Wait For Instructions

Psalms 25:5 “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”

Maybe like me, instruction manuals are an anathema to you. They are usually long and complicated to read, and I would rather figure it out myself anyways. There is a reward in being able to figure out how to put something together or do something on my own without instructions. I think it is part of our God-breathed, creative nature to build things and figure things out. The corrupted and sinful part is that we want to do it on our own without help. Like a child, we tell our Heavenly Father, I don’t need your help on this one; I can do it myself.

As Christians, our manual, the Bible, is often hard to understand and apply to our lives. In fact, oftentimes it runs smack dab against our reasoning and the norms of our day. To understand it we have to take time to pray and meditate on it. When we do come to understand, it requires us to die to ourselves and do things that require effort that we don’t really want to do. It is so much easier just to do what we think is best and what everyone else is doing. So, we run through life brushing off the counsel of our Father, the source of all wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

David, though, at an early age seems to have fallen in love with God’s law. Beginning in Psalms one and then as a thread throughout his Psalms is the constant refrain of his passion for the law and the powerful effect it had on his life and success. In an age of grace it is hard to understand how someone as successful as David could be so in love with the law that seems so strict and binding. Yet, David seems to revel in the freedom and success that the law brought into his life. For to him the law was not a burden but a revelation of the nature and will of the One he loved so much.

Jesus said in John 16:12-13, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” And again in John 8:32, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." In our dark world today where truth is subject to the whims of mankind, Jesus has sent us His Spirit to bring us into His unchanging truth and a deeper revelation of Himself and the Father. We need more than ever to enroll in the school of the Spirit and the Word.

Psalms 27:14

“Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!”

Your brother in Christ,

Andy Clark