Silent Expectations

“My soul, wait silently for God alone. For my expectation is from Him” Psalm 62:5

Have you ever felt like a spinning top?  I know I have!  Life seems to be spinning right along then wham! I am off kilter and knocked for a loop.  Even though tops can be colorful and festive in appearance when that string is wound and then pulled you find out a lot about it.  One minute it is spinning with such precision that it is beautiful but then it evidently hits something or runs out of its own power and it starts to falter beginning to wobble and teeter out of control. 

Can you relate?

King David could I am sure.  

More times than you can count he was having someone or something come up against him. Even at one point his own son Absalom turned against him (2 Samuel 16-18).  But what I find comforting about King David, a man after God’s own heart, was that he learned to silently wait and expect God. 

Now that’s a lesson I want to learn!

When frustration and chaos hit, David attached his rope, remember our cord of attachment with expectation from yesterday, around what he knew.  He knew that God was his rock, his strength, his defense and when we like David wait and expect, looking in God’s direction we too will see His salvation.

Oh there will be times we must weather the storms alone.  Times when we will feel abandoned and defenseless, just like King David did, but we can grab hold of that rope attached to God and feel the tautness knowing that what it is attached it is immovable. It is then when we are securely anchored.

Wait, expect and look for God because all power belongs to Him!

Psalm 62

To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

Truly my soul silently waits for God;

 From Him comes my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation;

He is my defense;

 I shall not be greatly moved.

How long will you attack a man?

 You shall be slain, all of you,

 Like a leaning wall and a tottering fence.

They only consult to cast him down from his high position;

 They delight in lies;

 They bless with their mouth,

 But they curse inwardly. Selah

 My soul, wait silently for God alone,

 For my expectation is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation;

He is my defense;

 I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory;

 The rock of my strength,

And my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;

 Pour out your heart before Him;

 God is a refuge for us. Selah

Surely men of low degree are a vapor,

 Men of high degree are a lie;

 If they are weighed on the scales,

 They are altogether lighter than vapor.

Do not trust in oppression,

 Nor vainly hope in robbery;

 If riches increase,

 Do not set your heart on them.

 God has spoken once,

 Twice I have heard this:

 That power belongs to God.

Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy;

 For You render to each one according to his work.

Father, teach us to silently wait in expectation of You and your might works.  Help us to let go of frustrations and chaos and feel the tautness of You at the end of the rope as our Rock and Salvation.

Place of Outpouring, House of Grace…Pool of Bethesda

The Old City beckoned us that morning.  We had traveled all throughout the land of Israel but this day we would make our way through one of the many gates and walk the cobblestone streets. As we entered in through the Sheep gate we were quickly aware of the Biblical location noted in John Chapter 5.  We were standing at the entrance to the Pool of Bethesda. 

Please take a minute to read about this account in the first 15 verses of that chapter.

Captured by the grandeur of the place I let my mind drift to image what it would have been like in the days of Jesus.  Jews were required to travel to Jerusalem for at least one of the three major feast throughout the year.  The streets and gates had to be bustling with people coming to the old city of David to celebrate and offer their required sacrifices. It was the custom that a person could not go to the temple until they had bathed and purified themselves. So many would have entered through the sheep gate then went straight to the pool for cleansing.  Not only did you find the travels but as this passage shared, a great multitude of sick people lay by the pools waiting for the pools to stir.

As we read as a group the account in Chapter 5, verse 5 grabbed my attention.  “Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years”

Thirty-eight years!  Waiting for the water to stir and to be the first in for healing!

Thirty-eight years!

Waiting!!!!

Go on and re-read verse 6. “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time…”

Hold the phone!  Jesus knew he had been in that condition a long time.  Yes Jesus knows all but think with me a bit.

How often does Luke tell us that Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover? Every year (Luke 2:41)

What age does the Bible tells us Jesus went to the temple and amazed the Scholars? Twelve (Luke 2;42)

Jesus’ earthly ministry began at the age of 30 and He taught for 3 years before His crucifixion.

SO….do you think that maybe Jesus had seen this man lying beside the pool all His life?

Do you think that maybe the whole time this man lay there thinking he was unable and unnoticed that Jesus had him in his sights the whole time?

Waiting for the perfect time to bring HIM glory!

Oh friend, are you sitting beside your own “pool” waiting for a touch of healing?  Are you feeling forgotten, overlooked and discouraged?  Jesus knows and sees you!  You may be feeling like the time for a miracle has long passed by and it will never happen.  Jesus sees and already knows.  He has a perfect time planned for you and will use you to bring Him glory.  

Just keep watching for The Living Water to stir…It will!!!!