Remember and Wait
As we are in the midst of our end of the year fundraising, I have been reflecting on what it means to live by faith. That sounds so calm and thoughtful, doesn’t it? Like I’m sitting next to a tree by a gentle stream somewhere and just decided to ponder the life of faith. Well, when I say “reflecting” what I mean to say is that I have been up in the middle of night wondering how in the world he is going to bring in the rest of the budget for the year. It’s an annual exercise of freaking out and needing the Lord to come through. I’m sure none of you can relate. It may not be money related, but now that I’ve mentioned money that probably hasn’t helped….but there’s some unsolved problem you are living with wondering how in the heck is this going to work out. That’s probably the gist of your prayers over it too. “What the heck, Lord?!”
Well, one of my good friends, who also happens to be a pastor, posted recently, “‘wait’ and ‘remember’…2 of the most dominant themes in the Bible.” He is very right. Our general obsession with the future…thinking, planning, worrying about what is to come…what might be…often robs us of life. It steals the moment away from us (something I wrote more about here). C.S. Lewis addressed this obsession in his typically thoughtful and witty way (maybe he actually was sitting by a tree next to a gentle stream) saying, “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is” (The Screwtape Letters, ch. 25). In other words, quit worrying about it so much…you can’t make it happen any faster or somehow slow it down or avoid its arrival by anything you do or don’t do. It will happen. Jesus said something similar, “do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34). You can only live right now, right where you are.
When the obsession over the future begins to crowd your mind remember and wait. Remember what God has done for you. Look back on your life story and remember how he has brought you to where you are. It will not be all roses…certainly not. As Waterdeep sings, “It’s a long hard road…” There are peaks and valleys all along the way…loss and grief…love and joy…successes and mistakes. And through it all is the fact that you are still here. He has not left you. He has brought you through to this point. Whatever you may be in the midst of right now where you don’t know how you’re going to make it through…remember and wait. Remember the times in the past when you couldn’t see a way through and remember how he surprised you by how he in fact did get you through it. I am sure it was not what you expected, and I am sure it probably did not go according to whatever plan(s) you made. But he brought you through.
And remember his promises to you. Remember that he has promised to never let you go…to never leave you…to always be with you right where you are (Joshua 1:9 and Rom. 8:38-39). Remember he has promised to give you all that you need (Matt. 6:7-8 and 7:11). Remember that he has proven his faithfulness over and over in your life already and not least of all because of the gift of his Son Jesus Christ for you (Rom. 8:31-32). And remember that he has guaranteed your future and it is good (Jer. 29:11 and Eph. 1:11-14). It will happen.
Remembering will put all of your worries and concerns into context. It doesn’t invalidate them, rather it acknowledges them (Php. 4:4-7) and puts them into the light of HIS faithfulness…faithfulness to his people from the dawn of time and to you since you came into this world. Kate and I have another wise pastor friend who mentored us in the ways of recovery and in various 12 Step groups. He would frequently speak to this underlying fear and anxiety in all of us (himself included). He loved to take our ages and break them down into days. I’m 43 now, so he’d say to me, “You’ve been alive for roughly 15,695 days, and God has taken care of you every single one of those days up to now, and you think that today will be the day that he suddenly stops, that he says, ‘that’s it…done caring for Sean’?” It was a wonderful way to highlight our fear of abandonment, legitimize our need for comfort and reassurance, and then to put it all into context. Remembering shrinks our worries and concerns down to size. They appear to be mountains from our perspective, but next to the God of the universe, who created all things, who knew all your days before he made you (Psalm 139:16)…those mountains are smaller than the ridges of his finger print. “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt. 17:20). He will make a way…he will bring you through.
Creation, Kate Norris, 2021, oil on canvas, 84”x60”
The truth of God’s faithfulness to keep his promises will give you the grace to wait (2 Cor. 1:20-22). Wait on him. Most of the time we think it’s the other way round…we think he is waiting on us. Waiting for us to do something, so that he can finally do something. That same old instinctive sin in us that constantly tells us we are in the driver’s seat and Jesus is in the passenger seat. I know you’ve seen that bumper sticker: Jesus is my co-pilot. But, it’s not true. Scripture presents a much different picture. He is not waiting on us. He knows what is in the hearts of people (John 2:24-25). He is the subject. He is the instigator (Rom. 5:8). He is the actor. He is the only pilot. More accurately, he is our loving and attentive Parent, to carry on the theme from my post two weeks ago, and we are his beloved children. We wait on him. We live right where we are dealing with the things that are right in front of us, and we wait for him to provide the solution to that unsolved problem, whatever it may be.
Practically, the way this works is we hold him to his promises. That’s what prayer is…remembering his promises and reminding him of his promises. This is what Martin Luther called having a “fighting faith” or being a “fighting Christian”…faith that contends with our fickle feelings and holds God to his promises (Luther’s Works 17:132). He loves nothing more than to have his children do this. It is not as if he has forgotten his promises (Psalm 89:33-35), far from it, but rather this is what being in relationship with him looks like…coming to him in our weakness…depending on him for our daily bread. This is what faith does…it clings to his promises and constantly brings them before God asking him to keep them. And he does. Thank God faith itself is a gift from him (Eph. 2:8). Remember and wait. He will not fail you. He promises you. Waterdeep goes on singing, “It’s a long hard road with a good good end.” Amen.
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