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.
