Yesterday, I preached in Dawson Creek and Grande Prairie on waiting for the Lord, based on the story of Saul\u2019s unlawful sacrifice (1 Samuel 13:1-15<\/a>). The thing that struck me about the story is the fact that Saul did<\/em> wait for the Lord, for seven whole days, while his army scattered; it was only after Samuel failed to show up that Saul offered the sacrifice. I can relate to that feeling \u2013 I\u2019ve already<\/em> waited and waited for the Lord, and He seems to be failing; I\u2019m going to do things my way before things completely fall to pieces. \u00a0Anyway, here\u2019s the sermon; the readings were\u00a01 Samuel 13:1-15<\/a>; Luke 12:35-48<\/a>; Divine Providence<\/em> 73:6, 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOur soul waits for Jehovah; He is our help and our shield.\u201d (Psalm 33:20<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n Wait on the Lord. Throughout the Word, this message is given over and over again. In Psalm 27 we read, \u201cWait for Jehovah; hold firm, and He shall encourage your heart; and wait for Jehovah\u201d (Psalm 27:14<\/a>). In the book of Isaiah, we read, \u201cThe youths shall faint and tire, and the young men stumbling shall stumble; but they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their power\u201d (Isaiah 40:30, 31<\/a>). In these passages, we see a promise \u2013 that those who wait for the Lord shall be given strength and encouragement. The Lord will give hope to those who wait faithfully for him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But there are times when this just does not seem true. There are times when we\u2019ve been waiting for the Lord, and we\u2019re continuing to wait, and wait, and wait \u2013 and He does not come. He does not seem to be strengthening us. We hold on as long as we can, but we feel our resolve slipping \u2013 because even as we\u2019re trying to faithfully trust that the Lord will bless us, everything seems to be going wrong. Everything seems to be falling apart around us.<\/p>\n That is exactly what was happening to Saul in the story we read this morning. It was Saul\u2019s first major battle as king of Israel \u2013 it was his chance to prove himself. And everything was falling apart. The Philistines were gathering an enormous force, much, much larger and more powerful than Saul\u2019s force. Day by day, Saul\u2019s already small army was becoming smaller, as his soldiers hid in caves and fled across the Jordan River. And yet, even as the Philistine forces were amassing less than 15 miles away from where he was in Gilgal, Saul could do nothing \u2013 could not sound a retreat, could not sound an advance. Because Samuel, the Lord\u2019s prophet, had told Saul to wait in Gilgal until he arrived to offer sacrifices and to tell Saul what he should do next.<\/p>\n We can imagine the growing feeling of panic that Saul must have had as he waited and waited and things looked worse and worse. Maybe he was about to lose the kingdom he had just gained less than two years before. And we can imagine the even worse feeling, as the seventh day arrived \u2013 the day when Samuel had promised to arrive \u2013 and the day stretched on, and Samuel did not arrive. And the sun set \u2013 and Samuel had not come. Imagine that feeling of absolute despair \u2013 Saul\u2019s one hope, the thing he had been waiting patiently for, was not happening. He was alone. And we can imagine a sense of panic setting in \u2013 if he did not act NOW, his kingdom would be lost.<\/p>\n And so, he decided to take control<\/em> \u2013 to offer sacrifices himself \u2013 in direct contradiction to the Lord\u2019s commandment. And right after Saul offered the sacrifice, Samuel arrived. And he told Saul that because he had disobeyed, the very thing he had been trying to gain by his impatient sacrifice \u2013 a secure kingdom \u2013 would be taken away from him and his descendants and given to another.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to sympathize with Saul in this situation. Because he did<\/em> wait for the Lord. He waited seven days for Samuel to come, and meanwhile he watched as the army around him fled, as things got worse and worse. He trusted the Lord \u2013 and then it seemed like the Lord had failed him.<\/p>\n We all wait on the Lord. And we expect that by patiently following him, life will gradually get better, even though it won\u2019t happen in an instant. But sometimes it doesn\u2019t seem that way at all. Sometimes it seems that patiently waiting for the Lord is leading to nothing but disaster. Our lives fall apart around us, and we think, this cannot possibly be right.<\/p>\n For example: imagine a person who loves the Lord\u2019s promise of true marriage love \u2013 that a man can leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24<\/a>). He does what the Lord asks: prays for a true marriage, shuns lusts as sins against the Lord. But years of waiting turn into decades. And he feels lonely, and more and more hopeless. Things are getting worse, not better. The promise is not coming true. So he decides to settle \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter who it is, he just wants to be married<\/em>. And so he marries a woman whom he does not love, who has completely different values from him, a completely different faith. And over time, the man finds that there is a deep seated coldness between him and his wife. He finds that in impatiently trying to get rid of his own loneliness, he\u2019s become more lonely than he was before he was married \u2013 just as Saul lost the kingdom by desperately trying to hold onto it.<\/p>\n The same thing happens in other cases. Again, with the example of marriage, imagine a woman who finds herself married to a man she does not love. And rather than getting better, things seem to be getting worse \u2013 her life seems to be falling apart.\u00a0 And in the hope of attaining the Lord\u2019s promise of true marriage, she leaves her husband for a man who she thinks will make her happy. But that willingness to commit adultery undermines any marriage she enters, and again, she loses the thing she wanted so much by acting according to her own impatience, rather than trusting the Lord.<\/p>\n Or think about the case of the church. The church has so much to offer the world \u2013 teachings about the Lord as mercy itself and love itself. But there are harder teachings, teachings that are unpopular in our culture, that make it hard for people to accept the church \u2013 and so we see young people leaving the church, and fewer people joining it. The church seems to be falling apart. We can be tempted to teach only the easy truths, the truths that won\u2019t chase anyone away. But the Lord says that it is those very hard teachings \u2013 the teachings that force us to change<\/em> our lives \u2013 that will truly save the world. If we try to do it our way, we actually lose the very thing we were trying to gain.<\/p>\n In all of those examples, we are tempted to take things into our own hands because waiting for the Lord does not seem to be working. The Lord does not seem to be delivering on His promises, even after we have waited and waited for Him.\u00a0 But what are<\/em> we supposed to do when the Lord does not seem to be fulfilling His promises? There\u2019s not a simple, easy answer. But the first thing we can do when the Lord does not seem to be fulfilling His promises is look at what His promises really are.<\/p>\n The Lord does not promise that life will be easy if we follow Him. In fact, He promises the opposite: He told His disciples, \u201cIn this world, you will have tribulation\u201d (John 16:33<\/a>). If we\u2019re following the Lord, it is inevitable that we will go through times when He does not seem to be present, when everything seems to be falling apart.<\/p>\n But He also promises that although we may undergo hardships in this world, if we faithfully follow Him, we can come into eternal joy in heaven. He promises that everything He does in His Divine Providence is for the sake of people\u2019s eternal welfare, their eternal<\/em> happiness (see Divine Providence <\/em>214-220<\/a>). Life does not make sense unless we truly take this to heart: that life in this world is only a shadow of time compared to life to eternity. And so even when we go through hard times that last for years, we can call to mind this eternal perspective, and ask for the Lord\u2019s strength to continue to work for eternal goodness, rather than settling for temporary gratification. We can rest in the Lord in the assurance that although we cannot see how, every state that we go through is leading to a good end to eternity (see for example Arcana Coelestia <\/em>8480:3<\/a>).<\/p>\n But the fact that Lord\u2019s true blessings are eternal things does not mean that we are doomed to nothing but suffering here on earth. Although it\u2019s useful to have the eternal perspective, we also need to be careful to avoid the attitude that this world is just a waiting room for heaven, merely something to be tolerated while we wait for heaven.\u00a0 We are here for a purpose \u2013 that we can bring the Lord\u2019s love into this world, down to the lowest level of creation. The Lord commands us to live in <\/em>the world, even though we are not to be of <\/em>the world (see for example John 17<\/a>, Heaven and Hell <\/em>528<\/a>).\u00a0 The Lord came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10<\/a>).\u00a0 The Lord said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is within you\u201d (Luke 17:21<\/a>). The Lord can be here now<\/em>, and wants to be here now. The Lord promises that in this world we will<\/em> have periods of joy \u2013 we will<\/em> have moments where we do sense His presence.\u00a0 And the Lord even told his disciples to rejoice when they were persecuted (Matthew 15:11, 12<\/a>) \u2013 the fact that we are going through struggles does not mean that the Lord has failed in His promise, but that He is fulfilling it, because it is only by bearing that cross, struggling against our own selfish and impatient desires, that we can eventually learn what it means to truly rest in Him, to love Him, and from that to love our neighbour.<\/p>\n So the first thing we can do when we have been waiting for the Lord and He does not seem to be keeping His promises is to go back and remind ourselves of what those promises really are.\u00a0 Secondly, we need to realize that waiting for the Lord does not mean being inactive. Waiting on the Lord means doing<\/em> the things He calls us to with the faith that He will then bless us in those actions.\u00a0 There\u2019s a story in the Old Testament, when the children of Israel were at the edge of the Red Sea, with the army of the Egyptians chasing after them. Moses told the children of Israel to \u201cstand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah.\u201d The first thing for them to do was to stand and wait, to acknowledge that they could not save themselves. But then Jehovah said to Moses, \u201cWhy do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward\u201d (Exodus 14:13-15<\/a>). The Children of Israel had to pray to the Lord and await Him \u2013 but they also had to act as if from themselves to go forward.<\/p>\n And so waiting on means waiting for the Lord\u2019s guidance \u2013 but then it means going forward. Remember, Samuel \u2013 who represents the Lord\u2019s Word \u2013 was coming in part to tell Saul what he should do. What if instead of doing it his own way, Saul had done everything in his power to track down Samuel and see what his advice was? Waiting for the Lord does not mean doing the same thing we\u2019ve always done and expecting different results.\u00a0 It means constantly seeking the Lord\u2019s voice, constantly listening for new<\/em> ways.<\/p>\n For example, if we work at a job that does things we are morally opposed to, waiting on the Lord does not necessarily mean staying in that job. It may mean leaving that job for work somewhere else, because we feel we cannot work there and keep the Lord\u2019s commandments. Or maybe we do stay there \u2013 but we see that the Lord is calling us within that job to try to change the work environment. Waiting on the Lord means <\/em>faithfully following where He leads, not just standing still.<\/p>\n So, first, we can try to recall the Lord\u2019s promises, and what they actually are. And second, we can see if the Lord is calling us to act in a different way. And finally, and most importantly, when we\u2019re feeling like we have waited too long for anything to change \u2013 we can turn to the Lord God Jesus Christ and ask for His patience in our lives. When He was in the world, the evil spirits of impatience attacked the Lord. He was tempted by them \u2013 and in all those temptations, He defeated them. And because He defeated them, He can defeat them as they attack us.<\/p>\n The Lord Himself was tempted to act from impatience. When the devil took Him out into the wilderness, the devil tempted Him to act instantaneously to change things \u2013 to miraculously turn stones into bread, to immediately become king over everything in the world (Matthew 4<\/a>, Mark 1<\/a>, Luke 4<\/a>). The Lord was tempted to immediately save everyone, whether they wanted to be saved or not.<\/p>\n The Lord could have instantaneously brought the entire human race into heaven. He could have forced salvation on the human race in an instant, rather than letting them continue to suffer. But that would destroy human freedom, and would destroy His very purpose in creation \u2013 that He could love free, independent beings outside of Himself, so that He could bless them (True Christian Religion <\/em>43<\/a>). If He had instantly saved the world, he would have actually been losing the very kingdom He came to establish \u2013 just as Saul did. But think of the Lord\u2019s patience. Think of this \u2013 while He was there in the world, when He was conscious on the Divine level of His mind, He knew the hardship that every single person who ever had lived or ever would live would go through. He knew the struggles you would go through. He knew the long years of pain you\u2019d endure. And he wept because of that suffering \u2013 He wept over His people\u2019s pain.<\/p>\n He had the power to instantly end all suffering \u2013 and yet, He knew He had to allow it. Even now, He allows it. He allows suffering even though He hates it, because He sees the good that comes out of it. And He is never absent during it. In fact, in the times when He seems furthest away from a person, He is actually most present, fighting with all His might for the person (see Arcana Coelestia<\/em> 840<\/a>). He wants<\/em> to come into our lives; He wants<\/em> to arrive and end our long night of waiting.<\/p>\n And even when we reach the brink of despair, when it seems like things cannot possibly go right, when it feels like the world is crumbling around us \u2013 even then we need to trust that He will come if we follow His Word. In fact, those moments are the most important ones of all. Because it\u2019s in those moments \u2013 when we feel like we\u2019re going to lose everything \u2013 that we truly and fully make that decision to love Him and to love our neighbour our own. We say, \u201cI will love you, and I will love others, and I will obey, no matter what.\u201d Those moments of despair become the very moment that the Lord arrives (see Arcana Coelestia<\/em> 2682<\/a>, 2694<\/a>, 8165<\/a>).<\/p>\n