Chris Tomlin's song "Everlasting God" (written by Benton Brown) contains the following lyrics:
Strength will rise as we wait upon the LordThese lyrics are based on a verse from Isaiah 40: "they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength."
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord
Here's where we fail, we say "But I have been waiting on God to be my strength, I waited for so long!?!" No, you didn't.
In the event of temptation, as an example, let's say you wait for God to be your strength, but after minutes, hours, even days of waiting, you give in. And then you'll say "God didn't come." Well, we didn't. wait.
If you gave in to temptation, you didn't wait for God. Sure, you waited. But we didn't wait for God, we waited for God until we figured he just wasn't going to show up.
It's like the cliché story of a long lost lover who comes back only to find his beloved has married another. She didn't wait for him. She waited until she "couldn't" any more, or until it became more inconvenient to wait than to give in. [Count of Monte Cristo, anyone?]
While the movies will say that she never stopped loving her lost lover, I will say she did. If only for an instant. So are we with God.
I'm not saying we totally abandon our love for God, but we do stop loving him for at least a moment, the moment where we loved whatever sin, whatever lust, whatever idol, or even ourselves more than the Everlasting God who created us, the Strong Deliverer who has and continually will deliver us.
intriguing.
ReplyDeleteand i love the count of monte cristo.
You know, I tried to "figure that out" for a long time, and fell into the same rut over and over of course. Because what does "waiting on the Lord" even mean, to someone who hasn't had that revealed to them personally? to someone who knows in their head that God is good but kind of doesn't know how to/ doesn't want to give their whole heart?
ReplyDeleteI have to regularly sit alone in my room and summon up every thing that I want, being very honest and sincere, and what good I think it will do me, even things the Bible says are very good but may not be for me right now, and what I think I should do with my life, and with that my whole heart and everything I have learned about myself, and I have to submit all of that to God and give up control. It often involves lots of pain and crying but submitting to God makes peace in my heart. There is nothing like knowing God is holding your heart in his hands for a while.
Submitting in your heart and then, practically, submitting by service to others- that is what helps me.
Dang Carlee, I'd not quite thought of it so intensely, but I'll definitely have to revisit that in thought.
ReplyDelete