I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. WAIT for the Lord; be strong and take heart and WAIT for the Lord. Psalm 27 13-14
There are days that I forget that Jesus is always with me. Those days when my to do list just keeps growing and growing. Those days that change in a second at 5am: sick children, the 'oh I forgot' conversations, or 'boy, I wish I would have looked at the calendar'. It is in the midst of "craziness" that I try to stop and see the goodness of God in this world. The land of the living is truly eternity with my savior although searching for his goodness in the land of the dead is searching for life in Christ amongst the pain, sorrow, doubt, and loneliness of this fallen world.
It is amazing how the land of the living keeps on living no matter what is on my to do list. Have you ever just STOPPED! Waiting on the Lord is one huge task; one HUGE blessing. I know it is important and extremely hard or David would not have told us to do it twice in one sentence. As I read this, David declares for us to Wait on the Lord! Then, he gives us instructions on how to WAIT on the Lord:
Be strong: this word means to strengthen, persevere, be helpful, used to describe battle scenes.
Take heart: this phrase represents the innermost feelings, mind, senses, perceptive nature.
There are many ways we are told to be strong. Take the focus off of us and turn to God. Read, listen and study elements of faith. Go beyond yourself to help others. Keep moving forward. Battle scenes take preparations and hard work to persevere through the enemy to victory.
Taking heart is like the phrase 'the heart and soul.' God will strengthen our innermost being when we take action to be strong in HIM. Our mind and emotions will be in the will of God when we move to be strong in Christ. Using our time wisely to become mature in Jesus is our goal during the wait. That may be simply asking the question 'what am I to learn?' and search out the answer through quiet prayer and devotion... Listening is an action word!
Waiting is actually an action also. We are to actively wait on the Lord. David gives us instructions on how to wait on the Lord and then reminds us to continue to wait. In our society we wait for little. We want what we want when we want it! We may think we are waiting but David waited from the age of 16 to 30 before he was crowned king. Have you ever waited that long on God's plan? You know HIS plan always prevails against man's plans.
