THE LORD KEEPS HIS WORD

I have never felt more helpless and anxious than when we moved back to New York City to start Times Square Church. Once again we were subject to the mercy of the schedules of landlords and building superintendents. When I had to wait, I became quite impatient and cried, "Lord, there's so much to be done in New York and so little time. How long do we have to wait?"

Yet time after time God patiently answered me, "David, do you trust me? Then wait."

You have heard the expression, "The hardest part of faith is the last half hour." I can testify from my years in ministry that the most trying period is always just before God works his deliverance.

There are serious implications when we don't wait for God to act. In fact, too often at such times we charge God with neglect. Saul did this when he impatiently acted on his own (see 1 Samuel 13). He was saying, in essence, "God sent me out to do his work but now he has left me to figure out how to make it all happen. Things are spinning out of control and soon it will be hopeless."

Does this describe your own thinking at times? We are commanded to wait on the Lord and trust him to work out our deliverance. But when our inner deadline passes, we grow angry at God and strike out on our own. By moving ahead of him we are declaring, "God doesn't care about me. Prayer and waiting don't work. His word can't be relied on."

Yet God has given us the responsibility to prayerfully wait on him. Trust him and say, "The Lord keeps his word, so I'm not going to panic. God has told me to wait for his direction — and I will wait. Let God be true and every man a liar!” In our trials, let us be found with that posture of heart. Not in panic, but with trust!