Persevering While Waiting, Evans Olang

Psalm 40:1-4, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his Trust”, Hebrews 10:35&36, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised” (NIV)

This verse ties with the next few verses we will look at. Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry”. The word wait has different meanings, sitting down waiting for someone or something is one meaning, the other means busy doing something for others (serving). Waiters wait on people in restaurants. I believe this is what the Psalmist is telling us that he patiently served the Lord (waiting) while petitioning his needs before Him. In his faithfulness in serving, the Lord was able to hear his cry and attend to Him. “…Cast not your confidence which has great recompense of reward” Not confidence in man or self, confidence in God who we cry out to.

Not only did the Lord hear his cry and attend to him, in Psalm 40:2, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps”. While you are busy waiting (serving) the Lord, hell won’t be happy with you but keep serving. Remember Jesus’ words in, John 16:33, “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. Tribulations are there, we are not to deal with them alone. How will you know what He can do if there is no challenge in your life He can use to display His power?. 1John 4:4, “Ye are of God little children for you have over come them. For greater is He that is inside of you than he that is in the world”. Attacks will come, the good news, greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world.

Don’t be surprised at times when you are in horrible pits or in a miry clay for He will pick you up and set your feet upon a rock. He is the Rock of Ages who stands for sure, Psalm 18:46, “The Lord lives; and blessed be my Rock; and let the Lord of My salvation be exalted”. He will set you on Himself, the Rock. The Lord heard his cry, attended to him, brought him up out of the pits, set his feet upon the rock and believe me, the Lord is still doing much more in his life. “…And established my steps”, the Lord establishes our steps, in other words recognizes our steps. Our steps could be into good ministries, good friends, dealing with issues, meeting deadlines, dealing with arrogant people, etc. In short, all that you have to deal with, He recognizes and establishes your step that you may walk worthy of his vocation. Walking with Him requires patience, back to Hebrews we looked at, “…For you are in need of patience”. Psalm 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way”.

Psalm 40:3, “He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord”. There is power in singing praises to God, it encourages you to overcome. It may not be very easy to pray in certain situations but you can singing a song. Singing helps you lift Him up and what did He say in John 12:32, “And if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me”. You lift Him up, you will be part of the people who will be drawn. The neat thing about this verse is that He does not even ask you to look for a song, He puts one in your heart that you may praise Him. Certain songs that we sing out of our mouths, I wonder whether they praise Him? “Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord”, whenever the Lord is doing something in your life and mine, He has someone else in mind too. So everything He is doing in your life is for someone also to see the goodness of the Lord in your life and fear Him. The fear here is reverencing before God and they will say, “The God whom so and so serves is a true God” and trust Him. Sad enough, many Christians walk as though the God they serve is dead and the unbelievers have no one to set an example for them.

Psalm 40:4, “Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust”, there are so many things you will not understand about how God operates but trust Him. We are in situations right now where we don’t know what to expect but sure enough, we will wait on the Lord as we put our trust in Him to bring us through. He has heard our cry and attended to them, He has brought us up from the pits and miry clay, He has set our feet upon a rock, He has established our steps, He has put a song in our mouth, And He has set people to see what He has done in our lives. What else can I do but make Him my trust. Hebrews 10:36, “…after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise”. I am determined to do the will of God with gladness for one day if not soon, I will receive the promise. Blessings Ev

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