“He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.  So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.” (Psalm 78:70-72)

 

            I have read that David was only about 15 years old when the prophet Samuel came to him and anointed him as king over all Israel. (1 Samuel 16:13; Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 418, note)   We are told, “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 16:13) We would expect David to step immediately from the pastures to the palace to receive this great promotion.  But we are clearly told that David was 30 years old before he actually received the throne.  This would mean that David waited approximately 15 years between his initial anointing and the time that he actually took the throne of the united nation of Israel. (2 Samuel 5:4)

 

            That is some pretty significant Wait Vraining, don’t you think?  But God was helping David during his great wait.  “‘I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.  I have found my servant David; with My holy oil I have anointed him, with whom My hand shall be established; and My arm shall strengthen him.’” (Psalm 89:19-21)(Emphasis supplied) God strengthened David, and in the process made David stronger in his reliance on God.  During that interval of approximately 15 years, God was preparing David to be the king that the united nation of Israel would need. 

 

            However, even before his anointing, God had been preparing David for the position of King of Israel in the pastures of Palestine.  The lessons he learned tending to the sheep served him well later in life when he shepherded the Israelites.  From this, we should learn that God may call us to do some small, seemingly insignificant job in preparation for the big job He has in store for us later.  This is a time of waiting, but the waiting time is not to be wasted time.  It is a time of training and preparation.  Be sure to learn the lessons in your pastures that will precede your promotion to the palace.

 

            Others, even your own family, may not appreciate the significance of the “king in training job” you currently have.  It was Eliab, David’s oldest brother, who asked David, “And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?”  (1 Samuel 17:28)  This was at a time when David had been sent by his father, Jesse, to check on his brothers and to bring them food on the front lines of the Philistine conflict. Could it not be said that David was a waiter here?  He was serving his father through serving his brothers, even though his brothers were ungrateful. 

 

            We cannot trivialize our time of preparation.  We cannot worry about what our peers think of our time of preparation. We cannot worry about whether our service and our waiting will be appreciated by others.  We are to be obedient.  We are to faithfully continue in the position that God has placed us.  We are to learn the lessons of life that God is trying to teach us, and one of those lessons is humility.  Leaders in training must learn to be humble servants, regardless of whether those whom they are serving appreciate the service.  Waiters may not receive a tip, but they are to continue waiting.  In so doing, we are to prepare ourselves for the position that God will place us in at a future time.  God is a much bigger tipper than the many ungrateful “customers” that you will serve on your way to God’s destiny for your life.

 

            It was in the pastures of Palestine where David had defended his flock from a lion and a bear.  It was there that he learned to trust God in such circumstances.  He recounted the lion and bear events to King Saul just before David took on Goliath while on his “waiter mission.”  “‘Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.  Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’  Moreover David said, ‘The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.’” (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

 

            So many times, we encounter difficulties in our lives and fail to see these problems as opportunities in disguise.  The lion and the bear were just such opportunities in disguise for young David.  They were part of the “all things work[ing] together for good.”  These earlier lessons in trusting God gave David the faith necessary to take on Goliath.  Without the prior pasture experiences with the lion and the bear, David may have been cowering in fear along with the rest of the army of Israel as they looked at this imposing figure of a giant problem. But young David’s mature faith in God, which had been tempered in the fiery trials of the predators in the pasture, prepared the way for his ultimate promotion.

 

            Today, so many of us want to start out at the top.  We are not patient enough to go through the Wait Vraining that would properly prepare us for the promotions that God has in store for us in the future.  There are few things as frustrating to us as a leader who is not properly prepared for their position.   Even so, few of us are willing to pay our dues and work our way up anymore.  We tend to want to skip the pastures experiences and go straight to the palace. 

 

            However, we will miss so many important life lessons when we try to do this.  There are trials that we need to go through in order to have the faith necessary to take on our own Goliaths.  God has lessons for us to learn in the pastures if we will just be patient and wait on Him and His timing.  If you are working in an unglamorous, seemingly unappreciated position right now, be patient and learn the lessons that will prepare you for God’s promotion.  Be faithful in the responsibilities that have been entrusted to you at the present.  Excel in the things God has given you.  God rewards such faithfulness. 

 

            Remember what Jesus said in the parable of the talents, “‘Well done good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.  Enter into the joy of your lord.’” (Matthew 25:21)  If you have a small ministry with a small flock, do not become discouraged.  Be faithful to God in patiently ministering to that small flock.  Remember David, the shepherd boy who cared for “those few sheep in the wilderness.”  The young David learned many lessons about shepherding a flock in the pastures that served him well later in life.  Those lessons helped prepare King David to preside from the palace over the much larger flock known as the nation of Israel.  But before he received the throne, David had to undergo more Wait Vraining.

           So, what is your great wait?

In order to be patient in the midst of our difficult situations we must have hope. “‘Where then is my hope’” (Job 17:15)?  This was Job’s central question in the midst of his trials.  Have you ever asked that question yourself?  The Bible does not tell us how long Job had to wait during his trials.  Some have speculated that it was several months.  And although his wait may not have been as long as other great “waiters” in the Bible, nevertheless the weight (and wait) he bore was very great.  He lost his children, his possessions, and his health, all in a very short span of time.  As he lost these things, he also lost his position of prominence among his people.  No one, other than Jesus Himself, can be said to have had any greater wait from the standpoint of the crushing burdens that were placed on him all at once. In fact, one Messianic prophecy by Isaiah could just as well be used to describe Job: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).  Job himself says of his own grief, “‘Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales!  For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea-…’” (Job 6:2-3).  In Job’s story, we see all the toughest tests that any of us will ever face: (1) the test of trials/tribulations, (2) the test of temptation, (3) the test of tiredness, and (4) the test of time. 

 

Whereas the patient patriarch, Abraham, had waited many years for God’s promises to be fulfilled, Job was just waiting on any word from God …period.  Job did not know of the character testing that God was allowing Satan to bring upon him.  He had no knowledge of why he was going through the things that he was experiencing.  God does not speak directly to Job until the 38^th chapter of the book of Job.  For the first 37 chapters of the book, Job longs for “‘the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent’” (Job 29:4).  Is there any wonder that he asked “‘Where then is my hope’” (Job 17:15)?

 

The book of Job is categorized as one of the wisdom books in the Bible.  In fact, it is the very first of the wisdom books, and in my mind, it is the greatest of the books in this category of Scripture.  It has taken me more than one and one-half years to complete this study about Job.  I believe you could spend a lifetime studying the book of Job and never exhaust the wisdom waiting to be mined from this tragic, but ultimately triumphant tale. Alexander Dumas, in the classic work The Count of Monte Christo, wrote, “All human wisdom is summed up in two words – wait and hope.”  Two of the major themes of the book of Job are wait and hope.  Hope is what allows us to continue to wait on God.  Hope is an essential element of Wait Vraining, for without hope we will not be able to wait through the tests of trials/tribulations, temptation, time, or tiredness. “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord… My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.  Indeed we count them blessed who endure.  You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (James 5:1, 10-11).

 

 

 

 

I have heard people debate about who displayed the most wonderful worship in the Bible.  Some say it is David, because of the many psalms he wrote and his disturbing, “undignified” dance of delight as the Ark of the Covenant was being brought into Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 6:12-22) I have also heard it suggested that Lazarus must have been a great worshiper after he was raised from the dead. (John 11:1-44).  My friend Damon Thompson says, “no one worships like the ‘grateful dead.’” And we cannot forget the breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of Jesus’ feet for his burial. (Luke 14:3-9).  The undignified dance, the witness of one once dead, and the extravagant gift of a forgiven sinner are all wonderful forms of worship.  However, I truly believe that the most wonderful worship found in the Bible is the worship displayed by Job.  Why is that?  Because he did not worship after something was given to him by God, but rather, he worshiped after many precious things were taken from him.  What Satan sent to cause worry and destroy Job’s witness instead drove him to his knees in worship. This is the response of a mature, godly man to the messengers of misery.

 

We must remember that the most common form of worship in Job’s day was through animal sacrifices.  Tommy Tenney points out that the first thing that Satan took from Job was his livestock.  “In the culture of the Old Testament, Satan had destroyed Job’s ability to worship when he took away the man’s herds of sacrificial animals.” God’s Eye View, p. 121 (Thomas Nelson Publishers 2002).  But not only was his livestock a source of sacrifice, but they were also his livelihood. Today Satan seeks to steal not only our resources, but also our time, which are our current sources of sacrifice (as well as our livelihood).  After Job lost his livelihood and his lineage, would he still love God and find a way to worship Him?  We are told, “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:20).  The most wonderful worship comes when we worship without the things that most people must have in order to worship.

 

God revealed this to me one night in a revival service at my brother’s church, Victory Fellowship.  It had been a good day…that is all but about five minutes of it.  I had just completed a jury trial in an auto accident case, where there was a rear-end collision and the liability of the Defendant appeared clear.  I had prepared my case well, and presented what I thought was a very thorough presentation of the facts and the law to the jury.  I was ready to go to the revival service that night and worship as never before in celebration of the victory in this case on which I had worked so hard.  But after about 25 minutes of deliberation, we were told that the jury had reached a verdict.  That is never a good sign for a Plaintiff’s lawyer.  When the verdict was read finding for the Defendant, I was stunned.  I simply could not understand how they had found for the Defendant under the circumstances.  As I left the courthouse I tried to put it all in perspective.  Remembering “It is well with my soul” will help you through such trying times.  I was determined to go to the revival service and worship my good and great God, nonetheless. Real worship is when you can overcome disillusionment, disappointment, and discouragement and worship the One Who is worthy, regardless of your current circumstances.

 

Although I was disappointed, I was pleased that I had chosen a more mature outlook.  I know that just a few years before I might have become sullen with God and stayed home to have a pity party.  But I had learned that through trials God will teach you things if you will just ask Him to do so.  Before I left for church, I prayed, “Dear God, give me wisdom through this experience.”  I had come to learn that waiting, when combined with worship, will always result in wisdom.  I went to the revival service and worshiped despite the disappointment of the day.  I was beginning to feel pretty good about being able to worship in light of what had happened earlier in the day as the praise team set the stage for passionate, intimate worship with God.  I was actually starting to get lost my worship, where it seemed it was just God and me communing in the midst of all the many people there, when my daughter Ashton nudged me and asked, “Daddy, isn’t that the man who just had brain surgery?”  I looked to my right and saw that John had come in and sat at the end of the row. 

 

John had just this day been released from intensive care, following the removal of a brain tumor a few days before.  Then I saw something that not only humbled me, but brought tears to my eyes.  As he raised his right hand to praise God during a song, I noticed that on his wrist he still had his patient identification bracelet from the hospital.  They may have used that to identify him as a patient while in the hospital, but God was now using it to identify him as a patient man and a wonderful worshiper.    

 

I began to weep uncontrollably as I thought about the fact that this man, who had no doubt been ordered by his doctors to go home and take it easy was now making the sacrifice of his comfort to come and worship.  All of a sudden, my day didn’t seem very bad at all.  I had lost a case, and with it untold hours invested in the preparation and trial, not to mention several thousand dollars spent on doctor’s depositions and trial exhibits; but I chose to worship anyway.  However, John had lost so much more, not the least of which was his hearing in one ear.  Yet he chose to worship anyway.  It was at that moment that God reminded me of the wonderful worship of Job.  Job lost all his possessions and all ten of his children, and yet he, too, chose to worship God anyway.  It is easy to worship when “all is well.”  It is easy to worship when God gives you things.  But the test of a true worshiper is when you can worship when God allows things to be taken from you.

 

Relationships are all about give and take.  In order to have a proper relationship with God, we must realize that God both gives and takes.  We all love this God who gives.  We worship Him without hesitation.  We sing praises to Jehovah Jireh, our Provider.  We can’t wait to serve Him.  But what about this God who takes, or at least allows taking to take place?  Is it not the same God?  Are we mature enough to trust God and worship Him even when things are removed from our lives?  Unfortunately, most of us glorify the God who gives, and vilify the God who takes.  But they are the very same God. 

 

We need to come to realize that God does not allow taking to occur without teaching.  And the teaching will always outweigh the tangibles that are taken.  Let me share a story I heard that illustrates this so very clearly.  When a mother eagle has babies, she will bring shiny trinkets to the nest for the baby eagles to play with while she is not there.  But as the baby eagles get older, the mother eagle will take the trinkets away.  I am sure that the baby eagles just don’t understand why their mother would be so cruel.  But the mother eagle is good, and she has the maturity of her offspring in mind.  The trinkets are removed so that she can teach them something very important to their destinies.  She needs to be able to do this without distraction.  She knows that as long as the trinkets are there, the baby eagles will not want to leave the nest.  She further knows that eagles are not born to remain in nests.  After the removal of the toys, the mother eagle then makes the baby eagles leave the nest.  She will cause them to fall, so that they must begin to instinctively flap their wings, and ultimately fly.  While initially, this too, must seem to be a cruel thing, the mother eagle knows what must be done in order for the baby eagles to fulfill their destinies.

 

God is like that mother eagle.  He will allow things to be taken away from us in order to teach us things which we must know in order to become God’s people of promise.  I am reminded of one of my all-time favorite verses from the Bible here. “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).  It is your choice as to whether you soar like the eagles that learn, or just get sore by refusing to receive the lessons being taught.  With this in mind, will you be willing to worship even when you lose riches, relationships, or your rest, if you knew that it would result in revelation?  Revelation is often a result of removals. 

 

Just check your Bible.  Did Job not have a greater revelation regarding God after the removal of his possessions, the important people in his life, the respect of his peers, and his pleasure?  Did John not experience the visions of the book of Revelation after the removal of his freedom by his exile to the Isle of Patmos?   Recognizing that removals can result in our own revelations from God should be reason enough for wonderful worship.  You don’t have a choice as to whether you experience the loss, but you do have a choice as to whether you gain anything from that loss.  We must not be the “fair-weather worshipers” that Satan thinks we are (Job 1:9-10). We must remember that waiting, when combined with worship, will always result in wisdom.  I hope this will encourage you to participate in the most wonderful worship. Our God is worthy!

 

As a footnote to this story, I must add that a couple of months later the trial judge in the case where the jury returned a defense verdict granted me a new trial.  The granting of a new trial is extremely rare, and this was the first new trial that I ever had granted in the twenty-one years that I had been practicing law.  There is no doubt in my mind that this had been a test and Satan was trying to steal my worship.  But God allowed me to turn my test into a testimony!

Because we have the story of Job recorded in Scripture, we can study and learn the proper response to the call to continue.  In order to continue on, we must be able to persevere, and Job is the Biblical personification of continuing on in perseverance.  The English word “perseverance” comes from a Latin word perseverare.  One of the meanings of that word was a nautical term, which meant “to keep on course,” or “stay the course.”  The Chinese pictogram, or picture-word, for “perseverance” combines the symbols for “knife” and “heart,” which strongly suggests that perseverance will involve pain and suffering.  Oswald Chambers wrote, “Perseverance is more than endurance.  It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen.”  My Utmost For His Highest, February 22 (Discovery House Publishers 1992). 

 

The Greek word translated as “perseverance” in James 5:11 is hupomone (Strong’s #5281).  This word is translated as “endurance” in Hebrews 10:36.  It is a compound word made from hupo, which means “under” and meno, which means “abiding.”  Literally, it means “abiding under.”  It means “cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy: patience, enduring, patient continuance, patient waiting.”  In its active form, it means “persistence, perseverance.”  Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Greek Dictionary of the New Testament, p. 259 (Thomas Nelson Publishers 2001).  “Hupomone is opposed to cowardice or despondency.” Id.   Have you ever felt like you just had so much on you?  Have you felt like the crushing weight of cruel circumstances was sitting on your chest making it a real struggle just to take your next breath?  If so, you have certainly experienced the hupo, or “under” part of hupomone, but what about the meno, or abiding part? 

 

Meno (Strong’s #3306) is a verb, which means it is an action word.  It means “to stay (in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy)” Strong’s page 160.    It today’s society where people are constantly moving to a new church, to a new job, a new relationship, or a new dream, we don’t normally think of “staying” as an action, but it is.  Staying is a different kind of action.  It is oftentimes the most difficult action that a person can take in a situation.  And it is a very important action, because Scripture tells us of several wonderful things that abide or stay.

 

What are some of these things that are described as abiding?  “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three…” (1 Corinthians 13:13).  Faith, hope, and love all abide.  They all stay in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy.  Faith, hope, and love remain.  They do not “cut and run” when times are difficult, uncomfortable, or unpleasant.  Fear will flee, but faith will make a stand.  Despair will depart, but hope will hang on.  Lust will leave, but love is longsuffering.  “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:15-16). “God is love” and He will never leave us.  We must have faith in this fact.  We must hang on to this hope.  We must lean on God’s everlasting love that will never leave us.  This will allow us to persevere (hupmone), or abide under great waits and great weights.  As we read these Scriptures, we recognize that the way of the Lord is for us to persevere, or “abide under.”  “The way of the Lord is strength for the upright” (Proverbs 10:29). And the longer we wait, the stronger we become.  This is one of the foundational principles of Wait Vraining. 

Context…the word itself is nowhere to be found in Scripture, but the concept is central to a proper understanding of Scripture, as well as our lives.  Context  - “n. [L. contextus, connection, from contexto – con, (together) and texto, to weave.] The parts of a book or other writing which immediately precede or follow a sentence quoted” The New Webster Encylopedic Dictionary of the English Language, p. 184 (Consolidated Book Publishers 1971).  Context is, in essence, a connector.  Without context there will always be a disconnect.  It is God’s identity as our Maker which is an essential connector to the fact that He is also our merciful Master. 

 

Context is crucial.  It is context which allows us to continue on while in a crisis.  It is context which enables us to continue on after the crisis has passed with a proper mindset.  If Job had been able to pull back the curtain of his drama in order to overhear the prologue preceding all his pain, he would have had context. Had he known that Satan, who hated him because of his righteousness, was the perpetrator of all his pain, then he, and his friends, would have had context.  Perhaps this is the most amazing thing about Job.  He did not know the total context of his successive catastrophes, yet he continued on anyway.  Yes, it is not uncommon that many continue on after their crisis fueled by anger, hatred, and bitterness toward God.  The devil has deceived them with a disconnect.  They have lost hope because they have misconstrued the situation.  They lack context.  But Job continued on without cursing his Creator.  Take away all his possessions.  Then, take away the people he cared about the most.  Next, take away his health.  And finally, take away his preeminent position in his community.  What would you have done if this had happened to you?  

 

Believers today have the benefit of context.  We know that there is a cosmic conflict between a God who is good, and a devil that is evil.  That deceiver, the devil, will always try to cause us to curse our Creator for the calamities which come into our lives.  Whenever someone is deceived to the point that they do curse their Creator, it is always because they lack the proper context.  Without context, there will always be confusion in our lives.  Satan’s underlying premise was that Job worshiped God because he sought His presents, rather than His presence.  The devil wanted to cause a disconnect between Job and God by distancing Job from the things that the majority of men desire most: possessions, people, pleasure, and prestige.  Satan wanted Job to forget about context.

 

 If you take a passage of Scripture out of context and you can change its meaning entirely.  If you take an isolated incident from your life without putting it in its proper context, you can likewise change its meaning entirely.  When you lose something in your life that you love, it does not mean that the LORD has stopped loving you. Without taking into account the first two chapters of the book of Job, we are most certain to misunderstand the meaning of all Job’s misery.  Without God’s probing questions relating to His sovereignty in Chapters 38 through 41 we might misunderstand who is really Master of all that has ever been made.  G. K. Chesterton wrote, “We all feel the riddle of the earth without anyone to point it out.  The mystery of life is the plainest part of it.  The clouds and curtains of darkness, the confounding vapours, these are the daily weather of this world.  Whatever else we have grown accustomed to, we have grown accustomed to the unaccountable.  Every stone or flower is a hieroglyphic of which we have lost the key; with every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.”  I submit to you that context is the key to our understanding. 

You cannot take one event, or series of events, out of the context of eternity. Os Hillman wrote, “Satan’s strategy is to keep us distracted with the urgency of the moment verses the importance of eternity.”  We cannot forget that we are spiritual beings who are temporarily residing in these earthly bodies of flesh. We cannot forget that we are in a war, and in a war there will always be casualties.  We cannot forget, as St. Augustine said, “God would never permit evil, if He could not bring good out of evil.”  Christ, the sinless Son of God, was crucified.  If you take this single fact alone, there seems to be no hope.  Without the context that this was part of God’s plan from the beginning for the redemption of mankind, it seems to be a tragedy of epic proportions.  Without the context of His resurrection, the cross was just another cruel, senseless death.  Can you see how vitally important context is to us?  Job did not have the benefit of the context of the cross, but he knew he had to trust God.  The most often quoted passage from the book of Job is probably, “’Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.  Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.  He also shall be my salvation’” (Job 13:15-16).  Although Job did not literally know Christ at the time, He did know the concept and the context of Jesus (whose name literally means “God saves.”).  Man is incapable of saving himself.  This, too, is an essential part of our context.

 

Without the context that God held Job in such high esteem, we might come to the conclusion that Job was being punished rather than fulfilling the purpose for which he was born.  Without the context that God had been providing provision for and protection to Job before Satan’s assault, we might come to the conclusion that Job was just skillful or lucky rather than blessed in his business.  Without the context that God restrained Satan, and kept him from killing Job, we might think that God was cruel and uncaring.  Without the context that God had a much greater plan for Job’s life than to just make him the most prosperous citizen of Uz, we would think that God had abandoned Job.  Without the context that we are still learning of patience, hope, and trust from the life of Job thousands of years later, we could just feel sorry for this suffering saint.

 

 

Today, greatly in part because of Job’s story, we have context.  We know that there is a hater of our souls, and there is a lover of our souls.  There is a Satan who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.  There is a God who wants us to have everlasting and abundant life.  He blesses us and gives us good gifts we do not deserve.  He restores and replaces what has been destroyed. And when it seems that we have not received justice in this life, He has all of eternity to see that we reap according to what we have sown. This is the context of our stories.  Don’t consider any situation in your life in isolation, because you will certainly miss its true meaning.  You must have context. 

 

A great disconnect took place when the devil deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Satan brought separating sin into their lives by causing them to think that God was holding out on them.  As you read the rest of Scripture you will see that it is all about God’s plan of reconciliation and restoration of a right relationship with Him.  Our Lord loves us, and wants the very best for us.  This is the context that God’s Word gives us.

 

I think it is significant that the word “context” has its roots in a Latin term meaning “to weave.”  Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Destiny itself is like a wonderful tapestry in which every thread is guided by an unspeakably tender hand, placed beside another thread and held and carried by a hundred others.” Now I know that tapestry is not a very familiar topic for you guys, so let me give you a more masculine mental picture.  When taken alone, a single thread in your favorite team blanket that you take to the football games, will not give you context.  A single thread may be a bright color, or it may be a dark color, or it may even be a drab, dull color.  However, it is the mixture of these varying colors, skillfully placed, that makes up your favorite team’s logo.  But just as is true with your team blanket, it is only when all the single threads of the situations in our lives are weaved together that we then begin to truly see the glory of God and His love for us.  Whenever calamity comes in your life, be sure to put it into proper context so that you do not misunderstand its meaning.  The tragedy which troubles you so right now is nothing more than a single thread in that team blanket which your loving God is weaving for you, one thread at a time.  Wait on the LORD.  His wonderful work is always worth the wait. “For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him” (Isaiah 30:18).

 

 

 

When we use the word “hope” in our everyday conversations we are usually speaking of the worldly, watered-down, wishful thinking kind of hope. But the “hope” spoken of so often in the Bible is not just an optimistic outlook or wishful thinking without any foundation.  Biblical hope is something altogether different.  The word for “hope” used most often in the New Testament is the Greek word elpis (Strong’s #1680).  It is described as “‘favorable and confident expectation, a forward look with assurance.’  It has to do with the unseen and the future.”  Elsewhere it has been said that this hope is a “confident expectation based on solid certainty.  Biblical hope rests on God’s promises, particularly those pertaining to Christ’s return.  So certain is the future of the redeemed that the NT sometimes speaks of future events in the past tense, as though they were already accomplished.  Hope is never inferior to faith, but is an extension of faith.  Faith is the present possession of grace; hope is the confidence in grace’s future accomplishment.” Spirit Filled Life Bible, Word Wealth, p. 1826 (Thomas Nelson Publishers 1991).

 

This New Testament concept of hope is absolutely consistent with the hope of the Old Testament, which waits patiently for the Messiah and Redeemer’s first appearing.  Job regains his grip on his hope when he recognizes that his hope does not rest in possessions, people, position, or pleasure/freedom from pain. Listen to his words and see if you can’t identify the source of his hope.  “‘For I know that my Redeemer lives and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me’” (Job 19:25-27)!  It is after Job acknowledges that his Redeemer lives that his grip becomes firm on the One true Hope of the world.  Have you ever heard someone say, “Get a grip…?”  That is a shortened version of “Get a grip on reality.”  The reality is “my Redeemer lives,” and this is the basis for all our hope.  We must all make sure that we have a firm grip on that reality. 

 

Ever since his death, we have heard devoted fans to the king of rock and roll say, “Elvis lives!”  That may give them some hope, but let me tell you something really exciting, and definitely true: “Elpis lives!”  Our hope, the King of kings, lives and with that our hope – our “confident expectation based on solid certainty.  Biblical hope [that] rests on God’s promises” also lives.

 

“‘I have hope in God’” (Acts 24:15).  It is when hold on to our hope in God that we will be able to continue waiting on Him, no matter what may happen to us.  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.  For he is like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).  Patient Christians, those whose hope is in the LORD, will not be anxious, and they will remain fruitful, even through their times of difficulty.

We all have them.  You know who I am talking about – that person who regularly raises your blood pressure.  They just seem to know how to push your buttons.  They have a gift for saying the most inappropriate, irrational, irritating things – all at the most inopportune times.  They may be a customer, a “friend,” a co-worker, a relative, or they may be a stranger.  But they have some common characteristics.  They will mess up your schedule.  They will hold you hostage in so many different ways.  They may passively resist you in some way.  They may shout.  They may cry.  They may rail against your plan or project.  They may just ruminate about how they are a victim.  They may “trash” other people in your company, community, or church.  They may tell you the same thing again, and again, and then at least one more time for good measure.  You tell yourself, “I don’t have time for this.”  You may have to hang up on them, or just walk away. Their sole mission in life seems to be to steal your peace.  And oftentimes the most annoying thing is that they seem to be oblivious to the frustration they bring into your life. 

 

            They are the seemingly unloveable people that give us the opportunity to show God’s agape love.  They don’t deserve your love.  They haven’t done anything to earn it, have they?  They aren’t able to do anything for you at all, other than make you exercise patience.  My friends at Peacemaker Ministries call them EGR: Extra Grace Required.  You probably have one particular person in mind as you read these words.  Now I am going to ask you to do something that will seem to make no sense at first.  I want you to thank God for that person.  They are an answer to prayer – your prayer for more patience.  

 

            I have been studying the topic of patience for over four years.  You would think that I would have this patience thing nailed by now.  But in the past couple of weeks I have been reminded that I still have a long way to go in this area.  I am much better at handling long lines, traffic jams, and even the seemingly incessant maze of prompts found on an insurance company’s automated phone system.  But a still have a problem being patient with people.  It is much easier being patient with a faceless situation than it is to be patient with people who should know better…and do better.  Recently, a client cried throughout most of her 2 ½ hour deposition, unable to recall even very basic facts about her case.  Another day someone dropped into the office without an appointment just as I was about to leave for a meeting.  On another occasion, a person on the phone in a certain customer service department was just so very slow in taking my information, and she asked some of the questions three times.  You would have thought she was a lawyer.  If the conversation was taped they probably ran out of tape.  I know I just about ran out of patience! 

 

            Charles Stanley calls such people “heavenly sandpaper.”  They have the ability to remove our rough edges so that we begin to look more like our Lord Jesus Christ.  My 17 year old son Grant, who is wise beyond his years, has given them a different name.  He calls them certified patience instructors. I think that name helps us view such people with the proper perspective. God knows that each one of His children needs more patience.  Therefore, He has sent you your very own certified patience instructor.  Think of them as your personal Wait Vrainer.  They may rotate so that you have a new one every day, or you may have one for an extended period of time.  But your certified patience instructor plays an important role in your spiritual maturity.  When you no longer have a need for more patience that person will be removed from your life, their irritating behavior will disappear, or your attitude toward them and their behavior will change.  I don’t know about you, but I still have a long way to go.  I pray that people will be patient with me.  God’s not though with me yet.

           For the last several years, the medical community has been warning us of the physical dangers posed by America’s wide-spread weight problem.  But we have heard very little from the faith community about America’s wait problem.  Make no mistake about it; our wait problem has far-reaching spiritual consequences.  Tertullian wrote, “As God is the author of patience so the devil is of impatience… [E]very sin is ascribable to impatience.  ‘Evil’ is ‘impatience of good.’”  Think about that for a moment.  Can you think of any sin that does not find its origins in impatience?  I am concerned that we have missed the role that impatience is playing in the moral decay in our country today.  Americans hate to wait. 

“Every sin is ascribable to impatience.” -  Tertullian

 

What are some examples of this plague called impatience?  According to a recent AP poll conducted by Ipsos, 60% of Americans can wait no more than 15 minutes in a line before getting frustrated; 54% can wait no more than 5 minutes on hold while on the telephone before becoming impatient; only 7% could wait as long as 20 minutes while on hold without “losing it.”  Notice that we measure our impatience in terms of minutes – not years, months, weeks, or even days as in times past.  Although this poll did not address our impatience on-line, I know that from my own personal experience I tend to become impatient when I have to wait extra seconds for something to download on a dial-up connection when DSL is not available. 

 

And where is it that Americans are losing their patience?  The respondents to the poll said waiting in line at the following places tried their patience: store check-out lines (especially grocery stores), government offices, medical facilities (Hey, why do you think they are called patients?), banks, restaurants, traffic, airports, bathrooms, gas stations, and amusement parks made up the list in descending order of aggravation.  Notice that amusement parks are at the end of the list.  I guess we go there better prepared to wait.  Only 2% of Americans were not bothered by standing in any lines, but there was a 3% error factor.  So it is certainly possible that there are not really any more patient Americans left after all.  One article commenting the poll said, “Americans want it all NOW.  Or awfully close to now.  ‘If you ask the typical person, do you feel more time-poor or money-poor, the answer almost always is time-poor.’”  Isn’t it ironic that with all the time-saving devices found in today’s technology we still feel time-poor?

 

Add unfulfilled dreams and health problems to the places where we are impatient you will have a pretty comprehensive list of examples of delays which we find difficult in our lives.  Obstacles, opposition, hardships, health problems, and even our day to day tedious tasks are all examples of things which weigh heavily on us.  All of these things require that we wait patiently, expecting to see something different – something better. 

 

Have you ever said of something, “It was worth the wait”?  If you will think about that phrase for a moment, you will come to realize that we will only wait for those things which we really, truly want.  If we are unwilling to wait, we are saying that it is not worth the wait.  If you will not stand in a long line, you don’t think that the wait will be worth it.  If you will not engage in a long course of study, you are saying that the degree is not worth it.  If you will not committed to continue on through hardship in a calling God has placed on your life, you are saying that it is not worth it.  In essence you are saying that your time is more valuable than the thing for which you are being asked to wait.  Our willingness to wait ascribes worth to the thing for which we wait. 

 

Everyone needs it.  Very few have it.  Those who have it would tell you that they need more of it.  It empowers the possessor to overcome obstacles, endure hardships, fulfill their destiny, sustain relationships, and maintain a proper perspective throughout their lives.  It will help you keep going when you are tempted to give in, give out, or give up.  In short, it enables a Christian to live life at the next level.  What is it?  It is the vanishing virtue called patience!  How would your life improve if you had more patience?  This is an intriguing question – one we will explore in Wait Uraining.  Whether you are a college student, a sports fan, a senior pastor, a Sunday School teacher, or just someone who nearly loses their religion while waiting in the Wednesday night supper line at church, Wait Uraining will help change your patience paradigm.            

What If We Lived in a Wait-less World?  Can you imagine the possibilities if we lived in a world without waiting? What if you never had to wait in line? What if you never got tied up in traffic jams? What if there were no red lights or stop signs?  What if “yield” no longer existed?  What if there were no speed limits, other than those imposed by the size of your engine?  What if flights were never delayed?  What if you were never placed on hold while on the telephone?  What if you never had to wait for responses to your e-mails, phone calls, and text-messaging?  What if it was always the weekend, vacation, your birthday, or Christmas?  What if you could hit the fast-forward button for your life (or take a pill) anytime it got boring, unpleasant, hard, or you just wanted to move along at a little more exciting and faster pace?  What if sickness, injury, and disease were healed as quickly as they occurred?  What if all disappointments were eliminated from your life?  What if no one was ever late for appointments?  What if dessert came before the main course of your meals?  What if babies were born immediately upon conception, and at the “perfect age,” whatever that is?  What if the concept of growth was gone?  What if you didn’t have to train for anything?  What if your team always won, and you never had to “wait ‘til next year?”  What if diets were even more instant than the TV ads say?  What if you really didn’t have to put up with that?  What if every prayer was answered immediately, the first time you prayed it?  What if you were instantly ushered into heaven as soon as you were saved?  What if you married the first person you fell in love with as soon as you fell in love with them?  What if justice was never delayed?  What if things were never postponed?  What if wars always ended after the first battle?  What if all credit really was instant?  What if it was always the biggest sale of the year everywhere – not just at Pennys?  What if kids didn’t have to wait until they were 16 to drive?  What if degrees were awarded without having to do the work first?  What if you started your job at the top without having to first prove yourself…but so did everyone else?  What if you could retire your first day on the job?  What if as soon as anyone offended you, the relationship ended, but you started another relationship immediately?  What if all sin was judged immediately without time being allowed for repentance?            

Would there be any order to a world without waiting?  Would we wear ourselves out with the frantic pace of a world which was wait-less?  Would anything be “special” anymore?  What would character look like in this world, and how would you obtain it?  If all the Christians went to heaven immediately, who would lead others to salvation?  Would any of us be prepared for the things that we undertook?  Would any relationships last?  Could mercy exist in a world of instant justice?  Do you still think having a “Wait-less World” is a good idea?  We live in a world that does require us to wait.  So let’s explore what God has in store for us through what I have come to call Wait Vraining.