Center for Creative Ministry A research organization and research center for Seventh-day Adventist pastors and their congregations
Wait on the Lord
Are we waiting for something we long for, something we must accomplish, or something we dread? Can a child teach us how to wait with hope?
This week, USA TODAY posted a short one-minute video accompanied by a brief two-paragraph description of 17-month-old Zion greeting his father at the door. The toddler’s mother, Asha, assembled the video showing Zion’s habit of running to meet his father as he hears the sound of keys in the lock. The father, upon being greeted with an enthusiastic, “Hello,” then scoops Zion up in big hug.
Could this video and description be an example of what it means to wait on the Lord?
Waiting can be periods of impatient anticipation, times of fear, or occasions of tranquil peace and trust.
In examining Psalms this quarter, we have studied week after week about how God provides, comforts, and leads. This week’s Scripture texts teach us ways to recognize that God provides experiences which draw us into peace.
But waiting on the Lord doesn’t mean that there is never any struggle. The Psalms are filled with examples of writers who cried out to God asking for deliverance, guidance, comfort, and hope. Those experiences can build one upon another, providing a foundation of trust. That trust leads to hope, and hope leads to a relationship where we can wait on the Lord. We can wait on the One we have learned to trust in, to place our hope in.
Just as Zion anticipated his father’s arrival with hope and trust, we can wait for the Lord to provide, to give peace, to bring joy to us. Imagine the joy that both Zion and his father, Nathaniel, feel as they go through this homecoming routine each day. Waiting had turned to joy.
Several texts in our study this week refer to joy coming in the morning. Psalm 30:5 ends with the words, “…but when morning comes, we will celebrate.”
How appropriate that the story of a joyful, morning reunion between the resurrected Jesus and the women, found in Mark 16:1-8, is included in this week’s Sharing Scripture!
On Friday, they had experienced the heartbreak of the crucifixion. One can only imagine that Sabbath provided rest and comfort following such an enormous loss. On Sunday morning they visited the tomb, and that morning brought joy upon their learning that Jesus was alive.
It was the gift they didn’t even realize they were waiting for, and the gift in which we also can find hope. And as it was for these women, by experiencing Sabbath and sharing God’s leading with others, our attention focuses on one of the positive aspects of waiting: hope.
For Reflection
Connecting: How have you spent time waiting this past week? Was your waiting in excited anticipation? With fearfulness? With frustration or anger? If you are comfortable, share your thoughts.
Sharing: The advice in Psalm 37:7 may seem to be a bit of an oxymoron. The words patience, trust, and wait do not often fit together in a busy world when instant gratification is encouraged. What are some activities and attitudes that can help us incorporate these three concepts into our lives?
- Begin each day with God as we read in Psalm 119:147: “Even before sunrise, I pray for your help, and I put my hope in what you have said” (CEV)
- Remember that we need to worry constantly about whether our lives are successful
- Waiting on the Lord is something that involves a continual relationship with God
- Take advantage of the opportunity of bringing peace into our lives by spending time with God through the gift of Sabbath
- Keep a careful checklist of the positive behaviors you do each day
- Other
Applying: Choose one of the passages in this Sharing Scripture about waiting on the Lord and memorize it. Throughout the coming week, ask God to show you how to apply those words when you find it a bit difficult to trust and wait. See Psalm 27:14, Psalm 37:7, Psalm 40:1, and Psalm 119:147.
Valuing: Psalm 131:2, 3, says, “But I have learned to feel safe and satisfied, like a young child in its mother’s arms. People of Israel, you must trust the Lord now and forever” (CEV). Think about that safe and secure feeling a child has when curled in the arms of a loving parent. Is that something we can experience as we spend time with God and wait on the Lord?
~ Joy Veverka
He is Risen!
“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Hanging from a cross, moments from death, Jesus gathered the strength to proclaim this bold promise to all who accept Christ as their Savior and are born in the Spirit.
2,000 years later we continue commemorating Christ’s victory over death and the consequential tearing of the veil which separated sinners from the Holy of Holies. Through death and the resurrection, Christ became our permanent High Priest, and the Holy Spirit was revealed as our permanent Comforter dwelling within us.
As Paul came to realize, other than the intentional hardening of the heart against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32), nothing has the power to undo what Christ has secured (Romans 8:31-39).
It truly is as Christ said; at the moment of His death we were irrevocably, intimately tied to the Creator God, a fact that cannot be stripped away!
All of us at the Center for Creative Ministry wish you a joyful Easter holiday as we remember and honor the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray that you are able to celebrate our Creator with your friends and family, whether it be in person for a Sabbath message and/or Easter meal, or even a Sunday-morning breakfast get-together. And if you’re not able to gather together, loved ones are only a videocall away.
God’s blessings be upon you,
Your Center for Creative Ministry Team
The Center for Creative Ministry is fully recognized by the North American Division (NAD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church; it is also a 501c3 nonprofit organization which makes donations tax deductible in the U.S.
