5 Things Happen When We Wait On God

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The other day I prayed that God would give me patience, while simultaneously realizing how ridiculous that prayer actually is.

I was frustrated with my kids for something – whatever it was, it wasn’t a big deal, because moments later it was forgotten.

But, patience isn’t something given, it’s something grown.

It’s a fruit of the spirit. We can also equate it to a muscle that has to be developed. We have to work at it and keep working at it until it grows stronger in our life.

And this is exactly the thing that came to my heart as I read Psalm 40:1. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.

The words “waited” and “patiently” are the same Hebrew word, and mean to linger.

woman in blue shirt drinking coffee and reading

When is the last time you lingered in God’s presence?

I wonder, when is the last time you lingered in God’s presence…that wasn’t on a Sunday in church?

Dear sisters, for most of us, our lives are so busy. We get up early and run through out day, only to fall into bed late at night dreading our alarm the next morning.

I truly believe that if you’re reading this right now, that you regularly spend time with God.

But spending time with God, and lingering in His presence are often not the same thing. I will readily admit that there have been times when I’ve been praying and reading, and my mind’s been distracted.

My thoughts are wandering to the long list of things I have to get done, and I’m rushing through to get started on my day.

As if anything else in my day is more important than lingering in God’s presence.

Lingering gives a sense of not wanting to leave; of enjoying someone’s presence so much, everything else seems much less important.

5 Things Happen When We Wait On God

In Psalm 40, we read that when David waited on God – when he lingered in His presence, four things happened that completely changed his life.

1. And He inclined to me, and heard my cry.

As David lingered in God’s presence, He got God’s attention.

Now, that may seem like poor theology to you, because we know that God’s eyes are ever on the righteous. But, there is something about lingering in God’s presence that opens the way for answered prayers.

And I wholeheartedly believe that it has more to do with us than with God.

We know that God many times will answer prayers for those whom we think least deserve it.

Lingering in God’s presence humbles us, it aligns us with God’s heart, and we begin praying prayers that agree with God’s desires.

His desires literally become our desire!

And we know that when we pray according to His will He answers us. That’s what His Word promises.

2. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. Psalm 40:2

While lingering in God’s presence, God lifted him up out of a “horrible pit”.

I don’t know about you, but there was a time in my 20’s when I was in a horrible pit. I was far from God and I knew it. I wanted to repent, but I couldn’t feel sorry for my sins.

I knew very well that the next day I’d just go out and do the same things I had been doing.

It was a horrible place to be. I felt shame and guilt, and I wanted to feel close to God again, but the pull of sin was stronger than those other emotions.

But there came a time – praise the Lord! – when I lingered in God’s presence and I felt Him literally lift me out of that horrible pit….

Out of the miry clay that was keeping me sucked into that horrible pit and wouldn’t let me go….

And he set me upon the Rock of Ages! On Christ, my Foundation!

He made my steps stable and established, focused and directed, so that each day as I walked in my new life, I was becoming more and more like Christ!

3. He has put a new song in my mouth— praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3

This verse made me pause for a moment, because…well, you can’t see a song.

The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that perhaps what people see isn’t the song, but what the song does to us.

Music is a powerful tool. It’s why the enemy works so hard to pervert it.

There are few things the devil works harder at than perverting music, which God created specifically as a way for us to worship Him and experience the benefit of worship at the same time.

True worshipful music not only is a sweet sacrifice to God, but it changes us.

It enraptures us.

It turns our focus upward to God.

Those who write music know that it is a powerful tool to shape a person’s opinion and worldview. Not only that, it is a mood-adjuster.

You can cause a person to linger in a store by playing slow, calm music; or rush people through a fast-food joint by playing fast, driving music.

When we worship God – truly worship God – it shows on our face! And many people will see it, and fear and will trust in the Lord…

Because the change in us, from being that miserable person sucked in and stuck in that horrible pit now enraptured with the glorious pleasure of God is so drastic, they can’t help but fear God and want what we have!

4. Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

God wants us to live the blessed life!

We were created to live blessed and joyful in Him. But in order to live that life He created us to live, we must learn to make Him our trust alone.

It is so easy to put our trust in man…fallen man.

It is so easy to put our hope and trust in experts, doctors, and scientists….especially at this time when there is chaos all around us.

But when we choose to not respect the proud and those who turn to lies, but choose to make God alone our trust, we will live the blessed life!

5. Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Psalm 40:5

As we linger in God’s presence, our awareness of His deep love and acceptance for us grows exponentially.

My dear sister, God doesn’t love you because you’re so faithful to go to church every Sunday, because you give your tithe or serve tirelessly in the church.

He doesn’t love you because you’ve read the Bible literally every day this whole year, and haven’t missed a day.

He doesn’t love you because you spend a whole hour in prayer, and faithfully write down every prayer request people send.

He loves you because He loves you.

Period.

You can’t earn His love, you don’t deserve it, but He gives it anyway.

And there is profound freedom that comes when we realize that we can attend church faithfully, read our Bibles consistently, spend ample time in prayer, give our tithes and offerings, and serve in the church all because we just love God so much.

No other agenda.

Dear sister – God doesn’t think negative thoughts about you.

God isn’t sitting in heaven criticizing you, shaking His head at you, and mumbling about you under His breath.

His thoughts about you are more numerous than you could ever count — and they are all full of love….deep, powerful, consuming love.

And when we begin to linger in His presence regularly, we begin to knoooooooow that. Really, really know that.

So, my dear, precious sister – I pray that you will spend time this week lingering in God’s presence, enjoying fellowship with Him, and discovering how profoundly important this is to your spiritual growth.

A Little More About Good Morning Girls and My Groups

Good Morning Girls is an online Bible study for women. Began by Courtney Joseph in her church, she took the Bible study to the Internet in 2009 and invited ladies all over America to join her in keeping each other accountable to their daily time with the Lord.

Little did she know that this Bible study would extend beyond the borders of America to literally every region of the world!!

In 2014 I joined Courtney, together with my dear friends Misty, Mandy and Bridget, in helping to lead Good Morning Girls. It has been an amazing journey as we’ve watched Good Morning Girls not only grow beyond what we could have dreamed or imagine, but we’ve had the amazing honor to see women’s lives changed by daily digging into God’s Word!

Good Morning Girls is a simple study – we simply read the Bible.

We believe that there is power in the Word of God and the Word of God alone can defeat the enemy. So we read one chapter a day 5 days a week. And we will continue this method until we’ve read through the entire Bible!!

All the materials are free and are available at Women Living Well!

In the summer of 2012 I opened the very first Good Morning Girls group in Croatia.

12 women, all members of my church.

I had no idea where it would lead. But by the following summer it exploded to cover the countries of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia.

You can read the story here