Wait upon the Lord

Christians are infamous for their intolerance with God’s timing. They want to have perfect answers to instant prayers, immediately. They often blame God for having to wait. They time and again loose interest and focus when there is no wind driving their faith ships or when stormy weather interferes with their plans and desires.

Jesus, on the other hand, spent a lot of time waiting on his Father. He often went into retreat to find answers, strength, and patience. In order to be able to do this, Jesus made certain that he had time to pray. There are four important words about this in Matthew 14:22: "Jesus dismissed the crowd."

This was not just any crowd. This was about 10,000 people who had heard Jesus teach, had seen him heal the sick and had watched him produce enough food miraculously to feed them all. This was a crowd ready to make him a king. But Jesus dismissed them! Why? We read in verse 23: "After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray."

Jesus said no to a buzzing, excited crowd, an excellent opportunity, in order to say yes to an even better one. It was a deliberate choice to honour his priorities. Jesus' first responsibility and main concern was not to satisfy his scores of excited fans, but to wait faithfully on his heavenly Father until “his hour has come”, as he often said.

On another occasion Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek." This word "meek." used in the Bible is the same word used to describe a wild stallion that has been trained for the saddle. It means power under control, strength with direction, ready to get going, yet being disciplined, focussed – and waiting. This saying probably says something like: “Blessed are the focused, those who know their priorities and honour them and wait upon God for the wind to turn and the timing to be perfect.”

Jesus most of the time served the crowd diligently. But he did dismiss them when he had to do something of greater importance – like having fellowship time with his heavenly Father, while waiting on his divine timing.

Will we, in spite of waiting long, when God’s time comes, still be focussed, calm and determined enough to accomplish his will?
Are we patiently disciplined when it comes to waiting upon the Lord?

Father, Thy will be done… Amen.