3 Things To Do When Waiting On God

So much as occurred in the metropolitan areas of where I live lately, that it’s easy to get into a state of despair over where our culture is headed. Murder just seems to be a regular occurrence right now. Last week, a brother in Christ and a good friend lost his son while serving in his duties as a state trooper. The news in St. Louis continues to report children being shot and killed. Often it is mere children doing the killing. Nationally there is a continuous battle of those who support our president and those who don’t. Life right now just seems wrong. I pray day and night for God to change this world or for Jesus to just come back and usher in the new heaven and new earth. But until He does, I, we must wait.

At my church we are studying the Book of Acts, which is the story of the church and how it came into being. Its author is Luke, the physician who also wrote the Gospel that bears his name. While Luke’s Gospel records the story of Jesus and his life before and up to His ascension back into heaven, Acts begins at the ascension of Jesus and then tells the story of the church and its work to take the Gospel out into the world.

Chapter one of Luke finds the disciples in a very difficult place. They have just watched their leader, not just any leader, but the Son of God, the great Immanuel, God himself, ascend into the sky. They are left leaderless. But before He left Jesus gave them instructions.

Acts 1:4-5
Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me;  for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

They were told to wait. They were told to wait for what the Father has promised them. They were told they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Wait? How do like waiting? If you are anything like me, waiting has never been an easy thing. Waiting is hard. Remember when you were a child and there were presents under the Christmas tree with your name on them? But the response from mom and dad when you asked if you could open them was, no, you can’t open them until Christmas morning. So, you had to wait. But now as adults, as parents, grandparents, as employees, and even as citizens of a society that appears to be falling apart, we are often waiting on God to do what He promised. It’s hard. Especially when what we are waiting for involves those we love.

So, what do we do as we wait upon God?

In Acts 1:12-26, we see what the disciples of Jesus did.

They obeyed Jesus. He told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait. So, they did. But they didn’t just brood and worry as they waited.

Acts 1:14
These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

They devoted themselves to prayer. But they prayed together as they unified themselves with each other. The church had yet to be born. Yet, they did what church does. They gathered together and prayed.

Then they did something else.

Acts 1:15-16
At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said,  "Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

They looked at the scriptures to see what God had commanded them to do and by properly interpreting and applying God’s Word, they also obeyed scripture and followed through on replacing Judas, who had left the twelve to betray Christ.

Acts 1:20
 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’

As they waited, they turned to the scriptures and did what it had prophesied them to do. This is what church is about. Properly interpreting and then understanding how to apply the Word of God so that we know what God wants us to do. And then doing it.

Acts 1:24-26
And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen  to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”  And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

They also prayed about the scriptures and sought God’s sovereign leading in accomplishing what they were to do. That they cast lots to decide who replaced Judas does not mean we do that now. This is the last time we ever see that method of hearing from God again, for we have received the Holy Spirit, which is what they were waiting for and we have the full revelation of scripture to test what the Spirit leads us to and to insure it lines up with God’s Word.

But don’t miss the application we find here in the response of the disciples in Acts, chapter one.

When God has us in a period of waiting on Him to move, we need to do three things.

1.      We need to gather together with other believers in a spirit of prayer that is united and dependent with each other.

2.      Our prayers need to be scripture dependent. We need to pray through God’s Word.

3.      We need to pray in the Holy Spirit, meaning we are dependent on Him to guide our prayers.

It’s so tempting when things get hard and we are struggling to wait on God, to either sit and do nothing or to act impulsively in our own perceived strength and wisdom. Bad idea.

Church is important. But church is more than going to a building on a Sunday morning and just sitting through its program. Church, as we see in the Book of Acts, is God’s people uniting together in prayer and worship, and helping each other grow into obedience to God.

If you are not entrenched within a body of believers committed to Jesus and to being in one accord to unite in prayer and worship, then you must find that today. Go to church and become part of the body. Get into a small group that gathers weekly to encourage and exhort you. Find someone to be your accountability partner who will push you to be more than you are and to grow more like Jesus every day.

Waiting on God is hard. But He hasn’t left us alone. He lives within us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He gave us His Word to know who He is and what He promises to do for and to do with us. He gave us the church to put it all together in. Don’t try and isolate yourself from what God has provided for you. Become the church.

God bless all of you.