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The Importance of Waiting on the Lord

God has really been showing me what it means to wait on the Lord. In my simple-mindedness, I always thought it meant waiting on things in life to happen whether it be marriage or a career or anything that I hoped would happen for me in this life.

It is now obvious to me that this thinking is wrong, and, as I grow in Christ, I see two very important ideas on waiting for the Lord. The first is that I am waiting on the Lord to finish the good work and make me mature and complete in Jesus Christ. What a miracle! Only with God is it possible for this lowly body and this dead spirit to be consumed by the life of the Spirit of God. We need to realize this and be waiting expectantly for Christ's return to finish the work that He has started in our lives.

The second idea (which is very similar to the first) is that we need to live a victorious life now waiting for Christ's return to confirm that which we have been living in Christ from the moment the Spirit gave us life. I see two directions at work in the Christian life. On one hand, we are submitting ourselves to Christ and desiring Him to work in us and grow us. On the other hand, Scripture is clear that we are already victorious and we simply must live that victory. Peter says that God has given us all we need for life and godliness so clearly we don't need God to add more "stuff" to help us. This is what excites me so much about reading and studying Scripture. God has given us the Truth and how to live life to the full now, not in five years or fifty, but now. We just have to walk by faith and trust that He is that gracious and good. We must not forget, however, that it is Christ who grows us in this understanding and ability to live in victory while we wait for the Day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:7-9 says "...as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Christ will be revealed as Savior and King.
Christ will sustain us to the end.
Christ presents us guiltless before God.

I thank and praise God all the time for being so faithful. Because Christ is victorious, we are victorious! Let us never lose sight of that as we wait with expectancy for the Day of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

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