Part 3- Waiting on the Lord

Lamentations 3:21-26

21  This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

22  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.

23  They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.

24  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

25  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.

26  It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.

In part one, I focused on verse 21 and the hope that Jeremiah found in God when he was in terrible grief. Last week in part two, I looked at verses 22 and 23 at God’s mercy, compassion and faithfulness. The hope that I find in Jesus Christ is new every morning as I continue in my daily Christian walk. God’s mercy, compassion and faithfulness are new every morning as I am given another day to serve Him and give my life to Him. Now I would like to look at verses 24 through 26 and begin with “The Lord is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I hope in Him!” Look at the expression that Jeremiah uses at the end of this verse. An exclamation mark shows Jeremiah’s excitement and true hope in his God and Creator!!

So what does Jeremiah mean when he says that the lord is his portion? Jeremiah is counting on God to be his “portion”. In the old testament everyone got a portion of the inheritance except for the tribe of Levi. They were the tribe of the priesthood and were not a part of the inheritance divided between the tribes, however their needs were taken care of by all the other tribes put together. Jeremiah was of the priesthood so he did not have an earthly inheritance so to speak. And since God’s people were either killed or taken into captivity by the Babylonians at this time, there was no one left to take care of the needs of anyone much less the priests. Jeremiah is again reaffirming his hope in God. His portion is God and he remembers this at his low point. His remembrance of this fact begins to bring him out of his depression. Deuteronomy 10:9 reminds us that “Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him.” We can apply this concept to us today. We have a spiritual portion if we are in Christ. We are joint heirs with Christ which is an amazing thought to me!! It’s hard for me to wrap my head around that!! We are children of God. Jesus was God’s son so that makes us joint heirs to all God’s blessings with Christ. Listen to Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” And I have to mention Galatians 3:26-29 which explains this beautifully, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” If we are in Christ, we are heirs with God’s Son, Jesus Christ!! We are in Christ if we have been baptized into Him for the remission of our sins. So just like Jeremiah, God is my portion!! And He is my hope through Jesus Christ because I am in Him. What a blessing! How absolutely perfect!

In verse 25, Jeremiah continues to reassure himself that God is good. He tells himself that if He seeks God and waits patiently for His will, that everything will work out for the good. It’s like he is saying, “God is with me. I got this. I will get through this.” It’s hard to wait on something that we want so badly though, isn’t it? We want all the good things to happen just when we want them to happen. However, nothing in this world is on our timetable. It’s God’s timetable that everything is based on and has been since the beginning of time itself. We always need to remember that God’s timetable is perfect. He allows His will to unfold according to his eternal plan. Our minds can’t comprehend his timetable. Jesus himself said in Acts 1:7 before His ascension into heaven, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” This was after Jesus had been asked by His disciples if He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. (Acts 1:6) So even at that time, they were not told everything. They were told only what God deemed important for them to know. It is this way with us. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know God holds the future. And as we wait on the Lord we just have to remember Romans 8:28. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” This verse is one that helps me let go of worry and anxiety about the future. It also helps me to know that everything is in God’s control and if I just love and obey God, then I can get through any trial that I have to face. This is what Jeremiah is saying also. He knows that God is good to those who seek Him and wait on Him. In order to wait on the Lord, we have to have faith. Hebrews 11:6 says this so beautifully, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” To wait on Him means that we have faith that He will do everything He promises, and that He will make everything work out for the good no matter what happens. But we can’t ever forget that we have to seek Him. How do we do that? Romans 12:2 tells us how to do that. We “renew our minds” with God’s word daily. We are not seeking Him if we are not in His word. I remind myself of this all the time. We find God in His Holy Word. Jeremiah 29:13 says it all, “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart.” Whoa!! Now I ask myself, am I seeking Him with ALL my heart? Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” But we have to seek Him with all our heart and soul! (Deuteronomy 4:29) I can say I am seeking God, but am I truly seeking Him? And if I am seeking God through His word, then I can’t forget the verse in Matthew 6:33 that tells me to seek first the kingdom of God which means seek first His church, Jesus’ church, the one He died for. Seeking God cannot be taken lightly friends. I am soooo a work in progress in all of this! On a side note, let’s think about this question. When are we closest to God? I believe that we can all agree that we are closest to God when we are going through trials. It is natural for us as humans to cling to God in our deepest despair and darkest times. Look at Jeremiah. He was clinging to God for dear life during this time in his life. Look at David in Psalm 51. He was on his knees praying for forgiveness, begging God to forgive him and to spare the life of his child that he had with Bathsheba. I have done the same thing in my own life. When I have lost loved ones or when I have gone through times of depression when dealing with something difficult, I have looked to God’s word to comfort me. I think of the times I have gotten myself caught up in the world and in sin and had to ask for forgiveness privately and publicly. I was holding on to my Father in heaven for dear life during those times. But what about in the good times? Do we give God as much attention during our happy times when everything is smooth sailing in our lives? I really am working on this because I feel like I have fallen short in this terribly. Let’s ask ourselves why we are having happy times? Why are things going so smoothly in our lives? It’s because of God. God is allowing us to have these good times and we need to make sure we cling to Him in those moments as well. We need to have a heart filled with gratitude every day that we live, in good times and in bad. We cling to Him for comfort in hard times, but we should also cling to Him during the good times because we know they come from Him. Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NKJV) says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him.” I really like the way the New Living Translation says it, “Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.” This is basically saying that we should never take anything that God has done for us for granted. We need to cling to God in one way or another every day that we live. And remember that we do not know our future here on this earth. We can’t know it. This is why we cling to Him in both prosperity and adversity. This is what He wants from us.

 However, we CAN KNOW our eternal future if we have obeyed Him and if we are being faithful in our daily Christian walk. Our eternal future is really all that matters. Our eternal soul is precious to God and He wants us with Him. Christian friends, let’s cling to Him every day that we live. Just think about all He has done for us. And just think about how well He knows each one of us. Our very hairs are numbered! (Matthew 10:30) That just boggles my mind, friends! He knew us before we were conceived, when we were “yet unformed”! (Psalm 139:16) Go read all of Psalm 139 and you will see how intimately God knows us. So if He knows us so intimately and personally, isn’t it only natural that He would want a close relationship with each one of us? That He would want us to cling to Him in times of trouble and cling to Him in gratitude for all the good things in our lives? This is just something I thought of while studying these verses, food for thought!!

Let’s move on to verse 26 which talks about waiting quietly. Jeremiah says that it is good that we should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. The hope that Jeremiah has in God and His promises is the reason why Jeremiah is able to wait on the Lord. The verse says to wait quietly. This means that I should wait without complaining. This is a gut punch because I am not good at waiting without complaining. I am working on this as well. What good does it do for me to appear to be waiting on the Lord if I am complaining about every little thing that doesn’t go my way while I am waiting? I certainly don’t want to be like the Israelites and be a complainer and a whiner, but let’s face it, sometimes I am! So how can I fix this problem of complaining? How can I learn to wait quietly on the Lord? Wow, I love the perfection of God’s word and how everything fits together so beautifully and perfectly. I know what to do to fix it. I have written about it. I need to be in God’s word. I need to pray to God for strength in times when I feel like complaining. I need to become the “living sacrifice” that Romans 12:1-2 calls me to be and “transform” myself by the “renewing of my mind” so that I can “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Complaining goes against everything we read in the Bible. We are told to be content and how can we be content if we are complaining and having a negative attitude? Complaining is conforming to this world which we are told not to do in Romans 12:2. Now don’t get me wrong. When I say complain, I am not talking about expressing our feelings in a constructive and helpful way. We can talk about our feelings as long we do it and still remain Christ-like. Look how Christ expressed His feelings of anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane before He was taken to be crucified. He knew what was going to happen to Him. He prayed to God, His father, for Him to let this cup pass from Him if it was possible, but then we know what He said next, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will”. (Matthew 26:39) Jesus wasn’t complaining! He was venting His feelings to His father! There is a difference between complaining and simply venting about something that may be stressful, scary, or just plain annoying. We have to vent sometimes to let our feelings out. Our mental state has to have this type of venting to remain healthy. However, there is a fine line and we have to guard against complaining in an unproductive way. Unproductive complaining includes placing blame for things that happen on someone else whether it be on other people or on God. It is when we don’t take responsibility for our own actions. It is when we are never content with anything we have or anything that is done for us. Everything is always someone else’s fault. Does this sound like the children of Israel? And yes, I have to ask myself, do I do this sometimes? Does my venting go too far and turn into complaining, placing blame, or being ungrateful for what I have? 

On the flip-side, sometimes our complaints are warranted and productive. This is minor but here is an example. I go to a restaurant and I ask for my steak to be well-done and it comes out rare. I politely give a complaint to the waitress and she takes it back and corrects the order. This is a warranted and productive complaint. My feelings are acknowledged and the problem is resolved. In everyday life sometimes there are honest mistakes that need to be corrected. And then sometimes we need to voice our feelings when we are truly being treated unfairly, but we must do this in the right way, with the right attitude, in a Christian way, with honesty, integrity and class. We have the right to defend our Lord and Savior, ourselves, our loved ones, and our beliefs. However, we don’t have the right to complain about everything we don’t get our way about and act in a way that is not Christ-like. If we are Christians, we should definitely not be complainers. Complaining is worldly. Paul tells the Christians at Philippi in Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world….” If we want to “shine as lights” in this dark world, we have to do things without complaining. 

So what was Jeremiah waiting quietly for? Christian friends, what are we waiting quietly for? I know that when I pray for things, I have to wait on God’s timetable for the answers. I have to wait without complaining and wait in contentment. But what am I ultimately waiting for? I am waiting on the same thing Jeremiah was waiting for, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah knew someone was coming to bring salvation to the world. Anytime salvation is discussed in the old testament, this is a messianic prophecy. Jeremiah was waiting for God to bring salvation into the world through Jesus Christ. He knew that God would preserve His people. He knew that God would keep that promise no matter what terrible things were happening at that time. Is that not what we all are waiting for? The only difference between us and Jeremiah is that we are waiting for Jesus Christ to come back a second time and take us home to heaven with God our Father. If we are in Christ and are living faithful, then we have nothing to fear! 

To sum up this series of lessons, we should always remember that God is our spiritual portion through Jesus Christ. We have a portion of a spiritual inheritance with Christ. Let’s never forget that our hope is a living hope through Jesus Christ. Let’s always remember that God’s mercy, compassion, and faithfulness are infinite and they are new every morning. And finally, let’s use Jeremiah’s example and remember to wait quietly on the salvation of the Lord. Christian friends, Isaiah 40:31 is such a beautiful verse of hope as we wait on the Lord, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” This paints such a beautiful picture of us, God’s children, as we wait on God’s timetable. 

I’m asking myself these questions as I end, do I feel the way the apostle Paul felt? That to live is Christ and to die is gain? (Philippians 1:21) Do I truly know that nothing on this earth can ever compare to heaven? And while I am here, is my purpose to do my best to help others know how to get to heaven?

Friends, I hope this helps in your Christian walk this week. Everything that I write is always written straight to myself first because I am such a work in progress and have so much I need to work in my Christian walk. I am so thankful for those of you who take the time to read my articles. It is so encouraging to me. Hope everyone has a wonderful Lord’s Day and a blessed week ahead!

Friends, here is God’s plan of salvation for anyone who needs to hear it:

• We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 
• Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 
• Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 
• Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 
• Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) 
• Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)

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