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Chariot September 2011 - Norm Wakefield Upcoming
Speaking Events - You're Invited! Oct. 14-16. Family Conference - New
Covenant Fellowship, Nappanee, IN, Contact: Dale Swartzentruber, 574 354
1940, dalelsie@gmail.com Oct. 21-23. Men's Retreat - Evangelical Institute, Greenville, SC, www.eibibleschool.org Oct. 27-30. Father/Son Camp - Walnut Point State Park, Oakland, IL, www.fathersoncamp.org Nov. 11-13. Family Conference - Antioch Community Church, Elon, NC.
Contact: www.antiochchurch.cc New Resource: Equipped to Love: Idolatry-free Relationships is now available on our website in ebook formats for iPad, Kindle, and Nook. You can also find it in the respective ebook stores for Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and Apple. If you have enjoyed this book or Anchored in Christ and God has used them in your life, would you consider writing a review on the pages at these stores for us? Thank you! Waiting on the Lord
This past week, I watched John Piper's sermon on iTunes for September
18. The text for the sermon was John 11, and the subject was Jesus' love
for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus-He wanted them to see the glory of God. I
encourage you to go to iTunes and watch or listen to Piper's sermons for
Sept. 11 and 18. Piper's observations have prompted me to meditate on some
powerful truths that I want to use to stimulate your thinking on the
importance of waiting on the Lord. Here's the outline. •
Waiting
on the Lord isn't natural. •
Waiting
on the Lord isn't easy. •
What is
waiting on the Lord? •
Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's love. •
Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's purposes. •
Waiting
on the Lord is trusting God's timing. •
Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's power. •
Waiting
on the Lord is restful. Waiting
on the Lord isn't
natural. The natural way for sinful humans to live is
according to our own timing,
understanding, and abilities. Waiting on the Lord doesn't come natural to
us. Self-oriented living may look different depending on the person. Some
people wait to act, but they aren't waiting on the Lord. Waiting or
delaying is their way in the flesh. In contrast, others act impulsively and are
not waiting on the Lord either. Naturally, in any given situation or
relationship, we have our own desire, timetable, and purpose. Our
ways are not His ways. Waiting
on the Lord isn't
easy. Since our natural inclination is to trust in our own
understanding, it isn't easy for the flesh to wait on the Lord. It is
interesting, however, to learn that waiting on the Lord ultimately is the
easy way. This is not an easy lesson! We should be able to relate to Saul's
impatience with God's timing to move Samuel to come offer sacrifices to
God before going into battle against the Philistines. Saul offered
sacrifices to the Lord, and then Samuel arrived. His impatience cost him
the kingdom (1 Sam. 13:11-14). It wasn't easy for Saul to wait until the
Lord moved Samuel. It isn't easy for us to wait on the Lord to move our
spouses, children, parents, or work associates. Like Saul, we somehow
rationalize and convince ourselves that our thoughts and ways are best.
Maybe we don't understand what it means to wait on the Lord.
Family Devotion Suggestion: Read the previous paragraphs and then ask
each person to share how they have experienced the truth that waiting on
the Lord isn't natural or easy. Read Ps. 27:14. Pray for God to teach you
to wait on Him in all things. What
is it to wait on the Lord?
Waiting on the Lord is restraining self while
trusting God's love, purpose, timing, and power so God's glory may be
revealed in heaven and in this world. Two foundational pillars support
active waiting on the Lord: love and trust. It's not possible for you to
wait on the Lord if you don't love the Lord and aren't assured of the Lord's
love for you. Furthermore, if you love the Lord, you want His glory in any
given situation or relationship. You want people to experience this
powerful, eternal truth: That being loved by God through Jesus Christ is
better than life itself. You want them to find their satisfaction and
supply in Him alone. Therefore, if you want His glory to be seen, then you
must trust in His love, His purpose, His timing, and His power. Do you
understand this line of reasoning? I suggest you reread this paragraph
until you do. It's vital if you want to learn to wait on the Lord.
Family Devotion Suggestion: Have members of the family look up verses
of Scripture regarding waiting on the Lord. Make a list of the fruit of
waiting on the Lord and the consequences of not waiting on the Lord. Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's
love. God's love doesn't always look or act like we think
it should. That was the case with Martha, Mary, and the friends of Lazarus
as recorded in John 11. Word was sent to Jesus that his friend, Lazarus,
was very ill. Let's notice what love did in response to this news.
So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord,
behold, he whom You love is sick."
But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This
sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son
of God may be glorified by it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that
he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was
(John 11:3-6).
Did you understand what happened? Jesus' love for Lazarus was stated in
the message to Him, and His love for them was affirmed by John in his
commentary. The amazing thing is that the apostle John attributes Jesus'
waiting two days longer to his love for them! The first word of the last
sentence, "So" connects Jesus love and his delay.
It appears that Martha, Mary, and their friends interpreted Jesus' late
arrival as an error of timing and a lack of love. Martha and Mary's first
words to Jesus implied a doubt about His timing, purpose, and love. "Martha
then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not
have died'" (John 11:21,32). Some of their friends wondered about His love
for Lazarus and his sisters when they discussed among themselves, "Could
not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man
also from dying" (John 11:37)? Jesus' response to their
questioning His love shouldn't be surprising. Most of us get upset when
our love for others is doubted. Jesus was "deeply moved in spirit and was
troubled" (John 11:33). The Greek word used for troubled means to
snort with anger. This is true righteous anger. However, let's be
careful not to think we can have righteous anger when people doubt our
love for them. Man's ability to love has many reasons to be doubted
because we often are blind to our selfish motives in our relationships
(For further explanation of this comment read Equipped to Love:
Idolatry-free Relationships).
Jesus was moved to tears by their
unbelief and lack of trust. Although I'm sure Jesus had compassion for
Mary and Martha's loss, His tears were not tears of compassion. They were
tears of anguish at their doubting his love for them. We need to know that
it grieves the Lord when we love self and are more attached to temporal
life here on earth than to Him. To Martha and Mary, life as they
understood it (namely, not sickness nor death nor suffering) was
preferable to experiencing God's glory and Jesus' love. They needed to see
that being loved by Jesus was greater than life and the delay exposed
their misplaced affections and gave Him an opportunity to demonstrate that
He is the resurrection and the life. Love made Jesus' delay
necessary. God's love for His own should never be doubted! Family Devotion Suggestion: Read John 11 and discuss
with your spouse and children what situations and events in your life have
caused you to doubt God's love and grumble at His delay as Mary and Martha
did with Jesus. Pray, confess, and ask the Lord to cleanse you of the sin
of not waiting on Him and doubting His love. Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's
purpose. God's love and purposes are intertwined. The apostle
John made this clear. "He said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death,
but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.'
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" (John 11:4-5). The
love of God is wanting someone to see God's
grand purpose: Seeing God's
glory and treasuring He and His love more than life itself.
Usually God's
glory and love are manifested when we are at the end of ourselves and the
situation looks hopeless. We need the consolation of His love more than we
need things to go as we wish. God is never late according to His purposes,
and He's always moved by love toward His own children. It isn't natural or
easy for us to wait on the Lord, but we must learn to wait on Him/ Why? So
His purposes may be fulfilled and we may experience that His love is
better than life. Let us live and teach that we must surrender our
purposes and embrace God's purposes. Family Devotion Suggestion: Discuss with your
children how God is teaching you this lesson of trusting in God's
purposes. Discuss how controlling situations and people prevents you and
others from seeing the glory of God and experiencing His love. Are there
situations and people's behavior that you would like to control instead of
waiting on God to work in them? List them then pray and trust them to the
Lord. Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's
timing. Jesus was tempted in every way as are we. He had to
wait on His Father to tell Him to change the stone into bread. He had to
wait on the Father to give His inheritance. He had to wait on the Father
to reveal who He was as Messiah, Redeemer, and King. He had to wait two
days on the Father to tell Him to go to Bethany. In each case it was a
matter of timing. We are tempted on a daily basis to act independently
from God and His Word, are we not? How would you have responded to Jesus'
delay? Would you have questioned His timing? Are you doing so now with
anything in your life?
I encourage you to trust God with His timing. His loving purpose drives
everything in your life. He loves you. He wants you to see His glory in
your life. He wants you to experience His love and power, and therefore He
often delays an answer to your prayers or even refuses to give you what
you request because He knows it will cause you to love life more than His
love. Waiting on the Lord is trusting in God's timing.
Family Devotion Suggestion: Ask the family: Can you think of any one in
the Bible who struggled with God's timing in the affairs of their lives?
Make a list. Discuss what you can learn from those examples.
Waiting
on the Lord is trusting in God's
power. Mary and Martha were powerless to do anything to
save Lazarus. They knew this fact and knew Jesus had the power to heal
their brother. What they couldn't imagine was that Jesus intended to
display a greater power than healing. He wanted them to see that He is the
resurrection and the life. Jesus told Mary, "I am the resurrection and the
life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who
lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John
11:25-26). Do you believe that Jesus' love is powerful enough to lift you
out of your love for this world and life as you know it here into the
unspeakable joy of life with Him in the heavenlies now?
Do you trust God's power to save your children or do are you relying on
your own ability to convince them what is right? Do you trust God's power
to work in your spouse and children to teach them about sin, convict them,
convert them, and raise them up to never die? Have you told your spouse
and children that you trust God to save them, teach them (when you teach
your children), give them wisdom when you aren't around, and write His
story in their lives? Are you trusting in God's ability to get you a job,
protect your reputation, fulfill your physical and emotional needs when
others can't, and forgive them when they don't? Waiting on the Lord is
relying on God's power. Then He gets the glory!
Family Devotion Suggestion: Read Luke 4:1-14 and discuss how Jesus
relied on God's power in each temptation. Consider together how you are
tempted to not trust in God's power and take things into your own hands? Waiting
on the Lord is restful. If we are ever anxious over things, let us remember
this story of Jesus' love for Lazarus and his sisters. God's delay to
manifest Himself in your situation or relationships is the Father's
training you to wait on the Lord and learn from Him so you can have rest
in your soul. Listen well to the words of our Lord, "Come to Me, all who
are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you
and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You will find
rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew
11:28-30). When we learn to wait on the Lord, trusting in His love,
purpose, timing, and power, we find rest for our souls. In contrast, when
we don't think He loves us, trust that our ways and timing are better than
His, and strive to control our lives and relationships, we become weary
and heavy-laden.
Ultimately, waiting on the Lord is about worship. Knowing God wants us
to worship (treasure) Him more than life is the beginning of releasing our
ideas of life and what makes us happy (our idolatries). Worshipping and
treasuring Him because we believe He is the resurrection and the life
releases us into the glorious promised rest of God. May you be faithful
with the seed you've received in this article and may it bring forth fruit
for the glory of God–the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Would
you like to be on the Elijah Ministries Prayer Team? The backbone of Elijah Ministries is the prayer team who pray diligently for God to turn the hearts of men to Himself, their wives, and their children. Before I leave to speak, I send out a prayer team invitation to those who will intercede for God to work for His glory in us as a team for the Kingdom. Not only is it a blessing to those whom I speak and myself; but it is also a reminder to the team about the direction of their own hearts. If you would like to enter into the labor together with me, you may go to my website and click on "Prayer Team". Has Norm's Chariot or other resources been an encouragement to you? As a nonprofit organization, Elijah Ministries needs support from people like you in order to function. If God has ministered to you through Elijah Ministries and Norm Wakefield, would you consider supporting the work? You can do so here. (Elijah Ministries is a tax-deductible 501c3 and is financially accountable to an overseeing board of 8 non-paid members from around the country.) The Chariot is also available as a podcast. You can automatically receive the Chariot each month in iTunes by subscribing here. (An RSS capable browser such as Internet Explorer 7 or Safari is required.)
If you
haven't visited our website, www.spiritofelijah.com,
please stop by sometime. You'll find: * Resources to equip you and your family * Previous Chariot articles * Norm's speaking schedule *
Free MP3 downloads * Subscribe to the Chariot Podcast here. * Various resources/pages translated and available in Spanish * An online store to purchase resources and make tax-free contributions by credit card
I invite you to be a part of the
moving of the Spirit of Elijah in your church, community, and the world.
How?
1.
Send this article to other men or families that you know would
benefit from it. You might inform them of the previous articles
available on-line at our website.
2.
Share resources from the Spirit of Elijah Ministries with others.
If Equipping Men or Rising to the
Call have been a blessing to you, then you know it will be
beneficial to others. Either share your resources, tell them about the
resources, or purchase a set or two as an investment in their lives. 3. Share with others what you have learned and put into practice in turning your heart to God, your wife, and your children. If God has done this in you, then He wants to affect others through you.
4.
Join the Elijah Ministries email prayer team and make
intercession for others that their hearts would be turned in revival to
the Lord, their wives, and their children. This can be done on-line at www.spiritofelijah.com.
Norm
Wakefield 09.11 To unsubscribe, click here.
Do not change the subject of the email that launches when you click
above; just press send. Or send an email with the subject Unsubscribe
Chariot to chariot@spiritofelijah.com.
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