Today’s discussion centers around the theme of waiting and what we can do during those times. I share insights from Scripture, highlighting that waiting is often part of God's plan, which may not align with our own timeline. We explore three key ideas: serving while we wait, drawing inspiration from biblical examples such as Jeremiah and Paul, who found purpose in their waiting periods. I emphasize that waiting is not passive; it is an opportunity for growth and service. Ultimately, I encourage listeners to trust in God's timing, believing that He knows what is best for us.

Takeaways:

• Waiting on God requires patience and faith, as His timing is often different from ours.
• While we wait, we should focus on serving others and cultivating our relationship with God.
• Biblical examples show that waiting can lead to unexpected blessings and opportunities for growth.
• Trusting in God's timing teaches us reliance on Him, revealing our limitations and His sovereignty.

Links referenced in this episode:

• bible805.com

Welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of Road advised from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life.

I'll talk to you every Tuesday and Thursday for about 10 minutes, and if you'd like more in depth information on walking with Jesus, you can find that at my www.bible805.com website.

For now, let's get started on our topic for today, which is

Episode number 70, What to do while waiting for God

I have three verses for us that go along with our topic today.

The first one's from Isaiah and it says, "Blessed are all who wait for him."

The next one from Psalm 37, where it says, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently. Do not fret."

And then in Isaiah it says, "When the time is right, I, the Lord will make it happen."

In much of my teaching in Bible 805, again and again, I seem to turn to the reality. Reality of how God's timing is often so different from what we have in mind. We want something.

Let's assume for the moment that it's something good, something that the Bible approves of, something with no negative or sinful baggage attached to it. In addition, we've prayed about it.

We've honestly and humbly laid our desire for it before the Lord, perhaps even fasted and prayed and asked that if our desire is not of Him.

And in this we're trusting in the true meaning of Psalm 37:4, where it says that first he gives us the desires of our heart, not that we desire something first and then tell God he has to give it to us. No.

He places the desire in us, believing that the desire has come from him and knowing that feeling that we've asked that if our desire isn't from him, that he'll just take it away. But the desire is still there. So why didn't God give it to us? He put it there. Seems good and godly.

More to the point, we are asking why he doesn't give it to us now. Now, that's the true heart of the question. The true test of faith and trust in God is that we need to trust in his timing.

Now here's why this is so hard. Why it is what it is, why we have to wait.

We might get some idea of that at a later time, but it's almost always guaranteed that at this present moment there's something you desire deeply right now that you feel is a good and godly desire and you want it now. And God says wait. And because he loves us more than we can imagine and sees consequences beyond our perception.

He's not going to change his mind for now. Again, his timing says wait, this isn't going to change. Complaining about it, throwing a pity party won't stop solve anything.

So the issue that I want to address now is what should we do while we're waiting? Now, I have three ideas to share with you. One comes from the wisdom of a random saying in Facebook. And then two examples are from the Bible.

First, the Facebook saying, it went something like this and it was referring to waiting on God. And I don't remember who said it or whatever, but here's what I do remember, because as I thought about it, I thought, yeah, it's really pretty good.

Here's what it said. Something along the lines of this. People in the food service business are called waiters.

And looking at what they do can be a good example for those of us who wait on the Lord. And what do they do? They serve.

Now, okay, that might be a little corny, but it's really quite good advice when we're waiting on what we want the Lord to do. He's made it very clear what he wants us to do. We are to serve. Now, here's the examples from the Bible that show this in action. Example number one.

This is advice from the prophet Jeremiah and part of a letter that he sent to the captives who were newly exiled to Babylon. Of course, they wanted to come back to the land and they wanted. They wanted to do it now.

God had promised that they would do it, that it would happen, but again, they wanted it now. But that wasn't God's plan. So Jeremiah wrote a letter to them, and here's what he said in Jeremiah 29.

The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem.

Build homes, plan to stay, plant vineyards, for you will be there many years, marry and have children and then find mates for them and have many grandchildren. Multiply, don't dwindle away, and work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon for her. For if Babylon has peace, so will you.

They were to continue to serve God, to build good lives and families, and to even pray for the nation that had enslaved them. God was at work behind the scenes and he did bring about the return to the land in the lifetime of many who got this letter.

But it was not the way that they assumed it would happen. It was not by Israel raising up, rising up to conquer, as that's what they wanted.

That's what they thought would happen, but it was by nation that they most likely didn't know anything about the Medes and the Persians, who would send them back with wealth and resources to rebuild that Israel itself no longer had. Example 2 from the Bible the Apostle Paul planned to visit Rome on his way to evangelize Spain.

But his plans got put on hold when he was arrested and put under house arrest in Rome for two years.

During that time, as the Book of Acts makes clear, he was able to receive visitors and even more importantly, he was able to write and send letters to churches and individuals.

We know some of what he did, and perhaps he did even more that we don't know about, made it into our Bibles, and that includes the books of Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. These letters aren't filled with angry denunciations of the unfairness of his imprisonment. He barely even mentions it at all.

He used that time to think, to pray, to interact with God, to write words of extraordinary impact that continue throughout all the world of his time and today. What we learn from these examples is that we can find peace in the midst of waiting.

When we turn the goal of our waiting, our heart's desire, over to God and focus on serving him as best we can, wherever we can. It might mean planting a garden or praying for the political leadership of our nation, or taking care of grandkids.

It may mean a ministry of writing or encouragement to the people around you. Just a little side note here.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for the Roman guards who were chained to Saul as he dictated his letters and interacted with the people who visited him? Now those are some stories I want to hear in the kingdom, but I'm sorry. Back to our topic today, or just reaching out with the gospel.

This is back to you. Something you can do. Reaching out with the Gospel in the many ways we can do it through the Internet today.

The lesson, the challenge to us here is, as the old hymn says, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. And so we wait.

And as we wait, we remember this promise that those who hope and who wait, I think that applies here. All also in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

That may have fallen flat to some of you because it sometimes seems impossible that our strength, our hope can ever be renewed while we wait, when we're very weak or very discouraged, when we feel we can't do one more thing to serve or even stay awake. But the same Jesus who raised Lazarus to life. And he was truly dead. Not just that, dead tired.

We sometimes feel he can raise you up from whatever place of weakness you are in, whatever sad and hopeless tired place you are in. He can renew your strength. But before he does that, he sometimes puts us in places of waiting.

He has us wait to convince us, truly convince us, that even though we think we may have learned it, that he is in charge. And without him, we can do nothing ultimately good. Our forced solutions aren't ultimate solutions.

Our ideas on how things ought to be, need to be, have to be are always made with our limited view of reality and consequences. Only God knows what is ultimately best and the best timing to bring things about.

Utter reliance on God, I think, only comes when we realize our utter helplessness without him. And waiting teaches us that. So wherever you are in waiting for things large and small in your life.

In closing, be encouraged, as the psalmist was with these words in Psalm 27, 13 and 14, where it says, I will remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart, and wait for the Lord.

That's all for this podcast, for transcripts, links to related material, and much more to help you learn to know, trust, apply and teach the Bible, go to www.bible805.com. For now, let me end with this benediction and prayer.

May you walk each day surrounded by the gracious love of the Father, guided by the gentle wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and conscious of the astoundingly real presence of Jesus, who will walk with you until you're no more a hobo soul, no more a transient wandering heart, but at home in the kingdom prepared for you with your God forever. Amen.