Lord,’–that has to do with worship and disposition; and keep<\/p>\n
His ways,’–that deals with walk and work. The outer life must be in<\/p>\n
harmony with the inner; the inner must be the inspiration and the<\/p>\n
strength for the outer. It is our God who has made known His ways in<\/p>\n
His Word for our conduct, and invites our confidence for His grace and<\/p>\n
help in our heart. If we do not keep His ways, our waiting on Him can<\/p>\n
bring no blessing. The surrender to a full obedience to all His will,<\/p>\n
is the secret of full access to all the blessings of His fellowship.<\/p>\n
Notice how strongly this comes out in the psalm. It speaks of the<\/p>\n
evildoer who prospers in his way, and calls on the believer not to fret<\/p>\n
himself. When we see men around us prosperous and happy while they<\/p>\n
forsake God’s ways, and ourselves left in difficulty or suffering, we<\/p>\n
are in danger of first fretting at what appears so strange, and then<\/p>\n
gradually yielding to seek our prosperity in their path. The psalm<\/p>\n
says, Fret not thyself; trust in the Lord, and do good. Rest in the<\/p>\n
Lord, and wait patiently for Him; cease from anger, and forsake wrath.<\/p>\n
Depart from evil, and do good; the Lord forsakes not His saints. The<\/p>\n
righteous shall inherit the land. The law of his God is in his heart;<\/p>\n
none of his steps shall slide.’ And then follows–the word occurs for<\/p>\n
the third time in the psalm–Wait on the Lord, and keep His ways.’ Do<\/p>\n
what God asks you to do; God will do more than you can ask Him to do.<\/p>\n
And let no one give way to the fear: I cannot keep His ways; it is this<\/p>\n
robs us of our confidence. It is true you have not the strength yet to<\/p>\n
keep all His ways. But keep carefully those for which you have received<\/p>\n
strength already. Surrender yourself willingly and trustingly to keep<\/p>\n
all God’s ways, in the strength which will come in waiting on Him. Give<\/p>\n
up your whole being to God without reserve and without doubt; He will<\/p>\n
prove Himself God to you, and work in you that which is pleasing in His<\/p>\n
sight through Jesus Christ. Keep His ways, as you know them in the<\/p>\n
Word. Keep His ways, as nature teaches them, in always doing what<\/p>\n
appears right. Keep His ways, as Providence points them out. Keep His<\/p>\n
ways, as the Holy Spirit suggests. Do not think of waiting on God while<\/p>\n
you say you are not willing to walk in His path. However weak you feel,<\/p>\n
only be willing, and He who has worked to will, will work to do by His<\/p>\n
power.<\/p>\n
Wait on the Lord, and keep His ways.’ It may be that the consciousness<\/p>\n
of shortcoming and sin makes our text look more like a hindrance than a<\/p>\n
help in waiting on God. Let it not be so. Have we not said more than<\/p>\n
once, the very starting-point and groundwork of this waiting is utter<\/p>\n
and absolute impotence? Why then not come with everything evil you feel<\/p>\n
in yourself, every memory of unwillingness, unwatchfulness,<\/p>\n
unfaithfulness, and all that causes such unceasing selfcondemnation?<\/p>\n
Put your trust in God’s omnipotence, and find in waiting on God your<\/p>\n
deliverance. Your failure has been owing to only one thing: you sought<\/p>\n
to conquer and obey in your own strength. Come and bow before God until<\/p>\n
you learn that He is the God who alone is good, and alone can work any<\/p>\n
good thing. Believe that in you, and all that nature can do, there is<\/p>\n
no true power. Be content to receive from God each moment the inworking<\/p>\n
of His mighty grace and life, and waiting on God will become the<\/p>\n
renewal of your strength to run in His ways and not be weary, to walk<\/p>\n
in His paths and never faint. Wait on the Lord, and keep His ways’ will<\/p>\n
be command and promise in one.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Thirteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For more than we know.<\/p>\n
And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all<\/p>\n
my transgressions.’–Ps. 39:7, 8.<\/p>\n
THERE may be times when we feel as if we knew not what we are waiting<\/p>\n
for. There may be other times when we think we do know, and when it<\/p>\n
would just be so good for us to realize that we do not know what to ask<\/p>\n
as we ought. God is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what<\/p>\n
we ask or think, and we are in danger of limiting Him, when we confine<\/p>\n
our desires and prayers to our own thoughts of them. It is a great<\/p>\n
thing at times to say, as our psalm says: And now, Lord, what wait I<\/p>\n
for?’ I scarce know or can tell; this only I can say–My hope is in<\/p>\n
Thee.’<\/p>\n
How we see this limiting of God in the case of Israel! When Moses<\/p>\n
promised them meat in the wilderness, they doubted, saying, Can God<\/p>\n
furnish a table in the wilderness? He smote the rock that the water<\/p>\n
gushed out; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His<\/p>\n
people?’ If they had been asked whether God could provide streams in<\/p>\n
the desert, they would have answered, Yes. God had done it: He could do<\/p>\n
it again. But when the thought came of God doing something new, they<\/p>\n
limited Him; their expectation could not rise beyond their past<\/p>\n
experience, or their own thoughts of what was possible. Even so we may<\/p>\n
be limiting God by our conceptions of what He has promised or is able<\/p>\n
to do. Do let us beware of limiting the Holy One of Israel in our very<\/p>\n
prayer. Let us believe that every promise of God we plead has a divine<\/p>\n
meaning, infinitely beyond our thoughts of them. Let us believe that<\/p>\n
His fulfilment of them can be, in a power and an abundance of grace,<\/p>\n
beyond our largest grasp of thought. And let us therefore cultivate the<\/p>\n
habit of waiting on God, not only for what we think we need, but for<\/p>\n
all His grace and power are ready to do for us.<\/p>\n
In every true prayer there are two hearts in exercise. The one is your<\/p>\n
heart, with its little, dark, human thoughts of what you need and God<\/p>\n
can do. The other is God’s great heart, with its infinite, its divine<\/p>\n
purposes of blessing. What think you? To which of these two ought the<\/p>\n
larger place to be given in your approach to Him? Undoubtedly, to the<\/p>\n
heart of God: everything depends upon knowing and being occupied with<\/p>\n
that. But how little this is done. This is what waiting on God is meant<\/p>\n
to teach you. Just think of God’s wonderful love and redemption, in the<\/p>\n
meaning these words must have to Him. Confess how little you understand<\/p>\n
what God is willing to do for you, and say each time as you pray And<\/p>\n
now, what wait I for?’ My heart cannot say. God’s heart knows and waits<\/p>\n
to give. My hope is in Thee.’ Wait on God to do for you more than you<\/p>\n
can ask or think.<\/p>\n
Apply this to the prayer that follows: Deliver me from all my<\/p>\n
transgressions.’ You have prayed to be delivered from temper, or pride,<\/p>\n
or self-will. It is as if it is in vain. May it not be that you have<\/p>\n
had your own thoughts about the way or the extent of God’s doing it,<\/p>\n
and have never waited on the God of glory, according to the riches of<\/p>\n
His glory, to do for you what has not entered the heart of man to<\/p>\n
conceive? Learn to worship God as the God who does wonders, who wishes<\/p>\n
to prove in you that He can do something supernatural and divine. Bow<\/p>\n
before Him, wait upon Him, until your soul realizes that you are in the<\/p>\n
hands of a divine and almighty worker. Consent not to know what and how<\/p>\n
He will work; expect it to be something altogether godlike, something<\/p>\n
to be waited for in deep humility, and received only by His divine<\/p>\n
power. Let the, And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee’<\/p>\n
become the spirit of every longing and every prayer. He will in His<\/p>\n
time do His work.<\/p>\n
Dear soul, in waiting on God you may often be ready to be weary,<\/p>\n
because you hardly know what you have to expect. I pray you, be of good<\/p>\n
courage–this ignorance is often one of the best signs. He is teaching<\/p>\n
you to leave all in His hands, and to wait on Him alone. Wait on the<\/p>\n
Lord! Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yea, wait on the<\/p>\n
Lord.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Fourteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
The Way to the New Song.<\/p>\n
I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my<\/p>\n
cry. . . . And He hath puta new song in my mouth, even praise unto our<\/p>\n
God.’–Ps. 40: 1-3.<\/p>\n
COME and listen to the testimony of one who can speak from experience<\/p>\n
of the sure and blessed outcome of patient waiting upon God. True<\/p>\n
patience is so foreign to our self-confident nature, it is so<\/p>\n
indispensable in our waiting upon God, it is such an essential element<\/p>\n
of true faith, that we may well once again meditate on what the word<\/p>\n
has to teach us.<\/p>\n
The word patience is derived from the Latin word for suffering. It<\/p>\n
suggests the thought of being under the constraint of some power from<\/p>\n
which we want to be free. At first we submit against our will;<\/p>\n
experience teaches us that when it is vain to resist, patient endurance<\/p>\n
is our wisest course. In waiting on God it is of infinite consequence<\/p>\n
that we not only submit, because we are compelled to, but because we<\/p>\n
lovingly and joyfully consent to be in the hands of our blessed Father.<\/p>\n
Patience then becomes our highest blessedness and our highest grace. It<\/p>\n
honors God, and gives Him time to have His way with us. It is the<\/p>\n
highest expression of our faith in His goodness and faithfulness. It<\/p>\n
brings the soul perfect rest in the assurance that God is carrying on<\/p>\n
His work. It is the token of our full consent that God should deal with<\/p>\n
us in such a way and time as He thinks best. True patience is the<\/p>\n
losing of our self-will in His perfect will.<\/p>\n
Such patience is needed for the true and full waiting on God. Such<\/p>\n
patience is the growth and fruit of our first lessons in the school of<\/p>\n
waiting. To many a one it will appear strange how difficult it is truly<\/p>\n
to wait upon God. The great stillness of soul before God that sinks<\/p>\n
into its own helplessness and waits for Him to reveal Himself; the deep<\/p>\n
humility that is afraid to let its own will or its own strength work<\/p>\n
aught except as God works to will and to do; the meekness that is<\/p>\n
content to be and to know nothing except as God gives His light; the<\/p>\n
entire resignation of the will that only wants to be a vessel in which<\/p>\n
His holy will can move and mold: all these elements of perfect patience<\/p>\n
are not found at once. But they will come in measure as the soul<\/p>\n
maintains its position, and ever again says: Truly my soul waiteth upon<\/p>\n
God; from Him cometh my salvation: He only is my rock and my<\/p>\n
salvation.’<\/p>\n
Have you ever noticed what proof we have that patience is a grace for<\/p>\n
which very special grace is given, in these words of Paul: Strengthened<\/p>\n
with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all’–what?<\/p>\n
patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.’ Yes, we need to be<\/p>\n
strengthened with all God’s might, and that according to the measure of<\/p>\n
His glorious power, if we are to wait on God in all patience. It is God<\/p>\n
revealing Himself in us as our life and strength, that will enable us<\/p>\n
with perfect patience to leave all in His hands. If any are inclined to<\/p>\n
despond, because they have not such patience, let them be of good<\/p>\n
courage; it is in the course of our feeble and very imperfect waiting<\/p>\n
that God Himself by His hidden power strengthens us and works out in us<\/p>\n
the patience of the saints, the patience of Christ Himself.<\/p>\n
Listen to the voice of one who was deeply tried: I waited patiently for<\/p>\n
the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.’ Hear what he<\/p>\n
passed through: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of<\/p>\n
the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.<\/p>\n
And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.’<\/p>\n
Patient waiting upon God brings a rich reward; the deliverance is sure;<\/p>\n
God Himself will put a new song into your mouth. O soul! be not<\/p>\n
impatient, whether it be in the exercise of prayer and worship that you<\/p>\n
find it difficult to wait, or in the delay in respect of definite<\/p>\n
requests, or in the fulfilling of your heart’s desire for the<\/p>\n
revelation of God Himself in a deeper spiritual life–fear not, but<\/p>\n
rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. And if you sometimes feel<\/p>\n
as if patience is not your gift, then remember it is God’s gift, and<\/p>\n
take that prayer (2 Thess. 3: 5 R.V.): The Lord direct your hearts into<\/p>\n
the patience of Christ.’ Into the patience with which you are to wait<\/p>\n
on God, He Himself will guide you.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Fifteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For His Counsel.<\/p>\n
They soon forgot His works: they waited not for His counsel.’–Ps. 106:<\/p>\n
13.<\/p>\n
THIS is said of the sin of God’s people in the wilderness. He had<\/p>\n
wonderfully redeemed them, and was prepared as wonderfully to supply<\/p>\n
their every need. But, when the time of need came, they waited not for<\/p>\n
His counsel.’ They thought not that the Almighty God was their Leader<\/p>\n
and Provider; they asked not what His plans might be. They simply<\/p>\n
thought the thoughts of their own heart, and tempted and provoked God<\/p>\n
by their unbelief. They waited not for His counsel.’<\/p>\n
How this has been the sin of God’s people in all ages! In the land of<\/p>\n
Canaan, in the days of Joshua, the only three failures of which we read<\/p>\n
were owing to this one sin. In going up against Ai, in making a<\/p>\n
covenant with the Gibeonites, in settling down without going up to<\/p>\n
possess the whole land, they waited not for His counsel. And so even<\/p>\n
the advanced believer is in danger from this most subtle of<\/p>\n
temptations–taking God’s word and thinking his own thoughts of them,<\/p>\n
and not waiting for His counsel. Let us take the warning and see what<\/p>\n
Israel teaches us. And let us very specially regard it not only as a<\/p>\n
danger to which the individual is exposed, but as one against which<\/p>\n
God’s people, in their collective capacity, need to be on their guard.<\/p>\n
Our whole relation to God is rooted in this, that His will is to be<\/p>\n
done in us and by us as it is in heaven. He has promised to make known<\/p>\n
His will to us by His Spirit, the Guide into all truth. And our<\/p>\n
position is to be that of waiting for His counsel, as the only guide of<\/p>\n
our thoughts and actions. In our church worship, in our<\/p>\n
prayer-meetings, in our conventions, in all our gatherings as managers,<\/p>\n
or directors, or committees, or helpers in any part of the work for<\/p>\n
God, our first object ought ever to be to ascertain the mind of God.<\/p>\n
God always works according to the counsel of His will; the more that<\/p>\n
counsel of His will is sought and found and honoured, the more surely<\/p>\n
and mightily will God do His work for us and through us.<\/p>\n
The great danger in all such assemblies is that in our consciousness of<\/p>\n
having our Bible, and our past experience of God’s leading, and our<\/p>\n
sound creed, and our honest wish to do God’s will, we trust in these,<\/p>\n
and do not realize that with every step we need and may have a heavenly<\/p>\n
guidance. There may be elements of God’s will, applications of God’s<\/p>\n
word, experiences of the close presence and leading of God,<\/p>\n
manifestations of the power of His Spirit, of which we know nothing as<\/p>\n
yet. God may be willing, no, God is willing to open up these to the<\/p>\n
souls who are intently set upon allowing Him to have His way entirely,<\/p>\n
and who are willing in patience to wait for His making it known. When<\/p>\n
we come together praising God for all He has done and taught and given,<\/p>\n
we may at the same time be limiting Him by not expecting greater<\/p>\n
things. It was when God had given the water out of the rock that they<\/p>\n
did not trust Him for bread. It was when God had given Jericho into his<\/p>\n
hands that Joshua thought the victory over Ai was sure; he now knew<\/p>\n
what God could do, and waited not for counsel from God. And so, while<\/p>\n
we think that we know and trust the power of God for what we may<\/p>\n
expect, we may be hindering Him by not giving time, and not definitely<\/p>\n
cultivating the habit of waiting for His counsel.<\/p>\n
A minister has no more solemn duty than teaching people to wait upon<\/p>\n
God. Why was it that in the house of Cornelius, when Peter spoke these<\/p>\n
words, the Holy Ghost fell upon all that heard him’? They had said, We<\/p>\n
are here before God to hear all things that are commanded you of God.’<\/p>\n
We may come together to give and to listen to the most earnest<\/p>\n
exposition of God’s truth with little spiritual profit if there be not<\/p>\n
the waiting for God’s counsel. In all our gatherings we need to believe<\/p>\n
in the Holy Spirit as the Guide and Teacher of God’s saints when they<\/p>\n
wait to be led by Him into the things which God has prepared, and which<\/p>\n
the heart cannot conceive.<\/p>\n
More stillness of soul to realize God’s presence; more consciousness of<\/p>\n
ignorance of what God’s great plans may be; more faith in the certainty<\/p>\n
that God has greater things to show us; more longing that He Himself<\/p>\n
may be revealed in new glory: these must be the marks of the assemblies<\/p>\n
of God’s saints, if they would avoid the reproach, They waited not for<\/p>\n
His counsel.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Sixteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For His Light in the Heart.<\/p>\n
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait,<\/p>\n
And in His word do I hope.<\/p>\n
My soul waiteth for the Lord<\/p>\n
more than they that watch for the morning:<\/p>\n
More than they that watch for the morning.’– Ps. 130:5, 6.<\/p>\n
WITH what intense longing the morning light is often waited for. By the<\/p>\n
mariners in a shipwrecked vessel; by a benighted traveler in a<\/p>\n
dangerous country; by an army that finds itself surrounded by an enemy.<\/p>\n
The morning light will show what hope of escape there may be. The<\/p>\n
morning may bring life and liberty. And so the saints of God in<\/p>\n
darkness have longed for the light of His countenance, more than<\/p>\n
watchmen for the morning. They have said, More than watchmen for the<\/p>\n
morning, my soul waiteth for the Lord.’ Can we say that too? Our<\/p>\n
waiting on God can have no higher object than simply having His light<\/p>\n
shine on us, and in us, and through us, all the day.<\/p>\n
God is Light. God is a Sun. Paul says: God has shined in our hearts to<\/p>\n
give the light.’ What light? The light of the glory of God, in the face<\/p>\n
of Jesus Christ.’ Just as the sun shines its beautiful, life-giving<\/p>\n
light on and into our earth, so God shines into our hearts the light of<\/p>\n
His glory, of His love, in Christ His Son. Our heart is meant to have<\/p>\n
that light filling and gladdening it all the day. It can have it,<\/p>\n
because God is our sun, and it is written, Your sun shall no more go<\/p>\n
down forever.’ God’s love shines on us without ceasing.<\/p>\n
But can we indeed enjoy it all the day? We can. And how can we? Let<\/p>\n
nature give us theanswer. Those beautiful trees and flowers, with all<\/p>\n
this green grass, what do they do to keep thesun shining on them? They<\/p>\n
do nothing; they simply bask in the sunshine, when it comes. Thesun is<\/p>\n
millions of miles away, but over all that distance it sends its own<\/p>\n
light and joy; and thetiniest flower that lifts its little head upwards<\/p>\n
is met by the same exuberance of light and blessingas flood the widest<\/p>\n
landscape. We have not to care for the light we need for our day’s<\/p>\n
work; thesun cares, and provides and shines the light around us all the<\/p>\n
day. We simply count upon it, andreceive it, and enjoy it.<\/p>\n
The only difference between nature and grace is this, that what the<\/p>\n
trees and the flowers do unconsciously, as they drink in the blessing<\/p>\n
of the light, is to be with us a voluntary and a loving acceptance.<\/p>\n
Faith, simple faith in God’s word and love, is to be the opening of the<\/p>\n
eyes, the opening of the heart, to receive and enjoy the unspeakable<\/p>\n
glory of His grace. And even as the trees, day by day, and month by<\/p>\n
month, stand and grow into beauty and fruitfulness, just welcoming<\/p>\n
whatever sunshine the sun may give, so it is the very highest exercise<\/p>\n
of our Christian life just to abide in the light of God, and let it,<\/p>\n
and let Him, fill us with the life and the brightness it brings.<\/p>\n
And if you ask, but can it really be, that even as naturally and<\/p>\n
heartily as I recognize and rejoice in the beauty of a bright sunny<\/p>\n
morning, I can rejoice in God’s light all the day? It can, indeed. From<\/p>\n
my breakfast-table I look out on a beautiful valley, with trees and<\/p>\n
vineyards and mountains. In our spring and autumn months the light in<\/p>\n
the morning is exquisite, and almost involuntarily we say, How<\/p>\n
beautiful! And the question comes, Is it only the light of the sun that<\/p>\n
is to bring such continual beauty and joy? And is there no provision<\/p>\n
for the light of God being just as much an unceasing source of joy and<\/p>\n
gladness? There is, indeed, if the soul will but be still and wait on<\/p>\n
Him, will only let God shine.<\/p>\n
Dear soul! learn to wait on the Lord, more than watchers for the<\/p>\n
morning. All within you may be very dark; is that not the very best<\/p>\n
reason for waiting for the light of God? The first beginnings of light<\/p>\n
may be just enough to discover the darkness, and painfully to humble<\/p>\n
you on account of sin. Can you not trust the light to expel the<\/p>\n
darkness? Do believe it will. Just bow, even now, in stillness before<\/p>\n
God, and wait on Him to shine into you. Say, in humble faith; God is<\/p>\n
light, infinitely brighter and more beautiful than that of the sun. God<\/p>\n
is light. The Father, the eternal, inaccessible, and incomprehensible<\/p>\n
light. The Son, the light concentrated, and embodied, and manifested.<\/p>\n
The Spirit, the light entering and dwelling and shining in our hearts.<\/p>\n
God is light, and is here shining on my heart. I have been so occupied<\/p>\n
with the rushlights of my thoughts and efforts, I have never opened the<\/p>\n
shutters to let His light in. Unbelief has kept it out. I bow in faith:<\/p>\n
God’s light is shining into my heart. The God of whom Paul wrote, God<\/p>\n
hath shined into our heart,’ is my God. What would I think of a sun<\/p>\n
that could not shine? what shall I think of a God that does not shine?<\/p>\n
No, God shines! God is light! I will take time, and just be still, and<\/p>\n
rest in the light of God. My eyes are feeble, and the windows are not<\/p>\n
clean, but I will wait on the Lord. The light does shine, the light<\/p>\n
will shine in me, and make me full of light. And I shall learn to walk<\/p>\n
all the day in the light and joy of God. My soul waits on the Lord,<\/p>\n
more than watchers for the morning.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Seventeenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
In Times of Darkness.<\/p>\n
I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of<\/p>\n
Jacob; and I will look for Him.’–Isa. 8: 17.<\/p>\n
HERE we have a servant of God, waiting upon Him, not on behalf of<\/p>\n
himself, but of his people, from whom God was hiding his face. It<\/p>\n
suggests to us how our waiting upon God, though it commences with our<\/p>\n
personal needs, with the desire for the revelation of Himself, or of<\/p>\n
the answer to personal petitions, need not, may not, stop there. We may<\/p>\n
be walking in the full light of God’s countenance, and God yet be<\/p>\n
hiding His face from His people around us; far from our being content<\/p>\n
to think that this is nothing but the just punishment of their sin, or<\/p>\n
the consequence of their indifference, we are called with tender hearts<\/p>\n
to think of their sad estate, and to wait on God on their behalf. The<\/p>\n
privilege of waiting upon God is one that brings great responsibility.<\/p>\n
Even as Christ, when He entered God’s presence, at once used His place<\/p>\n
of privilege and honor as intercessor, so we, no less, if we know what<\/p>\n
it is really to enter in and wait upon God, must use our access for our<\/p>\n
less favored brethren. I will wait upon the Lord, who hides His face<\/p>\n
from the house of Jacob.’<\/p>\n
You worship with a certain congregation. Possibly there is not the<\/p>\n
spiritual life or joy either in the preaching or in the fellowship that<\/p>\n
you could desire. You belong to a Church, with its many congregations.<\/p>\n
There is so much of error or worldliness, of seeking after human wisdom<\/p>\n
and culture, of trust in ordinances and observances, that you do not<\/p>\n
wonder that God hides His face, in many cases, and that there is but<\/p>\n
little power for conversion or true edification. Then there are<\/p>\n
branches of Christian work with which you are connected–a Sunday<\/p>\n
school, a gospel hall, a young men’s association, a mission work<\/p>\n
abroad–in which the feebleness of the Spirit’s working appears to<\/p>\n
indicate that God is hiding His face. You think, too, you know the<\/p>\n
reason. There is too much trust in men and money; there is too much<\/p>\n
formality and self-indulgence; there is too little faith and prayer;<\/p>\n
too little love and humility; too little of the spirit of the crucified<\/p>\n
Jesus. At times you feel as if things are hopeless; nothing will help.<\/p>\n
Do believe that God can help and will help. Let the spirit of the<\/p>\n
prophet come into you, as you take his words, and set yourself to wait<\/p>\n
on God, on behalf of His erring children. Instead of the tone of<\/p>\n
judgment or condemnation, of despondency or despair, realize your<\/p>\n
calling to wait upon God. If others fail in doing it, give yourself<\/p>\n
doubly to it. The deeper the darkness, the greater the need of<\/p>\n
appealing to the one only Deliverer. The greater the self-confidence<\/p>\n
around you, that knows not that it is poor and wretched and blind, the<\/p>\n
more urgent the call on you who profess to see the evil and to have<\/p>\n
access to Him who alone can help, to be at your post, waiting upon God.<\/p>\n
As often as you are tempted to complain, or to sigh and say ever<\/p>\n
afresh: I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of<\/p>\n
Jacob.’<\/p>\n
There is a still larger circle–the Christian Church throughout the<\/p>\n
world. Think of Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches, and the<\/p>\n
state of the millions that belong to them. Or think only of the<\/p>\n
Protestant churches with their open Bible and orthodox creeds. How much<\/p>\n
nominal profession and formality! how much of the rule of the flesh and<\/p>\n
of man in the very temple of God! And what abundant proof that God does<\/p>\n
hide His face!<\/p>\n
What are those to do who see and mourn this? The first thing to be done<\/p>\n
is this: I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of<\/p>\n
Jacob.’ Let us wait on God, in the humble confession of the sins of His<\/p>\n
people. Let us take time and wait on Him in this exercise. Let us wait<\/p>\n
on God in tender, loving intercession for all saints, our beloved<\/p>\n
brethren, however wrong their lives or their teaching may appear. Let<\/p>\n
us wait on God in faith and expectation, until He shows us that He will<\/p>\n
hear. Let us wait on God, with the simple offering of ourselves to<\/p>\n
Himself, and the earnest prayer that He would send us to our brethren.<\/p>\n
Let us wait on God, and give Him no rest until He make Zion a joy in<\/p>\n
the earth. Yes, let us rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him who<\/p>\n
now hides His face from so many of His children. And let us say of the<\/p>\n
lifting up of the light of His countenance we desire for all His<\/p>\n
people, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and my hope is in His<\/p>\n
word. My soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchers for the<\/p>\n
morning, the watchers for the morning.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Eighteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
To Reveal Himself.<\/p>\n
And it shall be said in that day,Lo, this is our God;we have waited for<\/p>\n
Him, and He will save us: THIS IS THE LORD; we have waited for Him, we<\/p>\n
will rejoice and be glad in His salvation,’–Isa. 25:9.<\/p>\n
IN this passage we have two precious thoughts.<\/p>\n
The one, that it is the language of God’s people who have been unitedly<\/p>\n
waiting on Him; the other, that the fruit of their waiting has been<\/p>\n
that God has so revealed Himself, that they could joyfully say, Lo,<\/p>\n
this is our God: this is the Lord. The power and the blessing of united<\/p>\n
waiting is what we need to learn.<\/p>\n
Note the twice repeated, We have waited for Him.’ In some time of<\/p>\n
trouble the hearts of the people had been drawn together, and they had,<\/p>\n
ceasing from all human hope or help, with one heart set themselves to<\/p>\n
wait for their God. Is not this just what we need in our churches and<\/p>\n
conventions and prayer-meetings? Is not the need of the Church and the<\/p>\n
world great enough to demand it? Are there not in the Church of Christ<\/p>\n
evils to which no human wisdom is equal? Have we not ritualism and<\/p>\n
rationalism, formalism and worldliness, robbing the Church of its<\/p>\n
power? Have we not culture and money and pleasure threatening its<\/p>\n
spiritual life? Are not the powers of the Church utterly inadequate to<\/p>\n
cope with the powers of infidelity and iniquity and wretchedness in<\/p>\n
Christian countries and in heathendom? And is there not in the promise<\/p>\n
of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, a provision made that can<\/p>\n
meet the need, and give the Church the restful assurance that she is<\/p>\n
doing all her God expects of her? And would not united waiting upon God<\/p>\n
for the supply of His Spirit most certainly seem the needed blessing?<\/p>\n
We cannot doubt it.<\/p>\n
The object of a more definite waiting upon God in our gatherings would<\/p>\n
be very much the same as in personal worship. It would mean a deeper<\/p>\n
conviction that God must and will do all; a more humble and abiding<\/p>\n
entrance into our deep helplessness, and the need of entire and<\/p>\n
unceasing dependence upon Him; a more living consciousness that the<\/p>\n
essential thing is, giving God His place of honor and of power; a<\/p>\n
confident expectation that to those who wait on Him, God will, by His<\/p>\n
Spirit, give the secret of His acceptance and presence, and then, in<\/p>\n
due time, the revelation of His saving power. The great aim would be to<\/p>\n
bring every one in a praying and worshipping company under a deep sense<\/p>\n
of God’s presence, so that when they part there will be the<\/p>\n
consciousness of having met God Himself, of having left every request<\/p>\n
with Him, and of now waiting in stillness while He works out His<\/p>\n
salvation.<\/p>\n
It is this experience that is indicated in our text. The fulfilment of<\/p>\n
the words may, at times, be in such striking interpositions of God’s<\/p>\n
power that all can join in the cry, ‘Lo, this is our God; this is the<\/p>\n
Lord!’ They may equally become true in spiritual experience, when God’s<\/p>\n
people in their waiting times become so conscious of His presence that<\/p>\n
in holy awe souls feel, ‘Lo, this is our God; this is the Lord!’ It is<\/p>\n
this, alas, that is too much missed in our meetings for worship. The<\/p>\n
godly minister has no more difficult, no more solemn, no more blessed<\/p>\n
task, than to lead his people out to meet God, and, before ever he<\/p>\n
preaches, to bring each one into contact with Him. We are now here in<\/p>\n
the presence of God’ — these words of Cornelius show the way in which<\/p>\n
Peter’s audience was prepared for the coming of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
Waiting before God, and waiting for God, and waiting on God, are the<\/p>\n
one condition of God showing His presence.<\/p>\n
A company of believers gathered with the one purpose, helping each<\/p>\n
other by little intervals of silence, to wait on God alone, opening the<\/p>\n
heart for whatever God may have of new discoveries of evil, of His<\/p>\n
will, of new openings in work or methods of work, would soon have<\/p>\n
reason to say, ‘ Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, He shall<\/p>\n
save us: this is the Lord ; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and<\/p>\n
rejoice in His salvation.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Nineteenth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
As a God of Judgment.<\/p>\n
Yea, in the way of Thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee: . .<\/p>\n
. for when Thyjudgments are on the earth, the inhabitants of the world<\/p>\n
learn righteousness.’–Isa. 26:8,9.<\/p>\n
The Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for<\/p>\n
Him.’–Isa. 30:18.<\/p>\n
GOD is a God of mercy and a God of judgment. Mercy and judgment are<\/p>\n
ever together in His dealings. In the flood, in the deliverance of<\/p>\n
Israel out of Egypt, in the overthrow of the Canaanites, we ever see<\/p>\n
mercy in the midst of judgment. Within the inner circle of His own<\/p>\n
people, we see it too: the judgment punishes the sin, while mercy saves<\/p>\n
the sinner. Or, rather, mercy saves the sinner, not in spite of, but by<\/p>\n
means of, the very judgment that came upon his sin. In waiting on God,<\/p>\n
we must beware of forgetting this: as we wait we must expect Him as a<\/p>\n
God of judgment.<\/p>\n
In the way of Thy judgments, have we waited for Thee.’ That will prove<\/p>\n
true in our inner experience. If we are honest in our longing for<\/p>\n
holiness, in our prayer to be wholly the Lord’s, His holy presence will<\/p>\n
stir up and discover hidden sin, and bring us very low in the bitter<\/p>\n
conviction of the evil of our nature, its opposition to God’s law, its<\/p>\n
impotence to fulfil that law. The words will come true, Who may abide<\/p>\n
the day of His coming, for HE is like a refiner’s fire.’ O that Thou<\/p>\n
would come down, as when the melting fire burns!’ In great mercy God<\/p>\n
executes, within the soul, His judgments upon sin, as He makes it feel<\/p>\n
its wickedness and guilt. Many a one tries to flee from these<\/p>\n
judgments: the soul that longs for God, and for deliverance from sin,<\/p>\n
bows under them in humility and in hope. In silence of soul it says,<\/p>\n
Arise, O Lord! and let Thine enemies be scattered. In the way of Thy<\/p>\n
judgments we have waited for Thee.’<\/p>\n
Let no one who seeks to learn the blessed art of waiting on God, wonder<\/p>\n
if at first the attempt to wait on Him only discovers more of his sin<\/p>\n
and darkness. Let no one despair because unconquered sins, or evil<\/p>\n
thoughts, or great darkness appear to hide God’s face. Was not, in His<\/p>\n
own Beloved Son, the gift and bearer of His mercy on Calvary, the mercy<\/p>\n
as if hidden and lost in the judgment? Oh, submit, and sink down deep<\/p>\n
under the judgment of thine every sin: judgment prepares the way, and<\/p>\n
breaks out in wonderful mercy. It is written, Thou shalt be redeemed<\/p>\n
with judgment.’ Wait on God, in the faith that His tender mercy is<\/p>\n
working out in you His redemption in the midst of judgment: wait for<\/p>\n
Him, He will be gracious to thee.<\/p>\n
There is another application still, one of unspeakable solemnity. We<\/p>\n
are expecting God, in the way of His judgments, to visit this earth: we<\/p>\n
are waiting for Him. What a thought! We know of these coming judgments;<\/p>\n
we know that there are tens of thousands of our professing Christians<\/p>\n
who live on in carelessness, and who, if no change come, must perish<\/p>\n
under God’s hand. Oh, shall we not do our utmost to warn them, to plead<\/p>\n
with and for them, if God may have mercy on them. If we feel our want<\/p>\n
of boldness, want of zeal, want of power, shall we not begin to wait on<\/p>\n
God more definitely and persistently as a God of judgment, asking Him<\/p>\n
so to reveal Himself in the judgments that are coming on our very<\/p>\n
friends, that we may be inspired with a new fear of Him and them, and<\/p>\n
constrained to speak and pray as never yet. Verily, waiting on God is<\/p>\n
not meant to be a spiritual self-indulgence. Its object is to let God<\/p>\n
and His holiness, Christ and the love that died on Calvary, the Spirit<\/p>\n
and fire that burns in heaven and came to earth, get possession of us,<\/p>\n
to warn and rouse men with the message that we are waiting for God in<\/p>\n
the way of His judgments. O Christian! prove that you really believe in<\/p>\n
the God of judgment.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twentieth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Who waits on us.<\/p>\n
And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you; and<\/p>\n
therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the<\/p>\n
Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for<\/p>\n
Him.’–Isa. 30:18<\/p>\n
WE must not only think of our waiting upon God, but also of what is<\/p>\n
more wonderful still, of God’s waiting upon us. The vision of Him<\/p>\n
waiting on us, will give new impulse and inspiration to our waiting<\/p>\n
upon Him. It will give an unspeakable confidence that our waiting<\/p>\n
cannot be in vain. If He waits for us, then we may be sure that we are<\/p>\n
more than welcome; that He rejoices to find those He has been seeking<\/p>\n
for. Let us seek even now, at this moment, in the spirit of lowly<\/p>\n
waiting on God, to find out something of what it means: Therefore will<\/p>\n
the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you.’ We shall accept and<\/p>\n
echo back the message: Blessed are all they that wait for Him.’<\/p>\n
Look up and see the great God upon His throne. He is Love–an unceasing<\/p>\n
and inexpressible desire to communicate His own goodness and<\/p>\n
blessedness to all His creatures. He longs and delights to bless. He<\/p>\n
has inconceivably glorious purposes concerning every one of His<\/p>\n
children, by the power of His Holy Spirit, to reveal in them His love<\/p>\n
and power. He waits with all the longings of a father’s heart. He waits<\/p>\n
that He may be gracious unto you. And each time you come to wait upon<\/p>\n
Him, or seek to maintain in daily life the holy habit of waiting, you<\/p>\n
may look up and see Him ready to meet you, waiting that He may be<\/p>\n
gracious unto you. Yes, connect every exercise, every breath of the<\/p>\n
life of waiting, with faith’s vision of your God waiting for you.<\/p>\n
And if you ask, how is it, if He waits to be gracious, that even after<\/p>\n
I come and wait upon Him, He does not give the help I seek, but waits<\/p>\n
on longer and longer? there is a double answer. The one is this: God is<\/p>\n
a wise husbandman, who waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and<\/p>\n
has long patience for it.’ He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe.<\/p>\n
He knows when we are spiritually ready to receive the blessing to our<\/p>\n
profit and His glory. Waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will<\/p>\n
ripen the soul for His blessing. Waiting under the cloud of trial, that<\/p>\n
breaks in showers of blessing, is as needful. Be assured that if God<\/p>\n
waits longer than you could wish, it is only to make the blessing<\/p>\n
doubly precious. God waited four thousand years, until the fulness of<\/p>\n
time, before He sent His Son: our times are in His hands: He will<\/p>\n
avenge His elect speedily: He will make haste for our help, and not<\/p>\n
delay one hour too long.<\/p>\n
The other answer points to what has been said before. The giver is more<\/p>\n
than the gift; God is more than the blessing; and our being kept<\/p>\n
waiting on Him is the only way for our learning to find our life and<\/p>\n
joy in Himself. Oh, if God’s children only knew what a glorious God<\/p>\n
they have, and what a privilege it is to be linked in fellowship with<\/p>\n
Himself, then they would rejoice in Him, even when He keeps them<\/p>\n
waiting. They would learn to understand better than ever; Therefore<\/p>\n
will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you.’ His waiting will<\/p>\n
be the highest proof of His graciousness.<\/p>\n
Blessed are all they that wait for Him.’ Queen has her<\/p>\n
ladies-in-waiting. The position is one of subordination and service,<\/p>\n
and yet it is considered one of the highest dignity and privilege,<\/p>\n
because a wise and gracious sovereign makes them companions and<\/p>\n
friends. What a dignity and blessedness to be attendants-in-waiting on<\/p>\n
the Everlasting God, ever on the watch for every indication of His will<\/p>\n
or favor, ever conscious of His nearness, His goodness, and His grace!<\/p>\n
The Lord is good to them that wait for Him.’ Blessed are all they that<\/p>\n
wait for Him.’ Yes, it is blessed when a waiting soul and a waiting God<\/p>\n
meet each other. God cannot do His work without His and our waiting His<\/p>\n
time: let waiting be our work, as it is His. And if His waiting be<\/p>\n
nothing but goodness and graciousness, let ours be nothing but a<\/p>\n
rejoicing in that goodness, and a confident expectancy of that grace.<\/p>\n
And let every thought of waiting become to us simply the expression of<\/p>\n
unmingled and unutterable blessedness, because it brings us to a God<\/p>\n
who waits that He may make Himself known to us perfectly as the<\/p>\n
Gracious One.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-First Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
The Almighty One.<\/p>\n
They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount<\/p>\n
up with eagle wings; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk<\/p>\n
and not faint.’–Isa. 40: 31.<\/p>\n
WAITING always partakes of the character of our thoughts of the one on<\/p>\n
whom we wait. Our waiting on God will depend greatly on our faith of<\/p>\n
what He is. In our text we have the close of a passage in which God<\/p>\n
reveals Himself as the Everlasting and Almighty One. It is as that<\/p>\n
revelation enters our soul that the waiting will become the spontaneous<\/p>\n
expression of what we know Him to be–a God altogether most worthy to<\/p>\n
be waited upon.<\/p>\n
Listen to the words: Why sayest thou, O Jacob, my way is hid from the<\/p>\n
Lord?’ Why speakest thou as if God does not hear or help?<\/p>\n
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting One, the<\/p>\n
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is<\/p>\n
weary?’ So far from it, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that<\/p>\n
have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths’–the glory of<\/p>\n
young men is their strength’–even the youths shall faint, and the<\/p>\n
young men shall utterly fall:’ all that is accounted strong with man<\/p>\n
shall come to nought. But they that wait on the Lord,’ on the<\/p>\n
Everlasting One, who does not faint, neither is weary, they shall renew<\/p>\n
their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall<\/p>\n
run and,’–listen now, they shall be strong with the strength of God,<\/p>\n
and, even as He, shall not be weary; they shall walk and,’ even as He,<\/p>\n
‘not faint.’<\/p>\n
Yes, they shall mount up with wings as eagles.’ You know what eagles’<\/p>\n
wings mean. The eagle is the king of birds, it soars the highest into<\/p>\n
the heavens. Believers are to live a heavenly life, in the very<\/p>\n
Presence and Love and Joy of God. They are to live where God lives;<\/p>\n
they need God’s strength to rise there. To them that wait on Him it<\/p>\n
shall be given.<\/p>\n
You know how the eagles’ wings are obtained. Only in one way–by the<\/p>\n
eagle birth. You are born of God. You have the eagles’ wings. You may<\/p>\n
not have known it: you may not have used them; but God can and will<\/p>\n
teach you to use them.<\/p>\n
You know how the eagles are taught the use of their wings. See yonder<\/p>\n
cliff rising a thousand feet out of the sea. See high up a ledge on the<\/p>\n
rock, where there is an eagle’s nest with its treasure of two young<\/p>\n
eaglets. See the mother bird come and stir up her nest, and with her<\/p>\n
beak push the timid birds over the precipice. See how they flutter and<\/p>\n
fall and sink toward the depth. See now (Deut. 32: 11) how she<\/p>\n
fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,<\/p>\n
beareth them on her wings,’ and so, as they ride upon her wings, brings<\/p>\n
them to a place of safety. And so she does once and again, each time<\/p>\n
casting them out over the precipice, and then again taking and carrying<\/p>\n
them. So the Lord alone did lead him.’ Yes, the instinct of that eagle<\/p>\n
mother was God’s gift, a single ray of that love in which the Almighty<\/p>\n
trains His people to mount as on eagles’ wings.<\/p>\n
He stirs up your nest. He disappoints your hopes. He brings down your<\/p>\n
confidence. He makes you fear and tremble, as all your strength fails,<\/p>\n
and you feel utterly weary and helpless. And all the while He is<\/p>\n
spreading His strong wings for you to rest your weakness on, and<\/p>\n
offering His everlasting Creator-strength to work in you. And all He<\/p>\n
asks is that you should sink down in your weariness and wait on Him;<\/p>\n
and allow Him in His Jehovah-strength to carry you as you ride upon the<\/p>\n
wings of His Omnipotence.<\/p>\n
Dear child of God! I pray you, lift up your eyes, and behold your God!<\/p>\n
Listen to Him who says that He faints not, neither is weary, who<\/p>\n
promiseth that you too shall not faint or be weary, who asketh nought<\/p>\n
but this one thing, that you should wait on Him. And let your answer<\/p>\n
be, With such a God, so mighty, so faithful, so tender,<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Second Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
It Certainty of Blessing.<\/p>\n
Thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that<\/p>\n
wait for Me.’ –Isa. 49:23.<\/p>\n
Blessed are all they that wait for Him.’ –Isa. 30:18.<\/p>\n
WHAT promises! How God seeks to draw us to waiting on Him by the most<\/p>\n
positive assurance that it never can be in vain: They shall not be<\/p>\n
ashamed that wait for Me.’ How strange that, though we should so often<\/p>\n
have experienced it, we are yet so slow of learning that this blessed<\/p>\n
waiting must and can be as the very breath of our life, a continuous<\/p>\n
resting in God’s presence and His love, an unceasing yielding of<\/p>\n
ourselves for Him to perfect His work in us. Let us once again listen<\/p>\n
and meditate, until our heart says with new conviction: Blessed are<\/p>\n
they that wait for Him!’ In our sixth day’s lesson we found in the<\/p>\n
prayer of Psalm 25: Let none that wait on Thee be ashamed.’ The very<\/p>\n
prayer shows how we fear lest it might be. Let us listen to God’s<\/p>\n
answer, until every fear is banished, and we send back to heaven the<\/p>\n
words God speaks, Yes, Lord, we believe what You say: ‘All they that<\/p>\n
wait for Me shallnot be ashamed.’ Blessed are all they that wait for<\/p>\n
Him.’<\/p>\n
The context of each of these two passages points us to times when God’s<\/p>\n
Church was in great straits, and to human eye there was no possibility<\/p>\n
of deliverance. But God interposes with His word of promise, and<\/p>\n
pledges His Almighty Power for the deliverance of His people. And it is<\/p>\n
as the God who has Himself undertaken the work of their redemption,<\/p>\n
that He invites them to wait on Him, and assures them that<\/p>\n
disappointment is impossible. We, too, are living in days in which<\/p>\n
there is much in the state of the Church, with its profession and its<\/p>\n
formalism, that is indescribably sad. Amid all we praise God for, there<\/p>\n
is, alas, much to mourn over! Were it not for God’s promises we might<\/p>\n
well despair. But in His promises the Living God has given and bound<\/p>\n
Himself to us. He calls us to wait on Him. He assureth us we shall not<\/p>\n
be put to shame. Oh that our hearts might learn to wait before Him,<\/p>\n
until He Himself reveals to us what His promises mean, and in the<\/p>\n
promises reveals Himself in His hidden glory! We shall be irresistibly<\/p>\n
drawn to wait on Him alone. God increase the company of those who say,<\/p>\n
Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our Help and our Shield.’<\/p>\n
This waiting upon God on behalf of His Church and people will depend<\/p>\n
greatly upon the place that waiting on Him has taken in our personal<\/p>\n
life. The mind may often have beautiful visions of what God has<\/p>\n
promised to do, and the lips may speak of them in stirring words, but<\/p>\n
these are not really the measure of our faith or power. No; it is what<\/p>\n
we really know of God in our personal experience, conquering the<\/p>\n
enemies within, reigning and ruling, revealing Himself in His Holiness<\/p>\n
and Power in our inmost being, –it is this will be the real measure of<\/p>\n
the spiritual blessing we expect from Him, and bring to our fellowmen.<\/p>\n
It is as we know how blessed the waiting on God has become to our own<\/p>\n
souls, that we shall confidently hope in the blessing to come on the<\/p>\n
Church around us, and the key-word of all our expectations will be; He<\/p>\n
hath said: All they that wait on Me shall not be ashamed.’ From what He<\/p>\n
has done in us, we shall trust Him to do mighty things around us.<\/p>\n
Blessed are all they that wait for Him.’ Yes, blessed even now in the<\/p>\n
waiting. The promised blessings, for ourselves, or for others, may<\/p>\n
tarry; the unutterable blessedness of knowing and having Him who has<\/p>\n
promised, the Divine Blesser, the Living Fountain of the coming<\/p>\n
blessings, is even now ours. Do let this truth get full possession of<\/p>\n
your souls, that waiting on God is itself the highest privilege of the<\/p>\n
creature, the highest blessedness of His redeemed child.<\/p>\n
Even as the sunshine enters with its light and warmth, with its beauty<\/p>\n
and blessing, into every little blade of grass that rises upward out of<\/p>\n
the cold earth, so the Everlasting God meets, in the greatness and the<\/p>\n
tenderness of His love, each waiting child, to shine in his heart the<\/p>\n
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus<\/p>\n
Christ.’ Read these words again, until your heart learns to know what<\/p>\n
God waits to do to you. Who can measure the difference between the<\/p>\n
great sun and that little blade of grass? And yet the grass has all of<\/p>\n
the sun it can need or hold. Do believe that in waiting on God, His<\/p>\n
greatness and your littleness suit and meet each other most<\/p>\n
wonderfully. Just how in emptiness and poverty and utter impotence, in<\/p>\n
humility and meekness and surrender to His will, before His great<\/p>\n
glory, and be still. As you wait on Him, God draws near. He will reveal<\/p>\n
Himself as the God who will fulfil mightily His every promise. And let<\/p>\n
your heart ever again take up the song: Blessed are all they that wait<\/p>\n
for Him.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Third Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For Unlooked-for Things.<\/p>\n
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived<\/p>\n
by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath<\/p>\n
prepared for him that waiteth for Him.’–Isa. 64:4.<\/p>\n
THE R.V. has: ‘Neither hath the eye seen a God beside Thee, which<\/p>\n
worketh for him that waiteth for Him.’ In the A.V. the thought is, that<\/p>\n
no eye hath seenthe thingwhich God hath prepared. In the R.V. no eye<\/p>\n
hath seen a God, beside our God, who worketh for him that waiteth for<\/p>\n
Him. To both the two thoughts are common: that our place is to wait<\/p>\n
upon God, and that there will be revealed to us what the human heart<\/p>\n
cannot conceive. The difference is: in the R.V. it isthe God who works,<\/p>\n
in the A.V. the thing He is to work. In 1 Cor. 2:9, the citation is in<\/p>\n
regard to the things which the Holy Spirit is to reveal, as in the<\/p>\n
A.V., and in this meditation we keep to that.<\/p>\n
The previous verses, specially from chap. 63:15, refer to the low state<\/p>\n
of God’s people. The prayer has been poured out, Look down from<\/p>\n
heaven.’ (ver. 15.) Why hast Thou hardened my heart from Thy fear?<\/p>\n
Return for Thy servants’ sake.’ (ver. 19.) And 64:1, still more urgent,<\/p>\n
Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, .<\/p>\n
. . as when the melting fire burneth, to make Thy name known to Thy<\/p>\n
adversaries!’ Then follows the plea from the past, When Thou didst<\/p>\n
terrible things we looked not for, Thou camest down, the mountains<\/p>\n
flowed down at Thy presence.’ For’–this is now the faith that has been<\/p>\n
awakened by the thought of things we looked not for, He is still the<\/p>\n
same God–‘eye hath not seen beside Thee, O God, what He hath prepared<\/p>\n
for him that waiteth for Him.’ God alone knows what He can do for His<\/p>\n
waiting people. As Paul expounds and applies it: The things of God<\/p>\n
knoweth no man, save the Spirit of God.’ But God hath revealed them to<\/p>\n
us by His Spirit.’<\/p>\n
The need of God’s people, and the call for God’s interposition, is as<\/p>\n
urgent in our days as it was in the time of Isaiah. There is now, as<\/p>\n
there was then, as there has been at all times, a remnant that seek<\/p>\n
after God with their whole heart. But if we look at Christendom as a<\/p>\n
whole, at the state of the Church of Christ, there is infinite cause<\/p>\n
for beseeching God to rend the heavens and come down. Nothing but a<\/p>\n
special interposition of Almighty Power will avail. I fear we have no<\/p>\n
right conception of what the so-called Christian world is in the sight<\/p>\n
of God. Unless God comes down as the melting fire burneth, to make<\/p>\n
known His name to His adversaries,’ our labors are comparatively<\/p>\n
fruitless. Look at the ministry–how much it is in the wisdom of man<\/p>\n
and of literary culture –how little in demonstration of the Spirit and<\/p>\n
of power. Think of the unity of the body–how little there is of the<\/p>\n
manifestation of the power of a heavenly love binding God’s children<\/p>\n
into one. Think of holiness–the holiness of Christ-like humility and<\/p>\n
crucifixion to the world–how little the world sees that they have men<\/p>\n
among them who live in Christ in heaven, in whom Christ and heaven<\/p>\n
live.<\/p>\n
What is to be done? There is but one thing. We must wait upon God. And<\/p>\n
what for? We must cry, with a cry that never rests, Oh that Thou<\/p>\n
wouldest rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might flow<\/p>\n
down at Thy presence.’ We must desire and believe, we must ask and<\/p>\n
expect, that God will do unlooked-for things. We must set our faith on<\/p>\n
a God of whom men do not know what He has prepared for them that wait<\/p>\n
for Him. The wonder-doing God, who can surpass all our expectations,<\/p>\n
must be the God of our confidence.<\/p>\n
Yes, let God’s people enlarge their hearts to wait on a God able to do<\/p>\n
exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think. Let us band<\/p>\n
ourselves together as His elect who cry day and night to Him for things<\/p>\n
men have not seen. He is able to arise and to make His people a name,<\/p>\n
and a praise in the earth. He will wait, that He may be gracious unto<\/p>\n
you; blessed are all they that wait for Him.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Fourth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
To Know His Goodness.<\/p>\n
The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him.’ — Lam. 3:25<\/p>\n
THERE is none good but God.’ His goodness is in the heavens.’ Oh how<\/p>\n
great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee<\/p>\n
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!’ And here is now the true way<\/p>\n
of entering into and rejoicing in this goodness of God–waiting upon<\/p>\n
Him. The Lord is good–even His children often do not know it, for they<\/p>\n
wait not in quietness for Him to reveal it. But to those who persevere<\/p>\n
in waiting, whose souls do wait, it will come true. One might think<\/p>\n
that it is just those who have to wait who might doubt it. But this is<\/p>\n
only when they do not wait, but grow impatient. The truly waiting ones<\/p>\n
will all have to say, The Lord is good to them that wait for Him.’<\/p>\n
Wouldst thou fully know the goodness of God, give thyself more than<\/p>\n
ever to a life of waiting on Him.<\/p>\n
At our first entrance into the school of waiting upon God, the heart is<\/p>\n
chiefly set upon the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses<\/p>\n
our need and desire for help to educate us for something higher than we<\/p>\n
were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give<\/p>\n
Himself and to satisfy the soul with His goodness. It is just for this<\/p>\n
reason that He often withholds the gifts, and that the time of waiting<\/p>\n
is made so long. He is all the time seeking to win the heart of His<\/p>\n
child for Himself. He wishes that we should not only say, when He<\/p>\n
bestows the gift, How good is God! but that long ere it comes, and even<\/p>\n
if it never comes, we should all the time be experiencing: It is good<\/p>\n
that a man should quietly wait’: The Lord is good to them that wait for<\/p>\n
Him.’<\/p>\n
What a blessed life the life of waiting then becomes, the continual<\/p>\n
worship of faith, adoring and trusting His goodness. As the soul learns<\/p>\n
its secret, every act or exercise of waiting just becomes a quiet<\/p>\n
entering into the goodness of God, to let it do its blessed work and<\/p>\n
satisfy our every need. And every experience of God’s goodness gives<\/p>\n
the work of waiting new attractiveness, and instead of only taking<\/p>\n
refuge in time of need, there comes a great longing to wait continually<\/p>\n
and all the day. And however duties and engagements occupy the time and<\/p>\n
the mind, the soul gets more familiar with the secret art of always<\/p>\n
waiting. Waiting becomes the habit and disposition, the very second<\/p>\n
nature and breath of the soul.<\/p>\n
Dear Christian! do you not begin to see that waiting is not one among a<\/p>\n
number of Christian virtues, to be thought of from time to time, but<\/p>\n
that it expresses that disposition which lies at the very root of the<\/p>\n
Christian life? It gives a higher value and a new power to our prayer<\/p>\n
and worship, to our faith and surrender, because it links us, in<\/p>\n
unalterable dependence, to God Himself. And it gives us the unbroken<\/p>\n
enjoyment of the goodness of God: The Lord is good to them that wait<\/p>\n
for Him.’<\/p>\n
Let me press upon you once again to take time and trouble to cultivate<\/p>\n
this so much needed element of the Christian life. We get too much of<\/p>\n
religion at second hand from the teaching of men. That teaching has<\/p>\n
great value if, even as the preaching of John the Baptist sent his<\/p>\n
disciples away from himself to the Living Christ, it leads us to God<\/p>\n
Himself. What our religion needs is–more of God. Many of us are too<\/p>\n
much occupied with our work. As with Martha, the very service we want<\/p>\n
to render the Master separates from Him; it is neither pleasing to Him<\/p>\n
nor profitable to ourselves. The more work, the more need of waiting<\/p>\n
upon God; the doing of God’s will would then, instead of exhausting, be<\/p>\n
our meat and drink, nourishment and refreshment and strength. The Lord<\/p>\n
is good to them that wait for Him.’ How good none can tell but those<\/p>\n
who prove it in waiting on Him. How good none can fully tell but those<\/p>\n
who have proved Him to the utmost.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Fifth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON THE LORD:<\/p>\n
Quietly.<\/p>\n
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the<\/p>\n
salvation of the Lord.’–Lam. 3: 26<\/p>\n
TAKE heed, and be quiet: fear not, neither be faint-hearted.’ In<\/p>\n
quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’ Such words reveal<\/p>\n
to us the close connection between quietness and faith, and show us<\/p>\n
what a deep need there is of quietness, as an element of true waiting<\/p>\n
upon God. If we are to have our whole heart turned towards God, we must<\/p>\n
have it turned away from the creature, from all that occupies and<\/p>\n
interests, whether of joy or sorrow.<\/p>\n
God is a being of such infinite greatness and glory, and our nature has<\/p>\n
become so estranged from Him, that it needs our whole heart and desires<\/p>\n
set upon Him, even in some little measure to know and receive Him.<\/p>\n
Everything that is not God, that excites our fears, or stirs our<\/p>\n
efforts, or awakens our hopes, or makes us glad, hinders us in our<\/p>\n
perfect waiting on Him. The message is one of deep meaning: Take heed<\/p>\n
and be quiet;’ In quietness shall be your strength;’ It is good that a<\/p>\n
man should quietly wait.’<\/p>\n
How the very thought of God in His majesty and holiness should silence<\/p>\n
us, Scriptureabundantly testifies.<\/p>\n
The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before<\/p>\n
Him’ (Hab. 2: 20).<\/p>\n
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God.’ (Zeph. 1:7).<\/p>\n
Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord; for He is raised up out of His<\/p>\n
holy habitation’ (Zech. 2:13).<\/p>\n
As long as the waiting on God is chiefly regarded as an end towards<\/p>\n
more effectual prayer, and the obtaining of our petitions, this spirit<\/p>\n
of perfect quietness will not be obtained. But when it is seen that the<\/p>\n
waiting on God is itself an unspeakable blessedness, one of the highest<\/p>\n
forms of fellowship with the Holy One, the adoration of Him in His<\/p>\n
glory will of necessity humble the soul into a holy stillness, making<\/p>\n
way for God to speak and reveal Himself. Then it comes to the<\/p>\n
fulfilment of the precious promise, that all of self and self-effort<\/p>\n
shall be humbled: The haughtiness of man shall be brought down, and the<\/p>\n
Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.’<\/p>\n
Let everyone who would learn the art of waiting on God remember the<\/p>\n
lesson: Take heed, and be quiet;’ It is good that a man quietly wait.’<\/p>\n
Take time to be separate from all friends and all duties, all cares and<\/p>\n
all joys; time to be still and quiet before God. Take time not only to<\/p>\n
secure stillness from man and the world, but from self and its energy.<\/p>\n
Let the Word and prayer be very precious; but remember, even these may<\/p>\n
hinder the quiet waiting. The activity of the mind in studying the<\/p>\n
Word, or giving expression to its thoughts in prayer, the activities of<\/p>\n
the heart, with its desires and hopes and fears, may so engage us that<\/p>\n
we do not come to the still waiting on the All-Glorious One; our whole<\/p>\n
being is not prostrate in silence before Him. Though at first it may<\/p>\n
appear difficult to know how thus quietly to wait, with the activities<\/p>\n
of mind and heart for a time subdued, every effort after it will be<\/p>\n
rewarded; we shall find that it grows upon us, and the little season of<\/p>\n
silent worship will bring a peace and a rest that give a blessing not<\/p>\n
only in prayer, but all the day.<\/p>\n
It is good that a man should quietly wait for the salvation of the<\/p>\n
Lord.’ Yes, it is good. The quietness is the confession of our<\/p>\n
impotence, that with all our willing and running, with all our thinking<\/p>\n
and praying, it will not be done: we must receive it from God. It is<\/p>\n
the confession of our trust that our God will in His time come to our<\/p>\n
help–the quiet resting in Him alone. It is the confession of our<\/p>\n
desire to sink into our nothingness, and to let Him work and reveal<\/p>\n
Himself. Do let us wait quietly. In daily life let there be in the soul<\/p>\n
that is waiting for the great God to do His wondrous work, a quiet<\/p>\n
reverence, an abiding watching against too deep engrossment with the<\/p>\n
world, and the whole character will come to bear the beautiful stamp:<\/p>\n
Quietly waiting for the salvation of God.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Sixth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
In Holy Expectancy.<\/p>\n
Therefore will I look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my<\/p>\n
salvation; my God will hear me.’–Micah 7: 7.<\/p>\n
HAVE you ever read a beautiful little book, Expectation Corner? If not,<\/p>\n
get it; you will find in it one of the best sermons on our text. It<\/p>\n
tells of a king who prepared a city for some of his poor subjects. Not<\/p>\n
far from them were large storehouses, where everything they could need<\/p>\n
was supplied if they but sent in their requests. But on one<\/p>\n
condition–that they should be on the outlook for the answer, so that<\/p>\n
when the king’s messengers came with the gifts they had desired, they<\/p>\n
should always be found waiting and ready to receive them. The sad story<\/p>\n
is told of one desponding one who never expected to get what he asked,<\/p>\n
because he was too unworthy. One day he was taken to the king’s<\/p>\n
storehouses, and there, to his amazement, he saw, with his address on<\/p>\n
them, all the packages that had been made up for him, and sent. There<\/p>\n
was the garment of praise, and the oil of joy, and the eye salve, and<\/p>\n
so much more; they had been to his door, but found it closed; he was<\/p>\n
not on the outlook. From that time on he understood the lesson Micah<\/p>\n
would teach us today; I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God<\/p>\n
of my salvation; my God will hear me.’<\/p>\n
We have more than once said: Waiting for the answer to prayer is not<\/p>\n
the whole of waiting, but only a part. Today we want to take in the<\/p>\n
blessed truth: It is a part, and a very important one. When we have<\/p>\n
special petitions, in connection with which we are waiting on God, our<\/p>\n
waiting must be very definitely in the confident assurance: My God will<\/p>\n
hear me.’ A holy, joyful expectancy is of the very essence of true<\/p>\n
waiting. And this not only in reference to the many varied requests<\/p>\n
every believer has to make, but most especially to the one great<\/p>\n
petition which ought to be the chief thing every heart seeks for itself<\/p>\n
— that The Life of God in the soul may have full sway; that Christ may<\/p>\n
be fully formed within; and that we may be filled to all the fullness<\/p>\n
of God. This is what God has promised. This is what God’s people too<\/p>\n
little seek, very often because they do not believe it possible. This<\/p>\n
is what we ought to seek and dare to expect, because God is able and<\/p>\n
waiting to work it in us.<\/p>\n
But God Himselfmust work it. And for this end our working must cease.<\/p>\n
We must see how entirely it is to be the faith of the operation of God<\/p>\n
who raised Jesus from the dead–just as much as the resurrection, the<\/p>\n
perfecting of God’s life in our souls is to be directly His work. And<\/p>\n
waiting has to become more than ever a tarrying before God in stillness<\/p>\n
of soul, counting upon Him who raises the dead, and calls the things<\/p>\n
that are not as though they were.<\/p>\n
Just notice how the threefold use of the name of God in our text points<\/p>\n
us to Himself as the onefrom whom alone is our expectation. I will look<\/p>\n
to The Lord; I will wait for The God of my Salvation; My God will hear<\/p>\n
me.’ Everything that is salvation, everything that is good and holy,<\/p>\n
must be the direct mighty work of God Himself within us. For every<\/p>\n
moment of a life in the will of God, there must be the immediate<\/p>\n
operation of God. And the one thing I have to do is this: to look to<\/p>\n
the Lord; to wait for the God of my salvation; to hold fast the<\/p>\n
confident assurance, My God will hear me.’<\/p>\n
God says: Be still, and know that I am God. ‘<\/p>\n
There is no stillness like that of the grave. In thegrave of Jesus, in<\/p>\n
the fellowship of His death, in death to self with its own will and<\/p>\n
wisdom, its own strength and energy, there is rest. As we cease from<\/p>\n
self, and our soul becomes still to God, God will arise and show<\/p>\n
Himself. Be still, and know,’ then you shall know that I am God.’ There<\/p>\n
is no stillness like the stillness Jesus gives when He speaks, Peace,<\/p>\n
be still.’ In Christ, in His death, and in His life, in His perfected<\/p>\n
redemption, the soul may be still, and God will come in, and take<\/p>\n
possession, and do His perfect work.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Seventh Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For Redemption.<\/p>\n
Simeon was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and<\/p>\n
the Holy Ghost was upon him. Anna, a prophetess, . . . spake of Him to<\/p>\n
all then that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.’–Luke 2: 25, 38.<\/p>\n
HERE we have the mark of a waiting believer. Just, righteous in all his<\/p>\n
conduct; devout, devoted to God, ever walking as in His presence;<\/p>\n
waiting for the consolation of Israel, looking for the fulfilment of<\/p>\n
God’s promises: and the Holy Ghost was on him. In the devout waiting he<\/p>\n
had been prepared for the blessing. And Simeon was not the only one.<\/p>\n
Anna spoke to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. This was the<\/p>\n
one mark, amid surrounding formalism and worldliness, of a godly band<\/p>\n
of men and women in Jerusalem. They were waiting on God; looking for<\/p>\n
His promised redemption.<\/p>\n
And now that the Consolation of Israel has come, and the redemption has<\/p>\n
been accomplished, do we still need to wait? We do indeed. But will not<\/p>\n
our waiting, who look back to it as come, differ greatly from those who<\/p>\n
looked forward to it as coming? It will, especially in two aspects. We<\/p>\n
now wait on God in the full power of the redemption: and we wait for<\/p>\n
its full revelation.<\/p>\n
Our waiting is now in the full power of the redemption. Christ spoke,<\/p>\n
In that day you shall know that you are in Me. Abide in Me.’ The<\/p>\n
Epistles teach us to present ourselves to God as indeed dead to sin,<\/p>\n
and alive to God in Christ Jesus,’ blessed with all spiritual blessings<\/p>\n
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ Our waiting on God may now be in<\/p>\n
the wonderful consciousness, wrought and maintained by the Holy Spirit<\/p>\n
within us, that we are accepted in the Beloved, that the love that<\/p>\n
rests on Him rests on us, that we are living in that love, in the very<\/p>\n
nearness and presence and sight of God. The old saints took their stand<\/p>\n
on the word of God, and waited, hoping on that word; we rest on the<\/p>\n
word too — but, oh! under what exceeding greater privileges, as one<\/p>\n
with Christ Jesus. In our waiting on God, let this be our confidence:<\/p>\n
in Christ we have access to the Father; how sure, therefore, may we be<\/p>\n
that our waiting cannot be vain.<\/p>\n
Our waiting differs also in this, that while they waited for a<\/p>\n
redemption to come, we see itaccomplished, and now wait for its<\/p>\n
revelation in us. Christ not only said, Abide in Me, but also I in you.<\/p>\n
The Epistles not only speak of us in Christ, but of Christ in us, as<\/p>\n
the highest mystery of redeeming love. As we maintain our place in<\/p>\n
Christ day by day, God waits to reveal Christ in us, in such a way that<\/p>\n
He is formed in us, that His mind and disposition and likeness acquire<\/p>\n
form and substance in us, so that by each it can in truth be said,<\/p>\n
Christ liveth in me.’<\/p>\n
My life in Christ up there in heaven and Christ’s life in me down here<\/p>\n
on earth — these two are the complement of each other. And the more my<\/p>\n
waiting on God is marked by the living faith I in Christ, the more the<\/p>\n
heart thirsts for and claims the CHRIST IN ME. And the waiting on God,<\/p>\n
which began with special needs and prayer, will increasingly be<\/p>\n
concentrated, as far as our personal life is concerned, on this one<\/p>\n
thing, Lord, reveal Your redemption fully in me; let Christ live in me.<\/p>\n
Our waiting differs from that of the old saints in the place we take,<\/p>\n
and the expectations we entertain. But at root it is the same: waiting<\/p>\n
on God, from whom alone is our expectation.<\/p>\n
Learn from Simeon and Anna one lesson. How utterly impossible it was<\/p>\n
for them to do anything towards the great redemption — towards the<\/p>\n
birth of Christ or His death. It was God’s work. They could do nothing<\/p>\n
but wait. Are we as absolutely helpless as regards the revelation of<\/p>\n
Christ in us? We are indeed. God did not work out the great redemption<\/p>\n
in Christ as a whole, and leave its application in detail to us.<\/p>\n
The secret thought that it is so lies at the root of all our<\/p>\n
feebleness. The revelation of Christ in every individual believer, and<\/p>\n
in each one the daily revelation, step by step and moment by moment, is<\/p>\n
as much the work of God’s omnipotence as the birth or resurrection of<\/p>\n
Christ. Until this truth enters and fills us, and we feel that we are<\/p>\n
just as dependent upon God for each moment of our life in the enjoyment<\/p>\n
of redemption as they were in their waiting for it, our waiting upon<\/p>\n
God will not bring its full blessing. The sense of utter and absolute<\/p>\n
helplessness, the confidence that God can and will do all, — these<\/p>\n
must be the marks of our waiting as of theirs. As gloriously as God<\/p>\n
proved Himself to them the faithful and wonder-working God, He will to<\/p>\n
us also.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Eighth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For the Coming of His Son.<\/p>\n
Be ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.’–Luke 3:36.<\/p>\n
Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, in His own time,<\/p>\n
He shall shew, who is theblessed and only Potentate, the King of kings,<\/p>\n
and Lord of lords.’–1 Tim. 6:14,15(R.V.).<\/p>\n
Turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait<\/p>\n
for His Son from heaven.’–1 Thess. 1: 9, 10.<\/p>\n
WAITING on God in heaven, and waiting for His Son from heaven, these<\/p>\n
two God has joined together, and no man may put them asunder. The<\/p>\n
waiting on God for His presence and power in daily life will be the<\/p>\n
only true preparation for waiting for Christ in humility and true<\/p>\n
holiness. The waiting for Christ coming from heaven to take us to<\/p>\n
heaven will give the waiting on God its true tone of hopefulness and<\/p>\n
joy. The Father who in His own time will reveal His Son from heaven, is<\/p>\n
the God who, as we wait on Him, prepares us for the revelation of His<\/p>\n
Son. The present life and the coming glory are inseparably connected in<\/p>\n
God and in us.<\/p>\n
There is sometimes a danger of separating them. It is always easier to<\/p>\n
be engaged with the religion of the past or the future than to be<\/p>\n
faithful in the religion of today. As we look to what God has done in<\/p>\n
the past, or will do in time to come, the personal claim of present<\/p>\n
duty and present submission to His working may be escaped. Waiting on<\/p>\n
God must ever lead to waiting for Christ as the glorious consummation<\/p>\n
of His work; and waiting for Christ must ever remind us of the duty of<\/p>\n
waiting upon God, as our only proof that the waiting for Christ is in<\/p>\n
spirit and in truth. There is such a danger of our being so occupied<\/p>\n
with the things that are coming more than with Him who is to come;<\/p>\n
there is such scope in the study of coming events for imagination and<\/p>\n
reason and human ingenuity, that nothing but deeply humble waiting on<\/p>\n
God can save us from mistaking the interest and pleasure of<\/p>\n
intellectual study for the true love of Him and His appearing. All ye<\/p>\n
that say ye wait for Christ’s coming, be sure that you wait on God now.<\/p>\n
All ye that seek to wait on God now to reveal His Son in you, see to it<\/p>\n
that ye do so as men waiting for the revelation of His Son from heaven.<\/p>\n
The hope of that glorious appearing will strengthen you in waiting upon<\/p>\n
God for what He is to do in you now: the same omnipotent love that is<\/p>\n
to reveal that glory is working in you even now to fit you for it.<\/p>\n
The blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and<\/p>\n
Savior Jesus Christ,’ is one of the great bonds of union given to God’s<\/p>\n
Church throughout the ages. He shall come to be glorified in His<\/p>\n
saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believe.’ Then we shall<\/p>\n
all meet, and the unity of the body of Christ be seen in its divine<\/p>\n
glory. It will be the meeting-place and the triumph of divine love.<\/p>\n
Jesus receiving His own and presenting them to the Father. His own<\/p>\n
meeting Him and worshiping in speechless love that blessed face. His<\/p>\n
own meeting each other in the ecstasy of God’s own love. Let us wait,<\/p>\n
long for, and love the appearing of our Lord and Heavenly Bridegroom.<\/p>\n
Tender love to Him and tender love to each other is the true and only<\/p>\n
bridal spirit.<\/p>\n
I fear greatly that this is sometimes forgotten. A beloved brother in<\/p>\n
Holland was speaking about the expectancy of faith being the true sign<\/p>\n
of the bride. I ventured to express a doubt. An unworthy bride, about<\/p>\n
to be married to a prince, might only be thinking of the position and<\/p>\n
the riches that she was to receive. The expectancy of faith might be<\/p>\n
strong, and true love utterly wanting. It is love in the bridal spirit.<\/p>\n
It is not when we are most occupied with prophetic subjects, but when<\/p>\n
in humility and love we are clinging close to our Lord and His<\/p>\n
brethren, that we are in the bride’s place. Jesus refuses to accept our<\/p>\n
love except as it is love to His disciples. Waiting for His coming<\/p>\n
means waiting for the glorious coming manifestation of the unity of the<\/p>\n
body, while we seek here to maintain that unity in humility and love.<\/p>\n
Those who love most are the most ready for His coming. Love to each<\/p>\n
other is the life and beauty of His bride, the Church.<\/p>\n
And how is this to be brought about? Beloved child of God! if you would<\/p>\n
learn aright to wait for His Son from heaven, live even now waiting on<\/p>\n
God in heaven. Remember how Jesus lived ever waiting on God. He could<\/p>\n
do nothing of Himself. It was God who perfected His Son through<\/p>\n
suffering and then exalted Him. It is God alone who can give you the<\/p>\n
deep spiritual life of one who is really waiting for His Son: wait on<\/p>\n
God for it. Waiting for Christ Himself is, oh, so different from<\/p>\n
waiting for things that may come to pass! The latter any Christian can<\/p>\n
do; the former, God must work in you every day by His Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
Therefore all you who wait on God, look to Him for grace to wait for<\/p>\n
His Son from heaven in the Spirit which is from heaven. And you who<\/p>\n
would wait for His Son, wait on God continually to reveal Christ in<\/p>\n
you.<\/p>\n
The revelation of Christ in us as it is given to them who wait upon God<\/p>\n
is the true preparationfor the full revelation of Christ in glory.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Twenty-Ninth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
For the Promise of the Father.<\/p>\n
He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the<\/p>\n
promise of the Father.’–Acts 1:4.<\/p>\n
IN speaking of the saints in Jerusalem at Christ’s birth, with Simeon<\/p>\n
and Anna, we saw how, though the redemption they waited for is come,<\/p>\n
the call to waiting is no less urgent now than it was then. We wait for<\/p>\n
the full revelation in us of what came to them, but what they scarce<\/p>\n
could comprehend. Even so it is with waiting for the promise of the<\/p>\n
Father. In one sense, the fulfillment can never come again as it came<\/p>\n
at Pentecost. In another sense, and that in as deep reality as with the<\/p>\n
first disciples, we daily need to wait for the Father to fulfil His<\/p>\n
promise in us.<\/p>\n
The Holy Spirit is not a person distinct from the Father in the way two<\/p>\n
persons on earth are distinct. The Father and the Spirit are never<\/p>\n
without or separate from each other: the Father is always in the<\/p>\n
Spirit; the Spirit works nothing but as the Father works in Him. Each<\/p>\n
moment the same Spirit that is in us, is in God too, and he who is most<\/p>\n
full of the Spirit will be the first to wait on God most earnestly,<\/p>\n
further to fulfil His promise, and still strengthen him mightily by His<\/p>\n
Spirit in the inner man. The Spirit in us is not a power at our<\/p>\n
disposal. Nor is the Spirit an independent power, acting apart from the<\/p>\n
Father and the Son. The Spirit is the real living presence and the<\/p>\n
power of the Father working in us, and therefore it is just he who<\/p>\n
knows that the Spirit is in him, who will wait on the Father for the<\/p>\n
full revelation and experience of what the Spirit’s indwelling is, for<\/p>\n
His increase and abounding more and more.<\/p>\n
See this in the apostles. They were filled with the Spirit at<\/p>\n
Pentecost. When they, not long after,on returning from the Council,<\/p>\n
where they had been forbidden to preach, prayed afresh forboldness to<\/p>\n
speak in His name–a fresh coming down of the Holy Spirit was the<\/p>\n
Father’s freshfulfilment of His promise.<\/p>\n
At Samaria, by the word and the Spirit, many had been converted, and<\/p>\n
the whole city filled with joy. At the apostles’ prayer the Father once<\/p>\n
again fulfilled the promise. Even so to the waiting company–We are all<\/p>\n
here before God’–in Cornelius’ house. And so, too, in Acts 13. It was<\/p>\n
when men, filled with the Spirit, prayed and fasted, that the promise<\/p>\n
of the Father was afresh fulfilled, and the leading of the Spirit was<\/p>\n
given from heaven: Separate Me Barnabas and Saul.’<\/p>\n
So also we find Paul in Ephesians, praying for those who have been<\/p>\n
sealed with the Spirit, that God would grant them the spirit of<\/p>\n
illumination. And later on, that He would grant them, according to the<\/p>\n
riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the<\/p>\n
inner man.<\/p>\n
The Spirit given at Pentecost was not a something that God parted with<\/p>\n
in heaven, and sent away out of heaven to earth. God does not, cannot,<\/p>\n
give away anything in that way. When He gives grace, or strength, or<\/p>\n
life, He gives it by giving Himself to work it — it is all inseparable<\/p>\n
from Himself. (See note on Law, The Power of the Spirit, at the end of<\/p>\n
this volume.) Much more so is the Holy Spirit. He is God, present and<\/p>\n
working in us: the true position in which we can count upon that<\/p>\n
working with an unceasing power is as we, praising for what we have,<\/p>\n
still unceasingly wait for the Father’s promise to be still more<\/p>\n
mightily fulfilled.<\/p>\n
What new meaning and promise does this give to our life of waiting! It<\/p>\n
teaches us ever to keep the place where the disciples tarried at the<\/p>\n
footstool of the Throne. It reminds us that, as helpless as they were<\/p>\n
to meet their enemies, or to preach to Christ’s enemies, until they<\/p>\n
were endued with power, we, too, can only be strong in the life of<\/p>\n
faith, or the work of love, as we are in direct communication with God<\/p>\n
and Christ, and they maintain the life of the Spirit in us. It assures<\/p>\n
us that the Omnipotent God will, through the glorified Christ, work in<\/p>\n
us a power that can bring to pass things unexpected, things impossible.<\/p>\n
Oh! what will not the Church be able to do when her individual members<\/p>\n
learn to live their lives waiting on God, and when together, with all<\/p>\n
of self and the world sacrificed in the fire of love, they unite in<\/p>\n
waiting with one accord for the promise of the Father, once so<\/p>\n
gloriously fulfilled, but still unexhausted.<\/p>\n
Come and let each of us be still in presence of the inconceivable<\/p>\n
grandeur of this prospect: the Father waiting to fill the Church with<\/p>\n
the Holy Ghost. And willing to fill me, let each one say.<\/p>\n
With this faith let there come over the soul a hush and a holy fear, as<\/p>\n
it waits in stillness to take it all in. And let life increasingly<\/p>\n
become a deep joy in the hope of the ever fuller fulfilment of the<\/p>\n
Father’s promise.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Thirtieth Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Contually.<\/p>\n
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on<\/p>\n
thy God continually.’–Hos. 12:6.<\/p>\n
CONTINUITY is one of the essential elements of life. Interrupt it for a<\/p>\n
single hour in a man, and it is lost, he is dead. Continuity, unbroken<\/p>\n
and ceaseless, is essential to a healthy Christian life. God wants me<\/p>\n
to be, and God waits to make me, I want to be, and I wait on Him to<\/p>\n
make me, every moment, what He expects of me, and what is well-pleasing<\/p>\n
in His sight. If waiting on God be of the essence of true religion, the<\/p>\n
maintenance of the spirit of entire dependence must be continuous. The<\/p>\n
call of God, Wait on your God continually,’ must be accepted and<\/p>\n
obeyed. There may be times of special waiting: the disposition and<\/p>\n
habit of soul must be there unchangeably and uninterrupted.<\/p>\n
This waiting continually is indeed a necessity. To those who are<\/p>\n
content with a feeble Christian life, it appears a luxury something<\/p>\n
beyond what is essential to being a good Christian. But all who are<\/p>\n
praying the prayer, Lord! make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be<\/p>\n
made! Keep me as near to Thee as it is possible for me to be! Fill me<\/p>\n
as full of Thy love as You are willing to do!’ feel at once that it is<\/p>\n
something that must be had. They feel that there can be no unbroken<\/p>\n
fellowship with God, no full abiding in Christ, no maintaining of<\/p>\n
victory over sin and readiness for service, without waiting continually<\/p>\n
on the Lord.<\/p>\n
The waiting continually is a possibility. Many think that with the<\/p>\n
duties of life it is out of the question. They cannot be always<\/p>\n
thinking of it. Even when they wish to, they forget.<\/p>\n
They do not understand that it is a matter of the heart, and that what<\/p>\n
the heart is full of, occupies it, even when the thoughts are otherwise<\/p>\n
engaged. A father’s heart may be filled continuously with intense love<\/p>\n
and longing for a sick wife or child at a distance, even though<\/p>\n
pressing business requires all his thoughts. When the heart has learned<\/p>\n
how entirely powerless it is for one moment to keep itself or bring<\/p>\n
forth any good, when it has understood how surely and truly God will<\/p>\n
keep it, when it has, in despair of itself, accepted God’s promise to<\/p>\n
do for it the impossible, it learns to rest in God, and in the midst of<\/p>\n
occupations and temptations it can wait continually.<\/p>\n
This waiting is a promise. God’s commands are enablings: gospel<\/p>\n
precepts are all promises, a revelation of what our God will do for us.<\/p>\n
When first you begin waiting on God, it is with frequent intermission<\/p>\n
and frequent failure. But do believe God is watching over you in love<\/p>\n
and secretly strengthening you in it. There are times when waiting<\/p>\n
appears to be just losing time, but it is not so. Waiting, even in<\/p>\n
darkness, is unconscious advance, because it is God you have to do<\/p>\n
with, and He is working in you. God who calls you to wait on Him, sees<\/p>\n
your feeble efforts, and works it in you. Your spiritual life is in no<\/p>\n
respect your own work: as little as you began it, can you continue it;<\/p>\n
it is God’s Spirit who has begun the work in you of waiting upon God;<\/p>\n
He will enable you to wait continually.<\/p>\n
Waiting continually will be met and rewarded by God Himself working<\/p>\n
continually. We are coming to the end of our meditations. Would that<\/p>\n
you and I might learn one lesson: God must, God will work continually.<\/p>\n
He ever does work continually, but the experience of it is hindered by<\/p>\n
unbelief. But He who by His Spirit teaches you to wait continually,<\/p>\n
will bring you to experience also how, as the Everlasting One, His work<\/p>\n
is never-ceasing. In the love and the life and the work of God there<\/p>\n
can be no break, no interruption.<\/p>\n
Do not limit God in this by your thoughts of what may be expected. Do<\/p>\n
fix your eyes upon this one truth: in His very nature, God, as the only<\/p>\n
Giver of life, cannot do otherwise than every moment work in His child.<\/p>\n
Do not look only at the one side: If I wait continually, God will work<\/p>\n
continually.’ No, look at the other side. Place God first and say, ‘God<\/p>\n
works continually, every moment I may wait on Him continually.’ Take<\/p>\n
time until the vision of your God working continually, without one<\/p>\n
moment’s intermission, fill your being. Your waiting continually will<\/p>\n
then come of itself. Full of trust and joy, the holy habit of the soul<\/p>\n
will be, On Thee do I wait all the day.’ The Holy Spirit will keep you<\/p>\n
ever waiting.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
MOMENT BY MOMENT<\/p>\n
I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment.’<\/p>\n
Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine,<\/p>\n
Living with Jesus a new life divine;<\/p>\n
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,<\/p>\n
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.<\/p>\n
Chorus–Moment by moment I’m kept in His love,<\/p>\n
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;<\/p>\n
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;<\/p>\n
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.<\/p>\n
Never a battle with wrong for the right,<\/p>\n
Never a contest that He doth not fight;<\/p>\n
Lifting above us His banner so white,<\/p>\n
Moment by moment I’m kept in His sight.<\/p>\n
Chorus.<\/p>\n
Never a trial that He is not there,<\/p>\n
Never a burden that He doth not bear,<\/p>\n
Never a sorrow that He does not share,<\/p>\n
Moment by moment I’m under His care.<\/p>\n
Chorus<\/p>\n
Never a heartache, and never a groan,<\/p>\n
Never a teardrop, and never a moan;<\/p>\n
Never a danger but there on the throne<\/p>\n
Moment by moment He thinks of His own.<\/p>\n
Chorus.<\/p>\n
Never a weakness that He doth not feel,<\/p>\n
Never a sickness that He cannot heal;<\/p>\n
Moment by moment, in woo or in weal,<\/p>\n
Jesus, my Savior, abides with me still.<\/p>\n
Chorus.<\/p>\n
(Music in Christian Endeavor Hymns by I. D. Sankey). Or on leaflet by<\/p>\n
Morgan & Scott<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
Thirtieth-First Day.<\/p>\n
WAITING ON GOD:<\/p>\n
Only.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God;<\/p>\n
For my expectation is from Him.<\/p>\n
He only is my rock and my salvation.’–Isa. 62:5,6.<\/p>\n
IT is possible to be waiting continually on God, but not only upon Him;<\/p>\n
there may be other secretconfidences intervening and preventing the<\/p>\n
blessing that was expected. And so the word only must come to throw its<\/p>\n
light on the path to the fulness and certainty of blessing. My soul,<\/p>\n
waitthou only upon God. He only is my Rock.’<\/p>\n
Yes, My soul, wait thou only upon God.’ There is but one God, but one<\/p>\n
source of life andhappiness for the heart; He only is my Rock; my soul,<\/p>\n
wait thou onlyupon Him. Thou desirest to be good. There is none good<\/p>\n
but God,’ and there is no possible goodness but what is received<\/p>\n
directly from Him. Thou hast sought to be holy: There is none holy but<\/p>\n
the Lord,’ and there is no holiness but what He by His Spirit of<\/p>\n
holiness every moment breathes in thee. Thou wouldest live and work for<\/p>\n
God and His kingdom, for men and their salvation. Hear how He says, The<\/p>\n
Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He “alone”<\/p>\n
fainteth not, neither is weary. He giveth power to the faint, and to<\/p>\n
them that have no might He increaseth strength. They that wait upon the<\/p>\n
Lord shall renew their strength.’ He only is God; He only is thy Rock:<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God.’ Thou will not find many who can help<\/p>\n
you in this. Enough there will be of thy brethren to draw thee to put<\/p>\n
trust in churches and doctrines, in schemes and plans and human<\/p>\n
appliances, in means of grace and divine appointments. But, My soul,<\/p>\n
wait thou only upon God Himself.’ His most sacred appointments become a<\/p>\n
snare when trusted in. The brazen serpent becomes Nehushtan; the ark<\/p>\n
and the temple a vain confidence. Let the Living God alone, none and<\/p>\n
nothing but He, be thy hope.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God.’ Eyes and hands and feet, mind and<\/p>\n
thought, may have to be intently engaged in the duties of this life; My<\/p>\n
soul, wait thou only upon God.’ Thou art an immortal spirit, created<\/p>\n
not for this world but for eternity and for God. O, my soul! Realize<\/p>\n
thy destiny. Know thy privilege, and wait thou only upon God.’ Let not<\/p>\n
the interest of religious thoughts and exercises deceive you; they very<\/p>\n
often take the place of waiting upon God. My soul, wait thou, thy very<\/p>\n
self, your inmost being, with all its power, wait thou only upon God.’<\/p>\n
God is for thee, thou art for God; wait only upon Him.<\/p>\n
Yes, my soul, wait thou only upon God.’ Beware of your two great<\/p>\n
enemies — the World and Self. Beware lest any earthly satisfaction or<\/p>\n
enjoyment, however innocent it appears, keep you back from saying, I<\/p>\n
will go to God, my exceeding joy.’ Remember and study what Jesus says<\/p>\n
about denying self, Let a man deny himself.’ Tersteegen says: The<\/p>\n
saints deny themselves in everything.’ Pleasing self in little things<\/p>\n
may be strengthening it to assert itself in greater things. My soul,<\/p>\n
wait thou only upon God;’ let Him be all your salvation and all your<\/p>\n
desire. Say continually and with an undivided heart, From Him comes my<\/p>\n
expectation; He only is my Rock; I shall not be moved.’ Whatever be thy<\/p>\n
spiritual or temporal need, whatever the desire or prayer of thy heart,<\/p>\n
whatever thy interest in connection with God’s work in the Church or<\/p>\n
the world–in solitude or in the rush of the world, in public worship<\/p>\n
or other gatherings of the saints, My soul, wait thouonlyupon God.’ Let<\/p>\n
your expectations be from Him alone. He only is your Rock.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God.’ Never forget the two<\/p>\n
foundation-truths on which this blessed waiting rests. If ever you are<\/p>\n
inclined to think this waiting only’ is too hard or too high, they will<\/p>\n
recall thee at once. They are: your absolute helplessness; and, the<\/p>\n
absolute sufficiency of thy God. Oh! enter deep into the entire<\/p>\n
sinfulness of all that is of self, and think not of letting self have<\/p>\n
anything to say one single moment. Enter deep into thy utter and<\/p>\n
unceasing impotence ever to change what is evil in thee, or to bring<\/p>\n
forth anything that is spiritually good. Enter deep into thy relation<\/p>\n
of dependence as creature on God, to receive from Him every moment what<\/p>\n
He gives. Enter deeper still into His covenant of redemption, with His<\/p>\n
promise to restore more gloriously than ever what thou hadst lost, and<\/p>\n
by His Son and Spirit to give within you unceasingly, His actual divine<\/p>\n
Presence and Power. And thus wait upon your God continually and only.<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God.’ No words can tell, no heart<\/p>\n
conceive, the riches of the glory of this mystery of the Father and of<\/p>\n
Christ. Our God, in the infinite tenderness and omnipotence of His<\/p>\n
love, waits to be our Life and Joy. Oh, my soul! let it be no longer<\/p>\n
needed that I repeat the words, Wait upon God,’ but let all that is in<\/p>\n
me rise and sing: Truly my soul waits upon God. On Thee do I wait all<\/p>\n
the day.’<\/p>\n
My soul, wait thou only upon God!’<\/p>\n
__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n
NOTE.<\/p>\n
MY publishers have just issued a work of William Law on the Holy<\/p>\n
Spirit. [The Power of the Holy Spirit: An humble earnest, and<\/p>\n
affectionate Address to the Clergy. With Additonal Extracts and<\/p>\n
Introduction, by Rev. Andrew Murray. (Fleming H. Revell Company.<\/p>\n
$1.00)] In the Introduction I have said how much I owe to the book. I<\/p>\n
cannot but think that anyone who will take the trouble to read it<\/p>\n
thoughtfully will find rich spiritual profit in the connection with a<\/p>\n
life of Waiting upon God.<\/p>\n
What he puts more clearly than I have anywhere else found are these<\/p>\n
cardinal truths:–<\/p>\n
1. That the very Nature and Being of a God, as the only Possessor and<\/p>\n
Dispenser of any life ther is in the universe, imply that He must every<\/p>\n
moment communicate to every creature the power by which it exists, and<\/p>\n
therefore also much more the power by which it can do that which is<\/p>\n
good.<\/p>\n
2. That the very Nature and Being of a creature, as owing its existence<\/p>\n
to God alone, and equally owing to Him each moment the continuation of<\/p>\n
that existence, imply that its happiness can only be found in absolute<\/p>\n
unceasing momentary dependence upon God.<\/p>\n
3. That the great value and blessing of the gift of the Spirit at<\/p>\n
Pentecost, as the fruit of Christ’s Redemption, is that it is now<\/p>\n
possible for God to take posses of His redeemed children and work in<\/p>\n
them as He did before that fall in Adam. We need to know the Holy<\/p>\n
Spirit as the Presence and Power of God in us restored to their true<\/p>\n
place.<\/p>\n
4. That in the spiritual life our great need is the knowledge of two<\/p>\n
great lessons. The one our entire sinfulness and helplessness–our<\/p>\n
utter impotence by maintenance and increase of our inner spiritual<\/p>\n
life. The other, the infinite willingness of God’s love, which is<\/p>\n
nothing but a desire to communicate Himself and His blessedness to us<\/p>\n
to meet our every need, and every moment to work us in by His Son and<\/p>\n
Spirit what we need.<\/p>\n
5. That, therefore, the very essence of true religion, whether in<\/p>\n
heaven or upon earth, consists in an unalterable dependence upon God,<\/p>\n
because we can give God no other glory, than yielding ourselves to His<\/p>\n
love, which created us to show forth in us the glory, that it may now<\/p>\n
perfect its work in us.<\/p>\n
I need not point out how deep down these truths go to the very root of<\/p>\n
the spiritual life, and specially the life of Waiting upon God. I am<\/p>\n
confident that those who are willing to take the trouble of studying<\/p>\n
this thoughtful writer will thank me for the introduction in his book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
__________________________________________________________________ Title: Waiting On God! Creator(s): Murray, Andrew Print Basis: New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1894 Rights: Public Domain CCEL Subjects: All; Christian Life __________________________________________________________________ Note: In Scripture references, Murray used Roman numerals. For the sake of the modern reader, these have been converted to Arabic numerals in the following public domain text. Also, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}