Four Results Of Waiting On The Lord

FOUR RESULTS OF WAITING ON THE LORD

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, not faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

JOKE-A little boy was fishing but was catching nothing. A man came by and asked him, are you fishing little boy? He replied back, “No I am not fishing, I am just drowning worms”.

Sometimes, we may feel that way, that we are accomplishing nothing. But if we wait on the Lord we will reap one day.

SOME BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF WAITING UPON THE LORD:

A. ABRAHAM AND SARAH (FOR ISAAC)

B. NOAH (FOR THE FLOOD AND SUBSIDING WATERS)

C. JOSEPH (FOR HIS "TIME" IN POWER)

D. JESUS (FOR THE "TIME TO BE FULFILLED")

E. MARY AND MARTHA (FOR JESUS TO ARRIVE WHEN LAZRUS

DIED.

F. THE DISCIPLES (FOR THE PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT)

G. ALL BELIEVERS (AWAITING HIS RETURN)

IN EACH CASE THEY

1. KNEW GOD’S PROMISES

2. RESTED IN GOD’S CHARACTER

3. RELIED UPON HIS LOVE

IN EACH CASE, IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!!

I-FOR THOSE WHO WAIT ON THE LORD-THEY WILL HAVE INWARD STRENGTH:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; 31A

He is not talking about physical strength here, but he is talking about moral strength.

The people in Isaiah’s day were in captivity, they needed inward strength to give them power over temptation.

According to Ephesians 6:10, God commands us to be strong Christians.

There is a song that I listen to every now and then that says this:

The God on the Mountain

Is still God in the valley

When things go wrong

He’ll make them right

The God of the Good Times

Is still God in the Bad Times

The God of the Day

Is still God in the Night

That’s the God that we serve.

ILLUSTRATION: Many of you will have seen the film "Chariots of Fire", an outstanding film about a Christian Eric Liddell, who refuses to run in the prestigious 100 metres in the 1924 Paris Olympics because it involved racing in a preheat on a Sunday, which Liddell believed to be a ungodly use of Sunday.

Liddell was probably the fastest man alive at that time and had been the favorite to win it for Britain. The Press and even the Prince of Wales tried to talk him into running but he refused.

Instead, he went to the Scottish Presbyterian church that Sunday and read the lesson from Isaiah 40. And verse 31 seem to capture the situation

However, he was given the chance to race for Britain in the 400 metres a race he had never even run before. And God honored him for his stand. Liddell ran the 400 metres at a 100 m pace. Te experts thought he was running the first 100 metres too fast and would tire later in the race. But it wasn’t to be and he won with a new world record.

As Christians God wants us to rely on him, whatever we are doing. As we look to him, he will give us the strength to continue and we are tempted to give in. There are times when we want to chuck the towel in - yet when we look to our Lord, he will RENEW our strength.

The devil will come to you with his temptation, but remember the words of I John 4:4-”greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

Daniel had that inner strength from God, that is the reason he was able to No to sin.

ILLUSTRATION: Tom Malone’s story about the boy who would not smoke in the play as the script called for him to do. He lost his part at first, got it back back because of his commitment and when his father heard he was saved.

THANK GOD FOR INWARD STRENGTH

II-FOR THOSE WHO WAIT ON THE LORD-THEY WILL HAVE UPWARD STRENGTH:

they shall mount up with wings as eagles; 31B

There are many ups and downs in this life that we live. But God will give us victory over the downs if we learn to wait on him.

We are often like Lucy in an old "Peanuts" comic strip. Lucy was complaining about her lousy life. Charley Brown is trying to cheer her up. "Into each life some rain must fall," he said. That didn’t seem to help at all. Then he thought of another saying: "Just remember, life has its mountains and its valleys, its ups and downs." To which Lucy replied, "All I want is ups and ups and ups!"

And so it is with us in the Christian life. When we first become Christians we feel protected in the nest, but God soon takes us out of it, so that he can teach us to "soar on wings like eagles"