Waiting on the Lord – The Crucible of Purification

Waiting is a crucible. Almost nothing causes your flesh to burn like waiting on the Lord. Bob Sorge recently tweeted, “There is no hotter flame than waiting on God. That’s why God calls you to wait—He’s refining you.” Bob knows what He’s talking about, having walked a path of waiting few of us have ever experienced.

When we understand that God uses waiting as a means to purify our hearts it gives us courage to persevere, though we may wait long. We know that the outcome of the waiting is ultimately for our good and blessing, though the pain of the waiting can be excruciating.

Waiting on the Lord – Defining Waiting

When the bible talks about waiting on the Lord, what exactly is it talking about? Waiting is quieting yourself in stillness with hopeful expectation of the Lord’s leadership and action in your life. It’s ceasing for your own ways to allow the Lord to accomplish His will through your life in His way. Waiting is not idleness nor laziness. It’s not in opposition to work. It is actively choosing to pause, maybe for an extended period of time, in order to allow the Lord to show Himself strong on your behalf.

Waiting and Hoping are synonymous. Consider Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.” When we wait on the Lord we position ourselves in hopeful expectation of His activity in our lives.

There are multiple components to waiting on the Lord. Here are a few that helped give me clarity as to what waiting on the Lord is really about.

4 Critical Heart Realities for Missionaries

The Lord is stirring so many right now to go to the nations of the earth and preach the gospel. Many, especially young people, are hearing the call to go to those who have never heard. I’m personally touched in this way, believing God’s plan is to mobilize the greatest mission thrust the earth has ever seen in this generation. This is the hour we will see a massive army of missionaries mobilized to the hardest and darkest parts of the earth for the glory of the Name of Jesus.

I was thinking if I were 20-ish and felt compelled to go to the nations I would like to know the most important things to sustain my heart on the field. It’s no secret that a large percentage of missionaries find themselves off the field within a very short period of time. I’d want to know the heart realities that sustain someone while they’re serving the Lord in a culturally unfamiliar and spiritually challenging location. Without getting into necessary natural issues like language training and dealing with culture shock(yes, it’s real), I want to offer you essential components that will sustain your heart in a missions context.

Leadership: Fighting Fatigue

Leadership in ministry can be very taxing. I know firsthand the demands that ministry can put upon a leader. There is a physical, spiritual and emotional load those in leadership bare. As a result of ministry burnout many leaders end up out of ministry prematurely.

Evey leader experiences seasons of tiredness. The apostle Paul described himself as regularly weary and often going without sleep. Tiredness is normal, but ministry fatigue is dangerous. The reason I say fatigue is dangerous is because the step after fatigue is burn out.

Here’s a few identifiers and contributors to ministry fatigue. If these locate you, I encourage you, step back, get some R&R and allow the Lord to refresh your heart and vision.

Leadership is tough… don’t sweat it.

I was 24 and had just started my first full-time ministry position. From my vantage point things were pretty difficult.

“I must be going through spiritual warfare.” I reasoned. I approached my pastor after a service to pray for me.

“Pastor, I need you to prayer for me. I think I’m under spiritual attack” I said.

“Oh really. Tell me about it. What’s going on?” He was genuinely interested and willing to help.

As I tried to explain the nature of the “attack”, I realized I couldn’t pinpoint anything specific. I touched on a few challenges, but nothing materialized as an obvious problem. He looked at me with understanding eyes. I fumbled and mumbled and finally summarized, “I’m not really sure, things are just harder than I expected. I’m not doing so well.”

Standing Through Character Assassination

As my wife and I stood silently praying in front of the abortion clinic the woman across the street got increasingly agitated. She yelled at us, mocked us and continually called us haters. Over the course of the next hour, she held up signs that read, “Timothy McVeigh Fan Club” and “Haters.” She took pictures of us with the signs in front of us. The entire time, we did not talk or fight back, we simply stood there, silently praying for those entering the abortion clinic.

Ironically, after we finished, my wife said, “I’m pretty sure I know her.”

A Response to the Boston Bombings: Lawlessness will Increase

10 days ago, we began to hear the horrific news that two bombs had been detonated at the Boston Marathon with hundreds of casualties. The tragedy, we have come to find out, was perpetrated by two brothers, 26 and 19 who had anti-American leanings. We watched last week as the drama unfolded and the two men were hunted down by the FBI, one losing his life and the other captured. We came to find out that as many as 24 people lost limbs in this attack and 3 lost their lives, one of whom was 8-years-old. Painful, horrifying, unthinkable. Pick an adjective, it won’t do justice to the incredible sense of loss so many are still feeling as a result of this tragedy.

Find My Body Near the Wall

I love this little poem, written by a Bound4Life’r inspired by an 18th Century Poet named Arnold.  It captures the heart and resolve of Nehemiah to see the wall built. It’s the heart commitment believers and those in the prayer movement must have as we forge ahead through spiritual battles and challenging trials.