Day #199 - Wait Patiently

The Presence - A Devotional for living in Thanksgiving, Worship and Wonder

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Photo by Semyon Borisov on Unsplash

Do you ever get bothered when you see unrighteous people get away with things and seemingly succeed at their plans?

It can be rather frustrating when we see headlines or even know people directly who are prospering while doing things dishonestly or in corrupt ways. God has given us a longing for justice. Of course sin can corrupt our pure pursuit of justice, but God has wired it into us as His creation. I’ve been frustrated many times by seeing people get away with things and appear to get ahead of others while doing it.

God has an antidote to our stress over evil in the world. His antidote is “the Presence.” When we learn to be still before Him and and wait patiently for Him, we can enter into a place of rest for our soul. David is regularly crying out to God about why the evil prosper. David gets honest and shares his true emotions with God, but he learns to transcend how he feels by working through his emotions with God’s help.

When we fellowship with God in His presence, God tends to the cares of our heart. Grace and I have some friends that have often reminded us about how we aren’t supposed to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. They are referring to how much information access we all have through social media and so many ways to get the news now. We can get a constant stream of new stories to be outraged about. But how much can we really control the outcomes of world events or when people carry out their wicked plans? We need to learn to spend more time in “the Presence” than to dwell upon things we have no control over.

When we come before God we need to learn to be still before the Lord. One of the spiritual disciplines that Christians have practiced is learning stillness and waiting patiently on God. Many saints throughout the years even would take silent retreats to learn to wait on God. We need to cultivate the discipline of being still before the Lord. Learning to sit before God is a counter-cultural practice of trust in who He is.

While the world is striving to get ahead by their plotting and scheming, the believer gets ahead by slowing down and waiting patiently on the Lord. We trust the Lord to take care of evil and to take care of our needs.

Lord, forgive me for the times that I have given so much energy to negativity and those that do evil in the world. Deliver me from stress and strain. Help me to wait patiently for You and learn to sit in stillness before You. I trust You. You are a righteous judge and I can depend upon You. In Jesus name, amen.