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A Personal Pep Talk

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  Psalm 27:14

As my children grow older, I look for opportunities to give them a chance to exercise more and more independence.  It began whenever they were toddlers and wanted to walk ahead of Mom and Dad on nature trails or through the hallways at church.  As the years pass, they are wanting to express that independence in parking lots and shopping centers.  As calm as I try to remain in letting them delve into the world of independence, I often find myself saying, "Don't get too far ahead!".  I just can't help it!  I feel such a strong intuition to protect them in all circumstances and I can understand and foresee danger that they aren't capable of seeing. 

That same scenario has played out in my personal walk with God many times.  As a loving Father, He has seen me getting too far ahead of Him and He has lovingly told me to slow down and wait for Him.  In so many instances I have resembled my children in my desire to exercise independence, and I have forgotten that the best place for me to walk is hand in hand with God.

When David is writing Psalm 27, he is proclaiming his assurance and confidence in the fact that he knows his God will deliver him from the forces that are trying to bring him down.  In addition to it containing a prayer for deliverance, it's almost as if he ends Psalm 27 with a personal pep talk to himself.  He's spent the whole chapter praising God for what He has already done, as well as petitioning Him for what he needs Him to do, but he ends it with the personal reminder to himself to be patient and wait for the Lord.

David was in the midst of calamity and could have very well resorted to the method of solving problems that I have been known to rely on:  try to fix everything himself.  I find it hard sometimes to sit on the battlefield and patiently wait for God's direction or deliverance.  I resort to concocting my own plan of attack based on what seems logical and most likely to improve my situation. 

However, getting ahead of God has gotten me into plenty of tight spots.  Not only has it occasionally brought on more problems on top of what I was already experiencing, but I'm also certain that it has kept me from experiencing many blessings that were waiting for me just around the bend.

I'm reminded of a time that the disciples were patient and waited on the Lord and were then afforded the opportunity to receive a magnificent blessing.  Luke records it like this:

"On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command:  "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."  Acts1:4-5

If they had allowed their fear of being in Jerusalem, the place where their Savior was arrested, sentenced, and crucified, to cause them to flee the city, they would have missed one of the greatest experiences of their lives.  They would have missed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost!  Jesus must have known that they would have the tendency to want to hit the road and get away from Jerusalem after everything they had witnessed, so His advice for them to "wait" was just what they needed to hear.

Do you need to heed those same instructions that Christ gave His disciples?

Are you tempted to run off ahead of Him, instead of waiting and experiencing a potential blessing that He has waiting for you? 

Have you grown weary in waiting for Him to deliver you from a particular battle you're in, so you're tempted to devise your own plan of attack, rather than trusting in His timing and His plan?

Just as I can foresee potential dangers or problems for my children if they get too far ahead of me, God wants to protect you and I from those same sort of things.  By waiting on Him, we're always safer and even more apt to not miss out on a blessing that was meant to be ours.

 Maybe you and I both need to give ourselves a little pep talk, just like David.  Claim his words as your own today:
 
"I am still confident of this:  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 

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