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"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Ps. 27:14).

In our day and age, nobody wants to be dependent. Americans, particularly, pride themselves on their independence. We like to think we don't need anybody or anything.

But when it comes to prayer, an independent attitude will get us nowhere fast! In fact, I found that one of the most important attitudes we as believers can cultivate is the attitude of dependence on the Lord.

Whether we realize it or not, we are totally dependent upon Him, especially in the area of prayer. The Bible tells us very plainly "We do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought" (Rom. 8:26).

Therefore, if we're ever to pray effectively we must first come to a place of humility and childlike dependence.

We must be able to say in all sincerity, "Father, I cannot accomplish anything without the leadership of your Spirit. So I'm waiting here before You in reverence and faith, trusting You to show me the way I need to pray today."

Then we must be willing to do exactly what we said we would do: Wait.

Easier Said Than Done
That may sound simple, but once you've tried it you'll find it is anything but simple. In this day and age, we're not used to waiting. We live in a fast-paced automated world where you put your quarter in the machine, hit the button and your soft drink falls out. You put a box in the microwave, wait a few seconds and dinner is served.

God, however, is not a machine. He is not a microwave. It takes time for us to cultivate a relationship with Him, not just time spent talking, either, but time spent in quiet waiting.

The fact is, most of us do too much talking in our prayer times. We need to change that. We need to stop focusing so much on what we want to say to God and start attending instead to what He wants to say to us. We need to ask for grace to cultivate the listening side of prayer.

It takes great grace, great discipline, and great desire, to come to a place where we can consistently hear God's voice. It is the highest challenge of the Christian life. But we must meet that challenge, for it is the key that opens every door.

Why is it so hard for us to listen? Because it often takes time for us to hear from Him. It takes the ability to wait in His presence, to quiet our minds and our hearts so the static and noise that often keep us deaf to His gentle voice melt away and we can hear Him at last.

The problem is most of us can't seem to sit still that long. We have too many other things we could (and think we should) be doing.

Imagine for a moment that I were to put you in a rowboat on the middle of the ocean. If I left you there alone without an oar and told you to wait for me until I came back for you, it would be easy for you to wait, wouldn't it? There would be nothing else for you to do.

Yet, if we are to cultivate a living, vibrant relationship with God, we must learn to wait.

There are times He just wants us to get comfortable in His presence. Times when He simply wants us to set our hearts on Him and be aware both of our desperate need for Him and of His promise to fill that need to overflowing.

Wonderful things happen during those quiet times.

God moves on our hearts. We may not even know what He is doing, but if our hearts are turned toward Him in faith we can be sure He is doing something great. Even though waiting may seem like a very passive activity to you, it actually sets God in motion.

Exactly what kind of work does He do for us while we wait? He strengthens us, for one thing. What a blessing it is to exchange our limited, human strength for the unlimited strength of God Himself! Yet many times we pass up that blessing because we don't take the time to wait. So, instead of burning brighter day-by-day, eventually we burn out.

No doubt, sometimes you'll want to wring your hands when you look at your schedule. You'll think, "How am I going to get all my work done if I take time out to wait on God?" The fact is, you can't in your own strength.

Learn To Wait On Him
You will have to depend on God and you express your dependence by waiting on Him. You come before Him and say, "Lord, You are my life. You are my strength. You are my ever-present help. So I'm putting everything in Your hands. I am waiting on You."

Please understand, waiting on the Lord doesn't necessarily require hours of your time, and it doesn't always have to be done just in your prayer closet. If you'll ask the Lord to help you, you can learn to wait on Him at the office during a break time, when you're driving your car, at a restaurant while you're waiting for your food—anywhere!

If you'll seize those small opportunities, you'll be amazed what an impact it will have on your life. You can eventually train yourself into such a habit of fellowship that whenever your mind is not engaged in something particular it will return to God like a bird returns to its nest.

Granted, it's not easy to develop yourself to that point, but if you'll be diligent and trust God to give you the grace to do it, you'll eventually be able to get there. And my, what a blessing it will be when you do!

I'll warn you in advance, there are a few problems we all face when we decide to wait on the Lord. The one that stops most people is the absence of God's manifest presence. All of us know God is omnipresent. We understand He is literally present with us all the time. But even so, when we cannot sense His presence, it's difficult for us to fellowship with Him.

I'll be candid with you, I don't like to wait before God in a vacuum. I want to sense His presence attending me. So when I don't, I just say, "Lord, I know You are here because your Word says You're here. So I'm just expecting You to reveal Yourself to me."

Almost every time, He responds by helping me experience the sweet manifestation of His presence. Why is that? Is it because I'm some super person especially called to prayer? No, it's not.

It's because God honors faith. And anyone who will dare to believe that God will be true to His Word and allow them to sense Him there with them, can enjoy the wonderful sense of His presence.

The second challenge you may encounter when you begin to wait on the Lord is a wandering mind. One moment you'll be sitting quietly with your attention on the Lord and the next moment you'll find yourself wondering if you took the clothes out of the dryer, or thinking about all the things you have to do that day.

Don't be discouraged when that happens. Just continue to turn your mind back toward the Lord each time it strays.

In many ways our minds are like undisciplined children. For the most part, we haven't trained them to be obedient to the direction of our spirit. We've just let them roam around thinking whatever they want.

Like toddlers who haven't yet learned to behave, they'll climb on the furniture, swing from the drapes and do anything else that occurs to them unless someone takes them firmly by the hand and says, "No, you're not going to do that. You are going to do this!"

In training my mind to wait on the Lord, I've found it helpful to pick a particular scripture and center my thoughts on it. The more I focus on that scripture, the easier it is to clear other thoughts from my mind and open myself to hear from the Lord. I also keep my notebook with me during those times to keep myself in an attitude of expectancy.

I've found it's important, too, to find a physically comfortable position. I usually don't try to wait on my knees because before long they start hurting. The discomfort draws my attention away from God and onto my body. On the other hand, I don't allow myself to get too cozy because I've found it's easy to lie down intending to wait on the Lord for 30 minutes...and wake up 30 minutes later.

The third problem you're likely to face in waiting on the Lord is that of distractions. The phone won't ring all morning long, but the moment you start to get quiet before God it will seem like everyone in town has decided to call you. Your neighbor will drop by for coffee. The dog will start barking.

As you continue to develop your skill in waiting on the Lord at different times throughout the day, you'll find yourself much more able to wait on Him about specific issues during your prayer time. If you're facing a particular decision in your life, for example, and you don't know clearly what the Lord would have you do, you can simply set the issue before God and wait for His answer.

This is where so many Christians miss the will of God for their lives. Instead of waiting on Him, they just try to figure out in their brains what the best course of action would be. The problem is, God's plan for us isn't in our brains. It's in our hearts! And if we want to know what that plan is we must allow the Holy Spirit to bring it up from our hearts and reveal it to us in times of quiet waiting.

Even if you aren't facing a big decision, spend time waiting on the Lord anyway. Give Him time to speak to you about the small things in your life because they often make a much bigger difference than you might think.

Walking in God's perfect plan is like baking a cake. You can put in all the major ingredients, but if you leave out a pinch of this or a handful of that, it won't turn out right. That's why Ephesians 5:15 says, "Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately."

Often what God wants to do during your times of waiting on Him and seeking His face is simply to bring your thinking up to His level. He wants to lift your faith sites higher so He can bless you not according to your puny, natural thinking, but according to His riches in glory.

Some years ago a Christian businessman who is a millionaire several times over told me that the Lord spoke to him and said, "My son, you wouldn't have a measly few million dollars if you had My thinking. You'd be worth $50 million by now if you'd spent more time listening to Me."

You are changed when you wait in the presence of God. Your thinking is changed and as a result your body is changed, your finances are changed, your life is changed.

I think those kinds of changes are worth the wait, don't you?

Copyright © Mac Hammond Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Lynne Hammond
Web site: Lynne Hammond Ministries
 
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”
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