Core Class: Waiting 1: Why Are We Waiting?
November 19, 2020
Isaiah 40:30-31 “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”.
WHAT IS BIBLICAL WAITING?
• Waiting FOR: Staying in a place (literally or figuratively) for someone to arrive or an event to occur.
• Waiting ON: Attending to or serving someone. Like a server in a restaurant
We are waiting for the Lord as we are Waiting on the Lord.
WAITING AS EVERYDAY SPIRITUAL FORMATION
Since waiting is a universally shared experience, you may think you already know what it is and what it means.
Let’s focus instead on waiting as a kind of everyday spiritual formation. We can think of “spiritual formation” as
the process of growing to maturity in our faith.
In other words, biblical waiting is part of our walk with the Lord that we should always be growing in.
• Little “W’S”
o WAITING consists of specific times or seasons.
o For example, we wait for the dentist to finish working on our teeth, we wait for the newborn to
start sleeping through the night, or we wait for the Lord to help us through a toxic situation at
work. These times and seasons have a specific beginning and end
• Big “W’s”
o “W’s” WAITING refers to the worship-filled experience of waiting on the Lord and delighting in His
presence as a way of life. This kind of waiting begins when we trust Christ for salvation and
continues for eternity.
This is an ongoing way of life … like sanctification.
God uses our waiting to make us more holy.
• A word of encouragement: spiritual formation takes time.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
What is a “little w” that you are waiting for right now?
Have you ever thought about Waiting on the Lord as a way of Life and an expression of your worship in
sanctification?
SO … WHY ARE WE WAITING?
• Waiting Shifts Our Perspective
o James 1:2-4 -- Consider it all JOY … in our trials and waiting
o James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift … God who doesn’t Shift.
• Waiting Strengthens Our Faith
o Faith is waiting with conviction and is only as good as it’s object. What do we have faith in?
o Numbers 13-14.
Caleb’s Faith. V. 30-31.
Waiting 45 years. Joshua 14-15 38 years + 7 years of military campaign
Josh 14:10-12. Finally received his promised land.
o So … We Wait on God
• Waiting Stirs up Our Desire for God’s Glory
o John 11 -- Jesus & Lazarus’ Death
o Why did Jesus do this?
o How did Jesus reveal God’s Glory?
Through His Authority over Death
By Strengthening the Faith of His Followers
Through His Obedience to the Father’s Supreme Timing. (God’s Timing transcends our finite
understanding of Time. Time is Created.)
Brought Many to Faith v. 45.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Why is it that we dislike waiting so much?
Prayerfully recall seasons of waiting that you have experienced. What (did you) are you learning about
finding your joy, faith and God’s glory in your life?
Give some other examples of biblical people who waited. How did God use them to find Joy, cling to faith
and reveal His glory?
3 MYTHS ABOUT WAITING
Learning how to wait—which might be pursued as an attitude, orientation, choice, habit, discipline, virtue, or
practice—as part of our spiritual maturing is sadly not a high priority for many of us in the church today. We seldom
see waiting as a discipline to build up or as a virtue to cultivate, much less as a blessing to enjoy.
• MYTH 1: Waiting is Passive
o King Saul: 1 Samuel 13.
Waiting on the Lord requires WISDOM.
o Joshua: Challenge to God’s People. Josh. 18:1-10.
Waiting requires active FAITH on God and His Word.
o Elijah: Confrontation with the Prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. 1 Kings 18:16-39.
Elijah was waiting FOR God to Move as he waited ON God through his faithful service to bring God’s
People back to Himself.
Waiting requires a passion for people to worship God.
o Parable of the Talents from a few weeks ago
All were Waiting for the Master to return. But only 2 were Waiting on the Master with the talents he
had entrusted with to them.
• MYTH 2: Waiting is Purposeless or Pointless
o Psalm 27: I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for
the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
o
• MYTH 3: Waiting is Painful
o The Lord will do the right thing in the right way at the right time. No other outcome is possible. This is
why “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1 NIV).
