Wait On Me!!!

Wait on Me!

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - Oftentimes it is difficult for one to do what they encourage others to do. For example my mother will tell whomever the moment they mention they may do not feel well - to go see the doctor, but when she has something wrong she will not want to go see the doctor and we always tell her you need to go to the doctor, she will reply if it gets worse I will. The same thing happens when it comes to faith sometimes. Someone can say pray for such and such and we can say I believe God will work mightily on your behalf, but when it becomes something personal then we oftentimes struggle between faith and doubt.

I found myself doing something similar as well. There is something my wife and I are embarking upon and it seemed like things were not moving as fast as each of us would like for it to go. We had asked God for something and now we found ourselves waiting. I have faith that God can, and God will, but I find myself struggling between the Spirt and Flesh. The spirit was saying stand still and wait on God, but the flesh was saying hurry up I want it now. As I went through my day and thinking about how I could possibly speed up what I wanted to happen I heard these words in my spirit “Wait on Me”. Several years ago, I preached a message entitled “A Place Called Wait” and that place called wait is that desert between asking God for something and actually receiving from God that which you asked for. It is a place of uncertainty, frustration, anxiety, and faith testing that no-one ever enjoys and once again I found myself there having to wait.

Waiting for anything can produce many different emotions from anger, frustration, and hopelessness because if we are truthful regardless of how spiritual we think we are - most of us hate waiting for what we want.

Being in this flesh - we want everything done quickly, with new technology constantly being developed to meet the demands of a rapidly moving society our impatience is encouraged and our desire to wait is diminished. While technology strives to make our life easier and faster, God works on a very different plane. God says stand still and see while most of us live life like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland running around no time to say hello – goodbye!!

According to Webster’s Dictionary waiting is to stay in place in expectation of, to delay serving (a meal), to serve as to wait tables, to remain stationary in readiness or expectation, to pause for another to look forward expectantly

Waiting Biblically is more than standing still with a level of expectation looking forward to what will be, but it is the process of becoming what God wants us to be.

UNDERSTAND: - Process is a series of progressive and interdependent steps by which an end is attained. What God does in us while we wait is as important, if not more important as what we are waiting for. It is not fatalistic resignation of hopelessness or despair. Waiting Biblical, is not a passive waiting around for something to happen with your hands in your pockets like you are waiting for the Bus. Waiting does not mean doing nothing.

Biblically those who wait are those who work, because they know their labor is not in vain in the Lord. WATCH THIS: - The farmer can wait for the harvest because they have done their work of sowing the seed and tending to the fields. Those who wait on God can go about their lives, confident that God will provide the meaning and conclusions to their lives and the harvest to their toil. Waiting is the confident, disciplined, expectant, active, and sometimes painful clinging to God knowing with surety that we will reap a reward.

SCRIPTURE: - Acts 1:1-14

FOCUS VERSE: - Acts 1:4 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me”.

Waiting on the Lord may be one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life. When Jesus promised that he would return, he instructed His disciples to wait for the promise of the Father. He was telling them that this was a means of experiencing His peace, His prosperity, and His power. In waiting they would catch the mighty wind of God's Spirit, see the move of God, receive the power of God, and ultimately change the world.

Waiting on the Lord requires FAITH. It takes faith to trust in God because trusting Him doesn’t mean I am going to get what I want when I want it. Trusting Him means that I believe God will provide when the timing is right. Having faith while waiting on God means you believe there is nothing God can’t do! When he Jesus told the disciple to wait in Acts 1:4 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me”. He doesn’t tell them how long to wait He just said wait for the promise of the Father. This took faith trusting God can and Will do what He said no matter how long it takes.