The way to refreshment is through waiting. Isaiah 40:31 says, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (KJV). The Hebrew word for wait means to bind by twisting.
Waiting is difficult. We have plans, desires and needs we want answered. Yet God has his own plans, desires, and purposes for our lives. While we wait upon the Lord, He goes after the things in our heart that need to be addressed – attitudes, entrenched mind sets, besetting sins etc until we are bound to a single plan – God’s plan.
In the process, we can be discouraged and weakened. However, Psalms 119:49-50 tells us God’s promises refresh our bodies and spirits. When we pray we take to Him the promises He spoke to us through His word. And so we are renewed in His presence by remembering that He is a covenant keeping God who keeps His word. He supplies us the grace to wait upon Him to fulfill what He said in the Scriptures. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2: 10, “all the promises in Christ are yes and amen.”
Anyone can wait but true waiting requires patience. Hebrews 10:35-36 warns us not cast away our confidence but we have a need for endurance or as in the original meaning, remaining behind, and patient enduring.
We can chose to wait as difficult as it might be because God is patient with us. Sometimes the height of our freedom to soar is the limitations set by a God who has no bounds. Only then are we truly free.
We want to refresh others by being a people marked by patience by enduring hardship rather than being a people who are agitated, stirred and impatient.
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