June 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD" (Lam. 3:26).

Devotional

A believer may present a right petition in a right way, and yet he may not wait the Lord's answer in the Lord's own time. He may appoint a time, and if the Lord does not answer within that period, then he turns away, giving up all expectation of an answer. There is such a thing as waiting for the Lord (2 Kings 6:33; Ps. 27:14; 31:24; 37:9; 37:34; 130:5; Pr. 20:22; Isa. 8:17; 40:31).

The apostle alludes to and enjoins this holy patience when he speaks to the Ephesians of "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints" (Eph. 6:18). A believer may present his request, may have some degree of nearness in urging it, may press it with fervency, and yet—forgetting the hoping, quiet, waiting patience which ought always to mark a praying soul—he may lose the blessing he has sought. There is such a thing as waiting for the Lord.

Oh, how long have we made him to wait for us! For years, it may be, we kept him knocking and standing and waiting at the door of our hearts, until his own Spirit took the work into his own hands, and unlocked the heart, and the Savior entered. The Lord would now often have us wait his time in answering prayer. And, if "the vision awaits its appointed time" (Hab. 2:3), still let us wait, and hope, and expect. Let the delay but stimulate hope, and increase desire, give exercise to faith, and multiply petitions at the mercy-seat. It will come when the Lord sees best.

A believer may also lose the answer to his prayer by dictating to the Lord the mode, as well as the time, of answering. The Lord has his own mode of blessing his people. We may prescribe the way the Lord should answer, but he may send the blessing to us through an opposite channel, in a way we never thought of and would never have selected.

God sits as King upon the throne, and in nothing is his exercise of sovereignty more manifestly seen than in selecting the way and the means by which the prayers of the saints of God are answered.

Do not dictate to the Lord. If you ask a blessing through a certain channel, or in a prescribed way, let it be with the deepest humility of mind, and with perfect submission to the will of God. Be satisfied to receive the blessing at any time and in any way which a good and covenant God may appoint. Be assured, it will be in that time and way that will most glorify himself and secure to you the greatest amount of blessing.

Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard
that firm remains on high
the everlasting throne of him
who formed the earth and sky?

(Isaac Watts, 1707; alt. in Scottish Paraphrases, 1781)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.