II Kings 6:33

'And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?'

Waiting on God to act many times can be a distressing thing. People, in general, are not known for being very patient. We live in a society that wants things and we want them now. This mentality is what has given rise to fast food, microwaveable dinners, and all sorts of “instant” commodities. Unfortunately, this has translated over into our spiritual lives as well. We pray and expect God to answer before we say, “Amen.” We expect Him to be there immediately whenever we need Him. We have failed to remember that God does not always operate on our timetable but rather He operates in a time and place of His own choosing. We see this all throughout Scripture and have no reason to believe that He has changed how He deals with mankind in this instance.

Many times in Scripture we are advised, or commanded, to wait on the Lord. Too many times we want to jump into a situation without given God a chance to act on our behalf. This inevitably leads to trouble and sometimes failure in our lives because we do not let God work things out as He wills. In our Scripture Jehoram was ready to surrender to the Syrians. They had lost all hope of seeing God save them from this trouble, but Elisha told the king to wait and God would perform a miracle. How many times do we miss seeing the Lord perform a miracle in our own lives because we simply will not wait on Him.

1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers.

As we look at the world around us it seems as though the wicked are abounding more and more. And the Bible even teaches that as time goes on men will wax worse and worse (II Timothy 3:13). We see sin becoming more common place. Indeed, many times, those who are living wickedly are held up while those who would live righteous are pushed to the side. If we are not careful then we can become discouraged and come to the point that we wonder what good it is to serve God. Throughout Psalm 37 David is encouraging the righteous to trust in God and not to fret about the wicked. One day God is going to balance the scales of the righteous and the wicked. In this Psalm we see that the righteous shall inherit the earth (v. 9, 22, 29) while the wicked shall be cut off (v. 22, 28, 34, 38). Those who do wickedly may prosper for a while here on this earth, but those of us who are saved will one day receive our inheritance as the children of God while the wicked burn for an eternity in Hell.

2. Wait upon God for He is our Defense.

In our text Jehoram was powerless against his enemies. There was nothing he could do to save himself or his people. They were trapped in the walls of Samaria with no chance of relief to bring them supplies or to help them in the fight. He had been put in a place where the only defense he had was to wait on God and to let Him fight the battle. At times in our lives the enemy will attack us relentlessly. He will come at us with everything he had in an attempt to get us defeated, discouraged, and even destroyed. At those times when we have reached the end of the line and are left with no options is when we need to wait on God. We need to turn to Him as our defense and trust in Him to deliver us from our enemies. Instead of trying to defeat our enemies under own power we need to turn to God and His limitless power.

3. 'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;' - Isaiah 40:31

Because we refuse to wait on God in our lives then we end up attempting to do things under our own strength and ability. We go through life serving Him under our own power instead of leaning upon the Lord. This is why many of our pulpits, homes, and personal lives do not have the power of God upon them. We can not serve God or live for Him under the power of our own strength or on the basis of our own ability. We will fall short every time when we attempt to do so. Oh, we may last for a time doing it under our own strength but eventually we will get burned out and may wind up falling by the wayside. Instead, we should learn to lean on God and trust in Him to provide us the strength and power we need to serve Him faithfully. When we wait on Him to act in our lives then He will renew our strength whenever it gets low. When we learn to wait on Him then He will give us the power we need to serve Him and He will supply us the ability to perform His will for our lives.