Perhaps you have had a day (or two) when you asked the LORD, “How shall I go on?” Perhaps it is illness, drug addiction, abusive relationship, fear, enemies who would seek to destroy you or just a sense of overwhelming fatigue . . . in looking at your circumstances, did you turn to God and ask, “How shall I go on?” And what did He say?
- Wait? Sometimes the LORD says to wait. Don’t go forward or back. Don’t go to the left or the right. Don’t seek to change your circumstances, just wait. Sometimes, the waiting is the hardest part. But we wait because He is God. Like a parent who tells a child to stay on the curb because a car is coming, God tells us to wait because He sees all things and knows all things. He tells us to wait because that is best for us. He promises “strengthen your heart” while you wait. (Ps. 27:14) Psalm 37:9 promises that ” those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth.” Isaiah says, “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.” (Isa. 40:31) As you wait, the LORD may give you new strength. He may allow you to soar above your troubles, keeping them from disturbing your peace. He may take away your fatigue, allowing you to go a little further.
- Cry out? Sometimes the LORD would have us to cry out to Him, recognizing that He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides everything. There is certainly lots of scriptural support for crying out to God in times of trouble. Psalm 18:6 tells us, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.” In Psalm 34:17, we read, “the righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.” Psalm 56:9 tells us when ” I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In Psalm 57:2, it says, “I will cry out to God Most High, To God who performs all things for me.” He is a God who hears and answers, so maybe He would have you to cry out, expecting His response.
Whether you wait or you cry, or you cry out while you are waiting, waiting and crying out are done in expectation, in faith. I wait for God to deliver me, to strengthen me. I wait because there is none other like Him. “LORD, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” (Ps. 39:7) He alone has the words of eternal life. When I cry out, I cry out to God in faith because God alone knows my circumstances. God alone has power over all things. I cry out to God because He alone is God.
Rooted and Grounded 