Today, we are going to take a posture of peace
by wielding the power of patience.
Posture is a short, audible fist bump
to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened
to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Okay, I'm gonna be reading from a few scriptures today,
starting with Psalm 27, verse 14.
Soak this in today.
It says, wait on the Lord.
Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 33, verse 20 says, our soul waits for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
Micah 7, 7, therefore, I will look to the Lord.
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.
And then Romans chapter eight, verses 24 and 25,
it says, for in this hope, we were saved.
Now, hope that is seen is not hope.
For who hopes for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see,
we wait for it with patience.
Now, here's a strange thing that I find really encouraging.
There are a lot of scriptures in the Bible about waiting.
And that's encouraging to me because it means
having to wait doesn't necessarily mean
something is wrong with me,
or that I'm doing something wrong.
You know, I used to think that if a prayer
wasn't answered quickly,
or if a circumstance wasn't resolved instantly,
that it was because I didn't have enough faith for it,
or I wasn't behaving correctly,
or something like silly like that.
But here's the truth.
Waiting on the Lord is actively waiting with him.
And it is a beautiful opportunity to discover
and experience that joy and peace and believing
that we talked about in last episode.
Romans 15, 13 talks about it.
You know, sometimes the most discouraging thing
about a negative circumstance or a hard situation
is just how long it lasts.
I mean, you probably have experienced this.
Some circumstances in our lives,
they are not resolved in a week or in a month
or even longer, you know,
they're not on our timeline whatsoever.
But the gift, and it is a gift,
of enduring those long lasting circumstances
is that they are our opportunity
to learn how to patiently abide in who God is for us.
And abiding is relational.
It's not situational.
It's not transactional like we talked about last episode.
That means that patience is really about responding
to God's invitation to be with him
as you walk through your life,
as you walk through every season,
as you walk through battles.
Hidden in him, safe with him,
not surrendering to striving or stress or freaking out,
but staying in his rest and peace.
You know, without the power of patience,
you would be depleted easily
by those long lasting circumstances
because instead of carrying an expectation
of who God is for you, in you, through you,
you would get caught up in the desperation
of doubt and fear.
Without patience, our focus becomes fixed
on who and what is all against us
instead of the one who is for us
and the one who is in us.
You know, without patience, we live in dread
because of all that is happening to us
or all that's happening around us
or all the things that are happening to the people we love
instead of living delighted by who we are becoming in God.
You know, the Lord is eager.
He is so eager to give you his elevated perspective
of your circumstances.
And when you wait with him,
he reveals who he made you to be in Jesus.
You were made in God's image, Genesis 1.26.
His peace can become your peace.
His joy can become your joy.
His patience can become your patience.
And when you experience this truth,
I'm telling you, the waiting isn't difficult
because it renews and restores you continually.
Think about this.
You could come out of your hard circumstances
even stronger than when you entered them.
All the while, your enemy, who has no patience at all because it's a fruit of the spirit
that he doesn't have access to, Satan will become totally depleted by your negative circumstances
as you wait.
So just embrace this glorious truth today.
You could totally be depleting your enemy, Satan, right now by simply waiting with the
Lord.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26, 3.
In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken.
This is who you are in Jesus, because of Jesus.
You are a living testimony of Jesus' ultimate win.
With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus' victory on display and Satan's defeat
on replay.