Devotion and News :: September 23, 2013 - Listen to last week's Live Forward message here.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit.    Psalm 40:1-2

Waiting is painful.  Waiting in a line can be unbearable.  I am especially prone to feeling this pain.  Recently, as I was painfully waiting for something to happen I started examining why waiting is so difficult.  (Nothing else to do besides stew).  What I discovered is that waiting brings pain because it is a reminder that the world does not revolve around me.  Others need Walgreens too.  Others have to receive new tags at the DMV.   It is a humbling thing to admit that other people have schedules too and that some things take longer than I would like.

What would happen to a person who never had to wait for anything?  They would become a bit of a brat.  We would all acknowledge that we would not want that to happen to us.  What would happen if God was a cosmic wish giver who granted each of our requests immediately?  Probably the same thing.  God does not want our hearts to experience that type of toxicity.

Psalm 40 states "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry."  The writer obviously experienced a deep sense of longing.  As the writer reflects, he notes that even though God did not answer his prayer immediately he was still convinced that the Lord "inclined" to hear cry.  God "leaned forward."  The result was the writer being lifted out of the slimy pit, which was too slimy to be climbed out of by one's own power.

I believe many people lose faith and stop praying, not because God is not strong enough, but because they experienced that God was not fast enough.  So we try other ways of making it better, which ironically add more pain and more time onto our healing process.

I want to encourage all of you to continue to cry out knowing that God, in fact, hears your prayer.  I encourage you to wait for God, and to wait patiently.  Put all your eggs in God's basket.  Pray even when it is tough to pray and you will be lifted out from your pit.

Wait.  Pause right now and tell God "I will wait for You."

Wait and reach up. The Lord will pull you out.

Live Forward Schedule
Dinner 5:30-6:30pm (Student Center in East Building)
Worship 6:30-7:20 pm (Student Center in East Building)
Small Groups 7:30-8:30pm (In Rooms Announced in Bulletins)

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Steven Blair