Waiting And Working

From the book God's plans for you by Andrew Murray

(Previously published with the title: "How to work for God")

Eph 2:10 For we are God's own handiwork, His workmanship, recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew, that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us that we should walk in them. AMP

Heb 6:1 ...Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works...(not inspired or approved by God, so, without life)

Heb 4:10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his (own) works...(and now only does good, of God, works).

WAITING AND WORKING

But they that wait upon the upon shall renew their strength.-Isaiah 40:31

Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

-Isaiah 64:4

The relationship between waiting and working is made clear in the above verses. We see that waiting brings the needed strength for working-preparing us for joyful and unwearied work. "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, and not faint” (Isa. 4O:31). Waiting on God has its value in this: it makes us strong to do His work, The second verse reveals the secret of this strength. "Neither hath the eye seen..what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." The waiting on God secures the working of God for us and in us, out of which our work must spring. The two passages teach the great

GOD,S PLANS FOR YOU

lesson that waiting on God lies at the root of all true working for God. Our great need is to hold the two sides of this truth in perfect harmony. There are some who say they wait upon God, but they do not work for Him. There may be various reasons for this. They confuse true waiting on God (living in direct communication with Him)" with the lazy, helpless waiting that excuses itself from all work. Some wait on God as one of the highest exercises of the Christian life. Yet they have never understood that the root of all true waiting must be surrender and readiness to be completely equipped for God's use in serving men. Others are ready to work as well as wait, but are looking for some great inflow of the Spirit's power to enable them to do mighty works, while they forget that as believers they already have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them. They forget that more grace is given only to those who are faithful in the little (Luke 16:10), and that it is only in working that we can be taught by the Spirit how to do the greater works. A11 Christians need to learn that waiting has working for its objective. It is only in working that waiting can attain its full perfection and blessedness. It is as we elevate working for God to its true place, as the highest exercise of spiritual privilege and power, that the absolute need and the divine blessing of waiting on God can be fully known. On the other hand, there are many who work for God but know little of what it is to wait on Him. They have been led to take up Christian work under the impulse of natural or spiritual feeling or the urging of a pastor. However, they do so with very little sense of what a holy thing it is ,to work

WAITING AND WORKING

for God. They do not know that God's work can be done only in God's strength, by God Himself working in us. The Son of God could do nothing of Himself (John 8:28). The Father in Him did the work as He lived in continual dependence before Him. Many have never learned that the believer can do nothing unless God works in him. They do not understand that it is only in utter weakness that we depend upon Him, so that His power can rest on us. They have no conception of a continual waiting on God as being one of the first and essential conditions of successful work. Christ's church and the world are sufferers today, not only because so many of its members are not working for God, but also because so much working for God is done without waiting on God.

Waiting on God always: Ps 25:5 You are the God of -my salvation; On You I wait all the day (in continual communication).

So that I can be led by Your Spirit in everything that I do:

Rom 8:14 As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God (and can do what Jesus did, by the same Spirit).