The Weapons of the Righteous - Waiting on the Lord

Recently, as I mediated on Psalm 37, it dawned on me that God had inspired David to write a psalm that outlined some of His weapons against the enemy.  I wish I really understood this earlier as it would have saved me years of heartache.  Over twenty years ago God gave me this psalm as a gift. While playing what I call Bible Roulette, I “by chance” opened my Bible to Psalm 37.  I started reading this chapter and about half way through, I stopped and wondered what this psalm had to do with the purpose of my flipping the Bible open.  Then it happened, I heard a calm strong male voice say, “It’s a gift.” No, I did not flip out, neither was it normal for me to hear voices, but for some reason I kept on reading.  I didn’t get it.  I was far from being a Christian at that time, even though my Bible was always close to me. 

After becoming a Christian a few years later, this psalm started having a great impact on me, and since then the words in this chapter have carried me through many difficult seasons of my life.  Now, I am starting to comprehend the power of these words against the enemy of our soul.  Not fretting, trusting the Lord, delighting in Him, committing our ways to Him, resting in Him and waiting on Him throws the enemy off kilter when he and his demonic minions come against us with all the forces of hell.

I will be writing a series on The Weapons of the Righteous derived from Psalm 37.  In this first post, I will expound on how Waiting on the Lord gives us ample ammunition to combat our formidable foe.

Waiting is not something many of us would look forward to, however when a woman is expecting she is expectant and excitedly prepares for the coming of her bundle of joy.  Waiting means that we are in a period of preparation for the Lord’s promises.  Whether it is a child, a spouse, a job, a house, moving to another city or country, a promotion, or even a vacation, we must be prepared. The Lord is a good Father and will not give us something we are not ready for as it might hurt us and others.  So it is best to wait on Him, even if He takes us through the wilderness to get to our Promised Land.  We need to understand God is working on taking the mess out of our lives so we will be emptied of things that are not of Him, then, we will have room for Him to fill us with His blessings.  Therefore, let us allow God to have His way in our lives and try not to manipulate to get our way.  Remember Sarai, whose impatience brought about Ishmael, the child of the flesh, whose birth has caused much grief through hundreds of generations?  Her life teaches us a lesson on waiting on the Lord.  God will do what He says He will do as He is not a man that He should lie, so wait patiently on Him.  There is purpose to this preparation period. 

We need to still our souls and wait, instead of allowing our emotions to dictate our impetuous responses, which could hinder the fruition of whatever we are waiting on.  It is important to be alert and of sober mind as our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for an open door to devour us (1 Peter 5:8)  The devil likes it when we are confused and flustered, so He will design devious devices to derail our destinies.  Don’t give in to Him, we need to be still and wait for the fog to clear in our minds before we make a detrimental decision that could deter our God-given desires. Let us take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5), while we wait on Him.  Don’t forget the enemy wants to make our minds his battlefield, but we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). 

Stilling our soul and waiting on the Lord, enables us to get our will in alignment with God’s will.  Hence, as we wait we should be in the Word of God and let it flood our spirit and soul, so that we will be able to discern God’s will for our lives.  Know though that the enemy uses the scriptures to throw us off God’s path.  He did it with Jesus, and He will do it with us.  Consequently, we must not just have a peripheral knowledge of God’s Word, but we must get in the Word and let the Word be in us, ready at all times to disarm the enemy.   

By now, you should have come to the realization that waiting is by no means passive.  As we wait on the Lord, we should be praying (Communicating with God is essential as it is all about our relationship with Him), praising the Lord (He inhabits to the praises of His people), preparing for the promise (Don’t be like those five oil-less virgins), practicing the Word (We must live out our faith), and preach the Word (Even if it is just to ourselves, speak the Word as faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God). 

Now go and wait on the Lord, it is a weapon of the righteous.