By Nicole McLeod
Tuesday 2/11/20
W orship -Adoration -Intercession - Thanksgiving
Nicole: Intro: This morning we take a “Selah” – a pause to reflect on what we have learned so far about God’s promises, to wait on the Lord, and pray and spend this time in His presence together. We have divided our morning into 3 sections:
- First section W orship and A doration –together
- Second section I ntercessory prayer – in smaller groups
- Third section T hanksgiving –together
Intro: The Bible calls us to “wait upon the Lord”, to come to Him in our full dependence, and draw near in faith and trust, as an act of devotion and worship. Scripture says: wait on God for His presence, for strength, for our needs, for perspective, for direction, deliverance, for help for ourselves and others, for renewal and to seek Him.
Jesus is our ultimate example of waiting on God.
“He who walked in spirit and truth and Who waited upon God in every situation – to do only those things that that please His Father”, taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as in Heaven. So that we too may learn to wait on God, listen and yield our lives to the leading of the Holy Spirit. “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father” Gal 4: 6 …and by this Spirit we surrender ourselves here today, as His children, to Worship and Adore Him, I ntercede and give Him Thanks.
- Worship and Adoration . (30 minutes)
- Devotion: Psalm 130 Wait in Hope
1
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
2
O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas
for mercy! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his Word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord
there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
This Psalm has a message for us today. Those who wait on the Lord wait in hope. From the depths of his heart the psalmist has cried out to the Lord for His mercy, knowing He is gracious merciful and forgiving (vs 1-4), and now he waits expectantly.
Vs 5: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word, I put my hope. The psalmist is not just waiting for help, but is waiting for the Lord himself, for His presence. We don’t base our hope on our feelings or circumstances, but we base our hope fully on the word of God and trust God’s promises to us in Christ. When we put our hope in the Lord and in his word, we may wait for the Lord expectantly, and can pray like David did in Psalm 5 when he wrote: “ In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” Psalm 5:3
Vs. 6 , the psalmist gives us a beautiful and poetic description of what it looks like to wait for the Lord expectantly. “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” It’s the picture of looking up to the Lord, like waiting for the break of day, looking forward to the sunrise we know is coming – a picture of waiting, expecting and anticipating. Are you in the dark… facing the unknown or in a situation where you don’t know what to do – and are praying and waiting for that ray of His light to breakthrough? Keep praying in hope for it, it will come.
The Old Testament is filled with faithful believers, who waited - and held on in faith in spite of their problems, such as Job, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David — they all had to wait for many years for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Waiting on the Lord is hard, but while they were waiting on the Lord, God was working out His promises.
In the New Testament we wait for the Lord’s return, we watch and pray in the Spirit and serve Him while looking for and longing for and living for Him - as the NT verses on waiting for the Lord teach us to do. And as we wait on the Lord, we believe He is working in us and working out His plans for us as well.
“God often shapes the details of our lives into stories that cause our faith to be stretched. He teaches us to wait on Him even when we would prefer to do otherwise. He teaches us to rest in Him even when we would prefer to play God. Let us learn not to doubt or usurp God, but to trust Him and to wait by faith. ”
I learned something beautiful about what it means to wait on the Lord- may this fill us with hope as we go to prayer this morning together.
The word most often translated “wait” (in the sense of waiting on the Lord) is the Hebrew Qavah means: (1)“to bind together” (perhaps by twisting strands as in making a rope), (2) “look patiently,” (3) “tarry or wait,” and (4) “hope, expect, look eagerly.”
So… thinking of these meanings of the word wait: as we wait on God, we bind together with Him, look patiently to Him, we tarry, wait – spending extended time with Him, and by faith, hope, expect His promises and look eagerly to Him… this is not passive, but a very active use of our faith and time.
Isaiah 40:31 is a familiar verse to many of us…
“but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
Those wait -who bind together with (like strands of a rope) – and spend time in His presence will renew their strength. How many of us need His strength renewed in us today, and the power of the Holy Spirit to run the race set before us… to walk, and not faint. It comes as we take time like this to wait upon Him and draw near. Waiting and hoping in His presence … are wound together like the strands of a rope. Let’s put our hope in the Lord and in His promises as we go to Him now in prayer. I echo the thought in verse 7 to close: “O (sisters), as we lift our prayers today… put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption .”
close in prayer : Father, thank You for this special time to wait upon you today. Thank you for Jesus who walked in spirit and truth and Who waited upon You in every situation – to do only those things that that please You. Father in the power of the Holy Spirit I pray that we too may learn to wait on You and rest in Your will. Thank you for hearing our prayers and for working as we wait in hope for the answers, in Jesus name amen
Wait for the LORD; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD. Ps 27:14