“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and
heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my
mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust
in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1-3
Dear Family,
“The hardest part of faith is often simply to wait. And the
trouble is, if we don’t, then we start to fix the problem ourselves-and that
makes it worse. We complicate the situation to the point where it takes God
much longer to fix it than if we had quietly waited for His working in the
first place,” so writes Jim Cymbala, in his book Fresh Faith, p 111
Anyone who has worked with alcoholics knows that all of
your efforts are for naught, if the alcoholic is not ready to change. This is
true in relationships as well. One cannot change the other person by any
exercise of the will if the person is not willing to change. Change generally
cannot be forced if it is to be permanent in nature. A person may be pressured
to change for a season, but more often than not, that person will revert back
to the same familiar pattern of behavior if the motivation for change does not
come from within. As someone once said,
“Consider how hard it is to change yourself, and you’ll understand what little
chance you have of trying to change others”.
So what is the solution to that marriage partner that who
so desperately wants to see change in the life of her spouse? What about those
parents with an alcoholic child who want to rescue him or try and change him?
The answer is wait and pray.
Waiting is hard. Most of us prefer to fix things ourselves,
but if you are like me, anything I fix doesn’t stay fixed very long. Just ask
my wife, Jean. The solution is to do as David did: wait. Things were not going
very well for him. We are not sure what the circumstances were, but he is in
the pits. But it was while he was stuck in the mire that he learned a very
valuable lesson in ‘patient waiting’ for he testifies, “I waited patiently for
the Lord,” (Psalm 40:1).
Instead of taking matters into his own hands and despairing
of anyone, including God to help him, David learned the lesson of patient
waiting. He was willing to let God work out His plan in His time according to
His purpose. So instead of trying to arrange his own solution, which so many of
us are tempted to do, David just waited and trusted the Lord to provide. And you
know what? God did just that.
Chuck Swindoll talks about waiting as “compassion in slow
motion,” when he describes how hard it is to avoid trying to rescue someone
from sinful, destructive behavior. He writes “There are times (not always, but
often) when the better part of wisdom retrains us from barging in and trying to
make someone accept our help. The time isn’t right, so we wait . . . The Lord
would love to piece together the shattered fragments of (that) life. But he is
waiting . . . graciously waiting until the time is right. Until (one) is tired
of the life (he is) living, until (they see) it for what it really is…until
(they recognize their need for Him”). The Finishing Touch, p. 214.
In Psalm 40, David received a number of benefits from his
waiting, and so can you and I. God lifted him out of his despair, set his feet
on firm ground, steadied his walk and gave him a new purpose. That was good
news for David, and that will be good news for you, my brother or sister, as
you struggle in that war of waiting. He will “put a new song in (your) mouth, a
hymn of praise to (your) God.” Psalm 40:3
On a lighter note on the subject of change, it was Mark
Twain who reportedly said the only one who likes change is a wet baby,” and he
was probably right.
Yours in faith,
Pastor Tom
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