Live Free with Josh Howerton - God is Never in a Hurry | Ep. 122 | Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Get ready to redefine the concept of waiting and discover the blessings that come along with it! In today's episode, Pastor Mike explores how to wait actively and live dependently on God. Trust us, waiting will never be the same again! For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive, where we spend a few minutes just trying to get to know God better. Hey, my name is Mike, and in recent days, we've been talking about how God guides us and speaks to us and leads us. And we've been unpacking this whole, I want to know God's will for my life thing.

And we've been learning some principles about, quote, unquote, God's will, such as God's will is so much more about who we are than what we do or where we go. We've learned that God longs for us to desire him more than just his answers for our life. And we learned that our role is not so much to find God's will as it is to just follow his voice. And all last week, we unpacked the story of a young guy named Joseph. If you missed any of you, you ought to go back and check it out, one of my favorite stories in the entire Bible. And we learned a few more principles through his story, such as God really does have a plan for our life. He just has a much better view from above. And we learned that God is always at work, even when it's dark, even when we can't see it.

And his story, Joseph's story, concluded with the culmination of this principle. God's plan is to have the right person in the right place at the right time for his right purposes. Now this week, I want to focus in on waiting on God. Joseph got a glimpse of his future when he was 17 years old, but dude had to wait, had to wait for 13 years. Let me ask you, anybody enjoy waiting? I mean, you're in a job interview, and somebody asks, like, what are some of your really strong points? How many of you would say, well, you know what? I'm a great waiter.

I've always been a really good waiter. I don't mean like a Denny's or Outback. I mean, I'm a great waiting person. I just love to wait. Fact is, if there's three or four people in the crowded parking lot going for the same space, I just hang back. I love the crews around the lot, helping other people find a space before me. I just love being the last one.

And during the Christmas shopping season, man, I love it. When people are doing their returns, they're bringing back eight things, they're getting four more things. They can't find their receipt. And they're digging through their purse, and the credit card doesn't go through, so they have to get another one. is love standing there waiting in line. Oh, and elevators love. Love the wait for them. I stand back and watch some busy guy keep pushing the button to try to make it come faster, but I get excited when I see

it's got 15 more floors to come down before it gets to me. And if I could ever get stuck on one, oh, that would be like heaven. And man, I love it when my flight is delayed and I get to wait in the airport. And then the flight finally arrives are ready to go and there's a slight maintenance issue. and they make us all deplane, and then the flight gets canceled, and I get to spend the night in the terminal? Oh, man, I just love that. There's nobody you ever met in the entire history of the world who has listed as one of their strong points that they are a good waiter.

I mean, our fast food drive-through door-dashing 5G microwavable culture doesn't wait very well. You see, weighting weighting, equals in our mind inactivity. and inactivity is just unacceptable. So into our restless culture, into your restless heart and mind, comes a word from God, written down thousands of years ago, and these will be our verses for the week. Psalm 37, beginning in verse 3. Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and he will do it. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Did you catch that last little line, rest of the Lord and wait patiently for him? Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him, relax in the strength, the power, the presence of God, and just wait patiently for him to act. And wouldn't you know it?

God is never in a hurry. I mean, oftentimes we get so impatient that we just go our own direction, go ahead, do our own thing, and it all blows up on our face, right? and I think God says, listen, before you can go and do, I just want you to come and be, and that means you're going to have to learn how to wait. Now, before we can learn how to wait, I think we're going to have to redefine the word. You see, in our culture, the word wait means inactivity, which translates, I'm spinning my wheels, I'm twiddling my thumbs, and it's wasting my time.

But in God's way of thinking, waiting doesn't necessarily mean inactivity. Waiting from God's point of view is an active thing. to wait means you keep moving through life while you rest in the assurance that God is at work in your life. We've been learning that God does have a plan for our lives. He just happens to have a much better view from above. And it means that I believe that he really does have my best interest at heart and wants to shape me into the right kind of person. Therefore, I'll just continue to move through my life, doing my job, loving my family, encouraging my friends and serving my world all the while, resting in his wisdom, trusting his heart. for me, getting to know him better, being sensitive to his voice of leadership. That's what it means to wait on the Lord. It doesn't mean you say, well, you know what, it says in that verse. He says,

rest in the Lord, you know what, I got a couple of big-time decisions to make. So you know what, I'm just going to quit my job, go lay down, take a nap with God, and maybe I'll wake up and it'll all be a lot clearer. Some of you might be sleeping through some of the greatest moments of your life. I mean, waiting doesn't mean you sit in your boat like Tommy boy and say, can I get a little wind here? It means you hoist your sail and start moving where God is already blowing you. To rest in God means to actively link up our lives with the purposes that he wants to accomplish to us today and to relax in the confidence that his will is being done in our lives, even while we have to wait for specific answers.

You see, waiting is an active thing. So the principle is this. You wait actively and live dependently. You wait actively and live independently. dependently. So let me read those verses again before we quit today. Psalm 37. It says this, trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself on the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in him and he will do it. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

Hey, we'll dive deeper into this tomorrow, but you're going to have to wait, sorry. Have a great day. for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.com slash daily drive.