Don’t React, Reach Out to the Lord and Wait

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (Lamentations 3:25)

Our Flesh wants us to react. Has someone hurt you? Hurt them back. Is your job not satisfying? Quit before you can find a new one! Are your friendships, marriages, or other relationships not satisfying, or are you feeling like it’s draining you? LEAVE! The problem is that the Bible is clear on how we deal with our problems: don’t react, wait on the Lord! Don’t trust your heart, trust in the Lord, and don’t lean o your own understanding. It’s our own understanding, after all, that gets us in to our predicaments to begin with! And the Bible doesn’t always tell us to change our situation, but it DOES say to remain steadfast and endure under trials.

Dearest Christian: your understanding (MY understanding), your thoughts (MY thoughts), your reasoning (MY reasoning) are all wrong. We have a proclivity to sin, and we have an enemy who desires to kill, steal and destroy. When we act and react based upon our feelings, we will always go the way of our flesh. When we pray and wait on the Lord, and examine all of our thoughts, feelings, actions, desires and situations through the lens of Scripture, we seek the will of God, EVEN IF IT HURTS. God doesn’t want us to be happy, Satan has put that lie in our minds; He wants us to be HOLY as He is HOLY. Sometimes Holiness means staying, when our friends and feelings say “go.” Sometimes Holiness requires us to endure sufferings and hardships (Jesus, Stephen, the Prophets and the Apostles, and MANY brothers and sisters in Christ even as we read this testify to this). Holiness is produced by how we trust God under trial. Our opinions, our feelings, our thoughts of “self-preservation” don’t matter. God’s will does. This is contrary to the world’s thinking. Jesus died to set you free from the world, don’t run back to it’s ways when things get tough! TRUST GOD. He has made Himself plain through His word.

Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

but they who wait for 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.

James 1:2-7

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 5:7-20

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.