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God loves to work for those who wait for him. So how do we wait for God? Does waiting for God mean that we don’t
act? And when do we stop waiting and start acting? Those are the important questions addressed in Pastor John’s
sermon on Isaiah 64:1–4, a sermon he preached way back in 1982. Here’s what he said.
In one sense, God works for everybody. He makes the sun rise on the just and the unjust. He sends rain on
the good and the evil. He brings seedtime and harvest, even for his rebellious creatures (Matthew 5:45). God
does work for all his creatures, and all of this is meant to lead us to repentance. But, in our text, the work
referred to is not that common grace given to all, but a special grace that is given to those who have a certain
disposition.
The work mentioned here clearly is not just the work of creation and preservation; it’s not just the meeting
of a few natural needs that he does for everybody; rather, it’s the investment of all God’s infinite, sovereign
power to do everything his people need to have done for their good. And for whom does he do it? He does it
for those who wait for him.
So, the biggest question for us right now is, What’s that? How do you do that? And I want to try to show you
from Isaiah how you wait for the Lord.
So, the first thing that waiting on God means is this: before you make one peep of an effort to solve your own
problem or hire a human agency, pray. Seek the counsel of God. What is his way to solve this problem and
bring you out of trouble? It says in Psalm 106:13, “They soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his
counsel.”
The first act of waiting, therefore, is prayer — before we make one little move to solve our problem. And I
know, if you’re like me, you’ve come through many efforts, and an hour into it you say, “I forgot to pray.”
And we need to work to form the habit of stopping again and again and again. That’s what Paul means, I
think, when he says, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Before you do anything, at every little
occasion of your life — every interview, every encounter — whisper a prayer. “How would it go if I relied on
you? What do you want me to do?” And then do what the Lord says.
We are like patients. Prayer is like getting on the phone and calling up your doctor and saying, “I’m in
trouble; there’s this pain. What should I do about it?” Before you gulp down any medicine or start doing
jumping jacks, call the doctor.
Now, the doctor might tell you, “Lie down; don’t do anything.” Or he might tell you, “Take the pill; do your
exercises.” Now, those two instructions from the Lord involve us in two different forms of waiting. We don’t
stop waiting once we’ve called; we wait. There is a waiting of two different sorts. Let’s look at them just one
at a time here.
In other words, God was saying on the phone, “Just sit down, and I’m going to work for you. Take it easy and
rest, and I’ll be your strength.” But they wouldn’t do it. They wanted to maneuver their own victory for their
own glory on horses and chariots. Sometimes we have to be willing on the phone to accept the frustrating
news: “Be still.” We need to hear what Moses said to the people as they were about to cross the Red Sea:
Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. . . . The
Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. (Exodus 14:13–14)
So, the second thing that waiting for the Lord means is this: after you’ve prayed to the doctor and he says,
“Be still,” be still and rest.
In my family, we’ve been reading 2 Samuel for devotions in the morning, and just a few days ago, we read 2
Samuel 5:19. Now the situation is that David has just taken over after Saul’s death, and the Philistines are
besieging. Here’s what he does: “David inquired of the Lord.” He waited. “Shall I go up against the
Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” Wait. Answer: “And the Lord said to David, ‘Go up, for I will
certainly give the Philistines into your hand.’” So, the word to David was not “Lie still”; the word to David
was “Fight.” He didn’t take matters into his own hands; he waited.
But now here’s the essence. Now, get this carefully, because we’re so prone to think that waiting means
stillness, but as soon as we start acting — preparing a sermon or a lesson, going to work, preparing a report,
staying up late to work, work, work — we don’t have to wait anymore. That’s not the case because — and
this changes all of life — there is a spirit of waiting in the midst of work. Proverbs 21:31 says this:
Do you see the implication of that for the warrior? It means that when the Lord says “Go,” he doesn’t stop
waiting. He carries with him into battle a spirit of expectancy, a sense that “Yes, I will fight with all my
might, but I must wait on the one in whose hands alone is the victory.” No matter how hard you work, there
should be a spirit of waiting, a spirit of expectancy, a spirit that out of and through all this activity is going
to come lightning from heaven to do supernatural work. Here’s the way the psalmist put it in Psalm 33:16–
17, 20–22:
If the Lord instructs us to take certain precautions, like locking the door at night, don’t think that you can
stop waiting on the Lord. For Psalm 127:1 says,
1. When circumstances conspire to put you under pressure so that you feel that something’s got to be
done — something’s got to be done for safety or something’s got to be done for service — wait for the
Lord; that is, pray. Before you do anything else, seek the Lord, seek his counsel. What would he have
you do, if anything?
2. If the Lord says, “Sit down and put your feet up,” if the Lord says, “Don’t go to church tonight to be
at the council meeting; stay home and pray; I will work better than your arguments,” stay home.
3. And if the Lord says, “Go and argue with all your might,” don’t become self-reliant, but go.
And let me stress in regard to that second point that I don’t mean laziness or the shirking of duty. I mean the
very frustrating experience that sometimes, when you’re most prepared, when you think the most relies on
you, and your zeal is fire, the Lord may say to you, “You just stay home tonight and watch me work.” And
you’re a little frustrated because you had it all planned, but he wants to work for you so that he gets the glory
and not us.
So, whether we lie still and sit, or whether we work, let us have this in common: that we wait for the Lord,
that we have a spirit of expectancy that no matter how paltry our labors are, the final issue is in the hands of
the Lord. And he loves to work for those who wait for him.