Acid Test Series 7 of 8 - Waiting on God — Al Whittinghill

Drawing Near to God Through the Blood of Jesus

Chapter 10 of Hebrews. We're going to need to move right along this morning. As I have been seeking the Lord about what to share, I've really been surprised because, you know, He always speaks to us where our needs are, not just according to the series.

And I believe that He has told me to kind of move off the track a little bit of the blood this morning and talk where our needs are. And so in Hebrews chapter 10, although it is along the lines of the blood, we want to look at verse 19.

It says, Hebrews 10, 19, having therefore brethren, sisters, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his own flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. The reason we can do it is because he is faithful that promised. The three havings in those verses, having therefore boldness, having a high priest, and having our hearts sprinkled.

Back in chapter 9, verse 14, we know that our hearts are sprinkled with the blood. It's all the approach to God based upon the blood, and we've seen that. And our attitude in these verses, first of all, is a true heart.

We've got to be honest with God, having a true heart, coming to God honestly. Second, with a full assurance of faith in what? Well, in that precious testimonial of the efficacy of his blood, having a heart full of assurance of faith, the fact that God's invited us.

And then also, not only a true heart and full assurance of faith, but a cleansed heart, having our hearts sprinkled from guilt and an evil conscience because we've been honest. And then a body that is washed in pure water, a lifestyle that is being changed and washed and cleansed by the word.

And then we can come without any doubt and be before God. Well, I just thought the Lord would have me share this morning some thoughts on a much needed subject, especially for missionaries, especially for men and women of God who are leaders that I can't think of anything more important than what I'm going to share with you this morning.

Translating Truth Into Living Reality

Have you ever sensed a deep futility in your own Christian life? Or either you've counseled somebody else, and they have all the facts, and they've been to seminars, and they got their bookworms, tapeworms, book boggle seminar soap, tape traumatized.

They're just full, and you can't help them, and you don't know why. And there's some reason. Well, truth is seen, it's admired, it's desired, but there seems to be an invisible barrier, kind of a wall there that you just can't get through, and you even maybe bumped your head.

Well, I want to talk about translating truth into living reality. In your life, all the stuff you're getting, and this is my next and last shot at you, and I'm asking the Lord to make this session one that would make the whole two weeks worth it because it'll affect you from now on in translating truth to living reality, making room in our lives for the Word of God so that we can draw near.

That's God's goal for us. So it's a great secret to bring transformation into our life. This secret, though, is little known, and those that know it even often do not really emphasize it. I think we live in a day of instant everything.

Even in other societies, they're becoming instant everything. It's instant tea, instant coffee, instant gasoline, instant everything, and we think that there's instant Christianity, sensual satisfaction, psychedelic delight, mountains of unbelief all around us, but there's got to be the return to what I'm going to talk to you about.

If you look in the Bible and you look in history, you'll find that every single life that God has ever used has known this secret. This had impact on the society in which it lives. Isaiah, chapter 64, is where we'll begin from, and I would say to you this morning, if you'll let your heart listen and don't really concern yourself with trying to get down every word because you will never do it, but let the heart, let the ear taste the words and the heart deposit it, and then let the Holy Spirit bring the reality of it.

Isaiah’s Cry for God’s Presence

Isaiah 64, verse 1, the cry of every heart that really knows and wants God, Isaiah 64, oh, that thou would swim the heavens and that thou would come down and that the mountains might flow down at your presence, mountains of sin, mountains of unbelief, mountains of fear, just thinking of what the mountains might be in your life, as when, in the same way, as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes waters to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries that the nations might tremble at your presence, when you did awesome, terrible things which we looked not for, you came down, mountains flowed down at your presence, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for them who waits for him.

Now, that verse is quoted in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It's a New Testament scripture, and it really says something like this. It's obscure in Hebrew. It says, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, neither hath the eye seen of God, besides thee, who worketh for him, who waits for him.

That's what it literally says. Nobody's ever seen a God like you who works, who undertakes for him, who waits for him. What's it saying? Well, it's saying that God reveals to us by his Spirit certain things, and it happens when we are involved in a certain activity.

Look at verse 5. Thou meetest him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember you in thy ways. Behold, thou art angry. We have sinned in those your ways is continuous, will continue, and we shall be saved in them.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have blown us away, taken us away. Neither is there none, there is none that calls upon your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us, and has consumed us because of our iniquity.

Iniquity is lawlessness. It's being out of control of God, and this passage is a plea for dependence, for coming under God, and for taking time to seek him, and to wait for him, and to be in his presence.

And it says, but now, O Lord, thou art our Father. We are the clay, and you are our potter, with all the work of your hand. You see, it's talking about waiting on God. There's never been a God who's like you, Lord, who works in the life of the one who waits on you.

Waiting on God Rather Than Waiting for Answers

Let me just give you some scriptures, just jot these down as we go through. I'll give you several, and you can look them up later. Lamentations 3 .25 says, The Lord is good to those who wait for him. Now, when you and I think of wait, we think about waiting for a bus, or waiting for the phone to ring, or something, but this is a different kind of waiting.

There's a lot of different kinds of waiting in the Bible. The Bible says, O Lord, how great is thy goodness that you have laid up for those who fear thee, for those who reverence thee. So what we're talking about is waiting on God.

What do you think about when I say waiting on God? When I say waiting on God, what do you really think about? Like, you know, he's giving you a promise, and you're saying, hurry up, Lord, hurry up. Well, that's not what I'm talking about.

Most people have the concept that they mean waiting on God to answer a prayer, or waiting on God to do something. That's not what I'm talking about. We write a letter, and we wait for a reply, but you see, this waiting is more on the line of two lovers, and it's, one's gone, and the other one says, I'll wait for him.

I'll wait for him. That's more of a waiting along that line. It's only a fraction, though, of what waiting really means. Now, I want to take this morning, and our remaining time, and see what the Bible says waiting is, and I think you're going to discover that there's a big hole in your life.

Creation’s Dependence and Conscious Human Waiting

There's a hole in all of our lives when it comes to this. Psalm 104, verse 27. Let me just read it to you. Psalm 104, verse 27. Listen to this as we look at, actually, two verses there. Verse 27 and 28.

It says, talking about all that's described before, these wait all upon thee, that thou mayst give us them their meat in due season, that thou givest, they gather. What you give, they gather. You open your hand, and they are filled with good.

You see, all of creation, the animal kingdom, the creation of God, waits on God. Not only did he create, but he maintains. They wait, he gives. If they're hungry, they wait on God, and see, this is an unconscious waiting.

They're not waiting on God consciously. They're not consciously doing that, but man is different. In Psalm 145, we see that man is to wait, yes, but he is to do it consciously. It's much different from the animals.

Psalm 145, verse 14. It says, the Lord upholds all that fall, and he raises up all of those that are bowed down. Verse 15, the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Verse 16, you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Verse 17, the Lord is righteous in all his ways, holy in all his works. The Lord is near to all that call upon him, all that call upon him in truth or in reality.

He will fulfill the desire of those who revere or fear him. He will hear their cry, and he will save him. What is this really describing? It's describing a faith look. See, is it really possible that all lack of the Christian life is due to the lack of waiting on God?

Is it really true? I believe it really is. You see, when man was created, it was to be a vessel in which God could show himself in glory and in power, and mankind was designed not to attain, but to contain, to live his life out as a demonstration of the character of God and live out of that divine supply.

He was never designed to live apart from God, but to be utterly dependent and thoughtward indeed in action and activity on the fullness of God. Every moment was receiving out of his fullness, and God was to be the atmosphere in which Adam lived.

From Guilty Sinner to Helpless Saint

Well, Adam, you know, believed the lie, and he fell. He thought, I can be a man without God. I can run my own business. I can preach without the Holy Spirit, or maybe something like that. But his state became desperate, and he became darkened indeed, and apart from God, there was not the slightest hope of recovery out of death.

Man was helpless, and so God initiated what we've been talking about these days, redemption. He brought men back. He turned men back. He let him go away and turned him back. He says, return to me, because he wanted men to love him.

He wanted a family, and so men have no power at all to help themselves. Whether they're lost or whether they are saved, they are helpless. You see, there's two lessons. We are guilty sinners. Awesome, horrible, ugly lesson.

We hate to come to that revelation, but even worse, I think, is not only am I a guilty sinner, but once I come to Jesus, unless I abide in him and receive from him, that even I am now a helpless saint.

You see, guilty sinner, helpless saint. That helpless saint is a hard pill to swallow. Our pride wants to be, go out and win the world for Jesus in our own planning, and we take the initiative to do things for God.

Instead of doing the work of God, we're doing the work for God, and you see, waiting on God is so needed. We've got to come before God. When we wait on him, we ascribe to him something. Waiting is ascribing to God all the majesty, all the glory, and all the power, just like the end of the Lord's prayer.

Thine is the kingdom. Thine is the glory. Thine is the power forever. It's only you, Lord, and we come before God when we wait on him and just be quiet. That's what waiting on God is. Just coming before God and being quiet.

There's other things that are involved in that, but you see, it's just to realize who he is when we pray, when we're just before him. It's deeper than prayer, waiting on God. Just coming before him and seeking to know him, seeking to adore him, resting in his presence, just loving him back and turning all your attention on him, and it's being what we are designed to be, a receiver.

A receiver. You see, the law of the universe is not activity, it's reception. We must live by receiving, not by attaining. So, waiting on God is dependence in action. It's coming before him, and it expresses my commitment to him as my ultimate totality of being, my resource, my Lord Jesus, and waiting on him affirms our basic decision to depend upon him only.

That's what it affirms. He's my source. There's nothing in me. But you see, even unconsciously, so often we think that we can do it on our own, don't we? You hear a teaching and you say, one, two, three, one, two, three, and we trust programs, we trust plans, we trust methods, we trust men, or we trust our own dedication to a truth to carry us through into something that we'll be, and we try to live for Jesus in our own power.

And without that conscious dependence, we're busy for God, and the needs are so great, we've got to get busy, we've got to be about the Lord's work, and so we don't bother to wait upon God. We're so busy, we have no time for holiness.

You see, and we try to conquer and obey in our own strength. I like the question that was asked to the Korean minister who came to the United States after he saw the big edifice buildings and all the programs and nickels and noses.

He asked, what impresses you most about American Christianity? You know what his answer was? I think he must have gotten stoned after he said this, but he says, I'm amazed at how very much the church can do without God.

And I think it's a word to hear. Why don't we have this sense? Because you see, we don't have a sense of our absolute poverty. We're not poor in spirit, and we don't know our helplessness. Only those who see their entire helplessness and their poverty will bother to wait upon God when they see their helplessness to work out that which is really good.

And the starting point of waiting on God is our utter impotence. That's the starting point. Seeing that I'm a helpless saint, I'm not only a hopeless sinner before I'm saved, but now I'm a helpless saint.

Even though I know what to do and I can principle you to death, I am powerless apart from his presence. You see, there are three unchanging facts this morning. What we do for the Lord is entirely dependent on what we are in the Lord.

Is that not true? What we do for the Lord is entirely dependent on who we are in the Lord, but then building on that, who we are in the Lord depends totally on what we receive from the Lord. Is that not true?

What we are in the Lord, or who we are, depends totally on what we receive from him. And then the logical conclusion is, what we, what we receive from the Lord is entirely dependent upon the time we spend waiting on God.

You see, and that's a stair step, but most of us, as I said, are so busy because we think we know what he wants, doing things for God that we have no time for him. And we don't give him the time. We're busy saving the world in our mind, in our own strength.

So we can give God no other glory than to really yield to him. We can't do a thing for him. And this is what he wants us to do, to give him the glory of this being he had created. I'll never forget when I heard Stephen Olford say, as a young man, he asked a dear friend of mine, old Vance Havner, he said, Dr. Havner, what is the secret to a godly life?

And old Dr. Havner says, solitude, young man, solitude, solitude, solitude. That's one of the major goals of my life for next year. Solitude, getting to know God, opening up the field of my heart, letting him plow it, just plow it and plant it afresh, and getting along with God.

Solitude, Holiness, and the Church’s Power

You see, but waiting on God, when we're in such a high, strong society, and such a needy environment, it seems like such a waste of time, doesn't it, to wait upon God. When we're so used to talking, I mean, now we'd never say that, but haven't we thought it?

It seems like a waste of time to wait upon God. But that's precisely why we're so impotent as a church. It's precisely why we have so clouded vision as a body. And you see, there are so little of the reality, of the living world.

We're full of knowledge and principles, but the power is there. It's like the businessman who knows everything, but he's short of wind, and weak of heart, and can't even go to work. But he could be a corporate giant if he had just the power in his own self, you see.

Waiting on God is the one great remedy for our needs. It's an act of soul surrender. It fills the soul with the awareness of God's presence, and in our waiting, we soak the fabric of our being with who God is.

It's like Moses in the mount, and God's presence actually takes us as its sounding board. It takes denial and discipline to wait on God, and those are two strangers of words in a society like today. And in the wineskins in which our church today is placed, it cuts against the grain of society and self.

And so we place confidence in ourselves, in empty things, while we neglect the real power source. It's like having a lamp in your room, and not bothering to plug it in, and messing with the switch, and wondering why it's not working, and calling the electric man, and getting new bulbs, and adjusting the shade and the height.

Plug it in. Praying isn't necessarily waiting on God. You see, in waiting on God, the soul must get still before God. Be still my soul, and wait thou only on him. Waiting on God requires all of our being.

It's not just idle passivity. We think that. It's not just coming and twiddling our thumbs in his presence, but it's an exercise in keen attention. It's coming before God, and we silence every noise to our soul, and there are plenty, and every hangover of activity.

We ban every flitting thought, and we corral our mind, and we turn everything away that would distract us from him, and every faculty, every thought is toward him, and looking toward him in expectancy and in worship.

Psalm 46 .10, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. It's more than listening, although listening is a part. You may hear nothing, but it's the attitude of a soul expectantly, helplessly knowing God, you are God, and it's just waiting before God.

It is love without language. That's what waiting on God is. It's when you come in silent surrender, like it says in Zechariah 2 .13, be silent. Oh, all flesh before God, in God's presence. Be silent. Wait in him.

Wait on him, but you see, we fail to make the parallel that we say we have to spend time with someone to get to love them on earth. You have to spend time with God to get to know him and love. Intimacy takes time.

I'll never forget the day I was in my study, and I was really having to be under a burden of preparing. I was down to the wire. My son came in, and I thought he wanted to talk, and you know how it is.

I said, son, what do you want? Usually I'll let him come in now since God's dealt with me on that and just talk to him no matter how busy I am, but you see, he came in, and he says, daddy, I don't want to talk.

I just want to be with you, and he just sat there. I couldn't even concentrate because, I mean, because I just was so blessed by the fact that he didn't want to say anything. He didn't want to ask for anything.

He didn't want to tell me anything. He just wanted to sit by me while I was working. It just amazed me. You see, a child understood it. Words are inadequate to express love, and when is our soul going to do this before God?

Paul’s Solitude and the One Thing Needful

Don't rush in the presence and out of the presence of the Lord. Go in. Take the time. What will you have me do, Lord? And wait on him. Wait. God's answer is immediately. As soon as Paul said to God, what will you have me do?

He sent him out to solitude. Three years. There's a world to save here. The early church is rolling, and what church do you want me to pastor? Get alone. Hide yourself. You see, hide yourself. You've got to get to know me.

One thing is needful. Martha, Martha, you're troubled and distracted over many things, but one thing is needful. Mary's chosen it. She's sitting at my feet. Every time you see Mary in the gospel, she's sitting at Jesus' feet.

I wonder if that's the reason she was the first person to see the resurrection. I wonder if that's the reason that she became the first preacher, and even the disciples didn't really understand. You see, well, there are 18 words in the Hebrew for wait, 18 different words for waiting, and each one has a different flair or taste, but they're really just several words that sum it up and really give us a good idea.

Chakal: Tarrying and Clinging to God

Let's first take a word called chakal, C-H-A-K-A-L. What does that mean? Chakal, this word for wait. Well, it means to tarry. One thing is what it means, or to adhere to, like paper sticking by glue to another piece of paper, or to long for, or to desire confidently, or to hook.

You see, all that is in chakal, and the scriptures, I'll just read them to you, or you can turn it if you're quick. Isaiah 30, verse 18. Listen to this one. This is a blessing. And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious to you.

And therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of method, not judgment. It's in the Hebrew, it's method. God is a God who works by a method, and blessed are all of those who wait for him.

That word for wait, God is waiting. He is waiting for you to wait on him. And when you wait on him, he's gracious, he's exalted, and his method is that he then comes and does those things when we wait on him.

He waits on us to be gracious. It says, verse 18, therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. What is humbling our soul before God, that he may give grace to the humble in due time?

It's coming before him independence and poverty of spirit. He waits on us to be gracious. He wants to bless us. The Father's heart yearns to do it. Happy are all of those who wait on him, but few there are that do it.

There are two kinds of people in this room. I'm not thinking of anybody, but there are those who wait on God, and those who keep God waiting. Which are you? Which are you? You're either one or the other.

You see, that same word, chakal, to hook, to tarry, to adhere to, to long for, is in Psalm 33, verse 18. Look at this one. Look at the importance placed upon waiting. Psalm 33, verse 18. It says, behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon those that hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the Lord. Hook, adhere to, wait upon him, tarry, because it says he is our help and shield. For our heart shall rejoice in him because we trusted. See, it's the same thing as waiting.

Trusted in his holy name. Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. Well, how do you express hope in God? Waiting on God, getting alone, looking to him. Let thy mercy be upon us according as we wait upon thee.

That's what it says. Let thy mercy be upon us according as we wait upon thee. Verse 20 and 22, it's talking about there. Nothing is so sure of the fact as that waiting on God will bring untold blessings to a life that has yet not experienced them.

You see, he seeks to draw us into waiting on him. By every assurance he gives us that it won't be in vain. You know, he doesn't always want us to go to our friends first. He wants us to go to him first.

God gives us a burden. It's like shaking up a Coke. And if you take off the Coke, it goes, you know how it does. But if you kind of lose it, it goes, and it's nothing. You go in, then you open it later.

It's just like that. You see that God puts his burden. He stores this up in our spirit. And we go to our friends and go, and we get in his presence and go. He wants us to run to our closet and go pull out our soul before him and then go before him in the strength of all that is.

We just read in Isaiah 64, 4, those words, God works for those who wait for him. God's waiting to be gracious for those who wait on him. You see, we've got to realize this this morning. You don't, I don't have what it takes.

I'm glad. I'm really glad. God is beginning to show me that more than ever in this move that I'm making, he is reducing me again to poverty of spirit. He's showing me the poverty of my own spirit, but the riches of his glory in his, his spirit.

And that's exciting. I'm really glad about that. Andrew Murray said this, wait on the Lord until you know you have met with him. Take time in your chamber to bow and to worship. Wait on him till he, till he unveils himself and takes possession of you.

Get quiet before God. Let him soak down into the fabric of your being. Psalm 106, verse 11 is the word chakal, which is the word to hook, to tarry, to adhere to. Psalm 106, verse 11. We read these words.

The waters covered their enemies. There was not one of them left. Then believe they his words. They sang his praise. They soon forgot his works. They waited not for his counsel. After deliverance, after blessing, and after being principled in the things of God, they forgot his words, although academically they knew him.

Why? Because they didn't have depth in their life. They weren't waiting on God. They forgot his counsel, but they lusted when you don't hear his voice, when you're not in his presence, the voice of the flesh gets louder.

You see, it's all whose voice you're listening to. They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert, and he gave them their request, but sent lameness to their soul, giving them what they thought they wanted.

They lost out on God's richest blessing. You see, great experience fills us with confidence in the churches today. Oh, our church is so great. We've got this big thing here and all the rest, you see, and in the blessings, we forget God, and we neglect him.

We quit waiting on him because we think we don't need him anymore. Unconsciously, we think that things take the place of God. Programs take the place of the person, and in our ministry for the Lord, we must not neglect our ministry to the Lord.

Kavah: Joining Our Strength to God’s Strength

You see, that's our highest calling. So, take time to be holy. Well, the next word is kavah. K-A-V-A-H. The Hebrew word is kavah. I should be using the overhead, but this word is different from chakal.

Kavah means to collect into one. It's almost like a covenant word, to bring that together and unify, or to bind together as if by a cord wrapping around. It's also carrying a word expectant, eager, to wait until it happens.

So, it's really saying, bringing two to one, expectantly eager, waiting till it happens. We all know that verse in Isaiah 40 .31, but it uses the word kavah there for waiting. Listen to this one, and keeping in mind, it means to bind together, and in this verse, it has a figure of a little bitty vine crawling up around a big cedar of Lebanon, or an oak tree, and all of a sudden, the oak tree's strength becomes the vine's strength because it's wrapped around it, you see.

It says here, but they are, it says, even the youth will faint and be weary, and the young man shall utterly fall, but they that kavah, wait upon the Lord, shall exchange, or collect into one, unify their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they will run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint, waiting on God.

It doesn't mean waiting on Him to do it with you out there, waiting until He comes through, it means getting in His presence and saying, Lord, I can't, and He entwines Himself in your very being, they that are joined to the Lord are one spirit, one spirit, 1 Corinthians 6, 17.

It literally would mean here something like exchange, they that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their strength, my impotence for His almightiness, my nothingness for His allness. You see, this is rising up effortlessly on the wind like the eagle, and soaring far over all in the strength of another, and putting my strength around the big tree, bound together in His strength.

But you see, this comes out even more in Psalm 25, looking in Psalm 25, verse 3. You know, I don't know if this is helpful, but I'm praying God will plant this in your heart, and that you will be called away, called away from the hustle and bustle to the secret place of the Most High.

Psalm 25, verse 3, yea, let none that wait on thee, kava, waiting, twining together, expectantly waiting, let none that wait on thee be ashamed, let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths.

When does He do that? When you're waiting on Him. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Verse 21, let integrity and uprightness preserve me, because I wait upon thee.

See, I take time to be holy. I get in God's presence. I'll tell you something, as I prayed about this, bringing this message, I didn't feel even like I could open my mouth, because God has been constraining me more and more.

Get in the closet, get in the closet. Prayer is the winning blow. Waiting on God is the winning blow. Service and preaching is just picking up the results. Get with me. Well, God wants to manage our lives, and the acknowledgement of His sovereignty and His resource is that beginning of meeting the need in our own life.

The Command and Promise of Waiting

Look at Psalm 27. I think you can handle turning to these with me. Psalm 27, verse 14. Look at that one. Did you know this was in the Bible? This could be the key in your life, sister, brother. Psalm 27, verse 14.

Wait upon the Lord. Actually, let's read 13. I had faded unless I had seen to believe. No, that's the world's way it would say it. I have faded unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

In the same breath, describe what believing is really all about. Looking and seeing what God is about. Wait upon the Lord. Be of good courage, and He will strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, upon the Lord.

What a blessing. What a real blessing. You see, it's a command and a promise. Look back at verse 1 of that same chapter. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid? Look at verse 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that's what I'm going to seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold, to look at the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

Verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy upon me. Answer me. When thou saidest, Seek my face, not hand, not feet. Seek my face, my heart, not mind, not hands, not actions. My heart said to thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. You have been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake me. You see, this is a command and a promise. Verse 14. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord. It's a command and a promise. Get alone with God and let Him speak to you. Well, Isaiah 49, verse 3, is that same word. Kava. Kava. Isaiah 49, verse 3. That's not the right scripture, but it's a scripture in that area.

You can look it up later. I know it's there, so I just quoted it. It says, They shall never be ashamed that wait on thee. They shall never be ashamed that wait on thee. And so, that's a promise to us.

Let me just take you to Lamentations 3, 25, verse 23. Okay, Isaiah 49, verse 23. Okay, it's the latter portion. They shall never be ashamed that wait on thee. Thank you, sister. Isaiah 49, 23. Now look at Lamentations chapter 3, verse 25, where it says the following.