Rest your way to success
Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
Pressed for time! Behind time! Under pressure! Overtime! Too busy! All these words and phrases characterise our age. We are always hustling and bustling. We treat rest as sheer waste of time. We regard activity as equal to productivity. No wonder why we are prone to fatigue and other conditions of ill-health. The Bible acknowledges the place of diligence and dignity of labour, but it also enjoins rest. Our problem in working is that we associate progress with restlessness, whereas the Bible associates progress and productivity to divine help and gift.
It is written in Psalm 127:2, “It is in vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread (anxious) toil — for He gives (blessings) to His beloved in sleep”. The context of Psalm 127 is working with God rather than toiling alone without God’s help. Ecclesiastes 9:11 echoes the same sentiment that God-given favour and opportunity are what get us ahead and not our human strength, wisdom, skill and intelligence. We need God’s help and guidance to make it in life, hence it is profitable and wise to wait on God for wisdom and direction rather than to just expend energies and resources trying to make ends meet.
In a world where almost everything is fast becoming instant, the idea of waiting is out of favour today. Waiting is almost a lost art. Everything is done in a hurry. So many things require only the pushing of a button to get instant results. But, it is not so with God’s things. There is no button to push and no magic formula to rush God to do things in our lives and ministry.
The failure to wait for God’s timing and way is one reason why we fail in spiritual things. We think of waiting upon God as wasting time. Sometimes we compare ourselves unfairly with others. We see them prosper in some areas of their lives and try to compete with them. We fail and wonder why they are doing it and we are not doing it. There could be many reasons but one thing is certain: those who wait upon the Lord will be empowered to achieve results they otherwise cannot obtain without God’s power.
Dear child of God, no matter what you do in life, business or ministry, understand that one of the secrets of success for a child of God is waiting on God. Waiting upon God is not wasted time, although many times it may seem to you as well as to others that you are doing nothing. Waiting on God includes fasting, prayer and just plain waiting. Most Christians have no problems concerning waiting in prayer and fasting. It is plain waiting that is difficult to do. We would rather run around like headless chickens instead of just waiting, doing nothing.
God’s programmes are linked to fullness of time. Abraham had to just wait for Isaac and not to continue praying for him. Israel had no power to bring Jesus the promised Messiah but she had to just wait for the fullness of God’s time. A pregnant mother, no matter how desirous she is to see her baby, has to wait for nine months to see the child. In the course of the nine months, she does not have to fast or pray for the child to come out earlier. There is fixed time to that. Plain waiting is part of the process in some things of life.
If we learn that the things of God are caused by God Himself, we will love to wait. When we pray, we talk to God but when you have prayed until there seems to be nothing more to say, then you need to wait for an answer. Do not try to bring it to pass, rest in the Lord and patiently wait for him. God will bring it to pass for you, and your part is therefore to trust in Him. And in most cases trusting is just waiting, waiting for God’s time.
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