“Do something! We can’t just stand around and do nothing. What can we do?” “Don’t do anything. This time you must have faith and wait on the Lord.” Faith has two sides. At times, it is active requiring action on our part and at other times, it is passive when we must do nothing, trust God, and wait for His timing. Doing nothing and waiting on God is one of the most grueling seasons of a Christian’s life and requires the greatest exercise of our faith. Doing nothing is easier when we know the time of closure. Yet, difficulty rises exponentially when we must wait on God without knowing when He will fulfill His promise or intervene in our situation or even if it will have the results, we desire.
Scripture give numerous examples of those who took action when they should have done nothing and waited on the Lord. One with clear lessons is Abraham and Sarah concerning the birth of Isaac. God promised Abram He would make him a great nation (Gen 12:2). Problem was producing a nation required that Abram have descendants. After years passed with no child, he and Sarai grew impatience and apparently adopted Eliezer their servant as their heir, which was a normal custom among the people around them. This was not God’s plan and He came to Abram in a vision. Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” v3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” v4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir” (Gen 15:2-4).
Sarai rationalized she had to take action and do something. Since she believed she was too old to bare children and God made no mention of her in Abram’s vision, she followed the customs of the heathen nations around them and gave Hagar her handmaid to Abram to serve as a surrogate mother. She bore Ishmael. When he was between 12 and 14 years old, Lord appeared to Abram and reconfirmed His covenant. God also gave a new promise, Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac (Gen 17:19). Even then, there was a period of at least three months before she conceived and possibly two to three months before she knew she was pregnant. Think about all the doubts and thoughts that must have gone through their minds during those six months.
David serves as a good example of one who waited on God. Samuel anointed David to be King when he was a young boy. It would at least another 15 years before he became the King of Judah and 20 years to become King of Judah and Israel. During the time before he became King, Saul repeatedly sought to kill him. David was constantly fleeing and hiding. Twice David had opportunities to kill Saul and claim the throne. Both times he tells his men, “Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord‘s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord‘s anointed” (Gen 24:6; 26:11). In 26:10, he adds, As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. He believed God had an appointed time to remove Saul so David would wait until God acted even though he was enduring difficult circumstances.
Knowing if we either take action, or wait requires wisdom from the Holy Spirit based on the Word. The more of the Word we know the better we can make this choice. We must always keep in mind as fallen humans, we are prone to be impulsive and take matters into our own hands. The sons of Korah in Psalms 46 described a turbulent world with nations in an uproar and kingdoms tottering—much like our world today. In verse 10, it says, Be still, and know that I am God (NIV); Cease striving and know that I am God (NASV); Be at peace in the knowledge that I am God (BBE) and the verse concludes I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. I summarize this, you don’t have to do anything; God is in charge and will be exalted. This is true in world affairs and events in our lives.
Faith is more than an intellectual fact in someone’s mind. Most of the time it requires action but we all know people who claim they believe the Bible and have faith in Jesus. Yet, nothing ever changes in their lives. They never take action on clear Biblical teaching. However, there are times when in reality there is nothing we can do and must not even try. We can only trust God and wait in faith on His promises. Someone said, if God closes the door, don’t climb in a window.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Sometimes faith requires action and sometimes obedience means we wait. Waiting usually requires greater faith. Remember, obedience active or passive brings God’s blessing.