THIS YEAR

A decade ago I was in Reading, CA interviewing for the job of youth pastor. I was nervous, we were all nervous. It was the final days of the 20^th century… and Y2K was looming. Although more unassertive, this new year of 2010 holds just as much chanciness as the infamous New Year’s Eve of 1999.

What is it, you know… “it.” The one thing we need to know going into 2010, I believe unabashedly “it” is this:

There are precious promises in the Scriptures to those who wait upon the Lord. We all desire an immediate answer to our prayers, and we are tempted to become discouraged if our prayer is not immediately answered. Now my experience has taught me that this is a great mistake. The delay is for our special benefit. Our faith has a chance to be tested to see whether it is true, sincere, or changeable like the waves of the sea… faith strengthens through continual exercise.

We must pray more and in faith. We must not pray and then run away as though afraid we should receive an answer. God will not mock us. He will answer if we watch unto prayer, if we believe we receive the things we ask for, and keep believing and never lose patience in believing. This is watching unto prayer. We guard the prayer of faith with expectancy and hope. We must wall it in with assurance and be not faithless, but believing. The fervent prayer of the righteous is never lost. The answer may not come according as expected, but it will come, because God’s word is pledged.

Wait for the Lord, not in fretful anxiety but in undaunted faith and unshaken trust. (Our High Calling 134)