CHAPTER 4: LINE UP AND WAIT 2024
Chapter 4 is the quintessential, I can’t do what I want to do when I want to do it, so “I’m going to do it anyway.” “A man makes his own luck!” I’ve said all that and more. “God helps those who help themselves.” Another very expensive statement. Oddly, I never saw any of those in the Bible. I’ll tell you what I did find.
Proverbs 28:26
New King James Version
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
Yea, see that’s a little different than, “lock and load, boys, we are taking the hill!” Look I do want to state, there is a time to “do.” Prayer is prayed and now it is time to “get it done.” If you’re lucky that’s your story. If that be your story, you know luck doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Deuteronomy 11:26-30
New International Version
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Sometimes, money, property and prestige get in the way. Let’s say they don’t and it’s go time. The other side of the coin is it’s time to go and I don’t go, I get scared. And then what happens? It’s go-time and suddenly I say to myself, “I’m not sure, my gut tells me that something isn’t right, maybe I better pray some more, or sit still, or ask the neighbor, or call somebody or search the internet, or waste some more time considering an undeterminable amount of options. Either way a person can fail Chapter 4, either by too soon or too late.
Ephesians 5:15-17
English Standard Version
15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
When it’s time to go, go. Until then stay, be ready. If you go too soon, or too late, impatient or fearful, either one can cause great, great harm.
Psalm 46:10
New International Version
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
C.S. Lewis said:
He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only. (CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
When I wait, it’s time to check over all the systems, go over the plan, be ready, make any adjustments spotted in the patience of “the before take-off” checklist. When it’s time to go.., waste not a moment. Pray as I slam the pedal to the metal.
Psalm 119:126-128
New King James Version
Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!
Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things
I consider to be right;
I hate every false way.
The cost to stay on course and in His will. The voice of reason, and the voice of treason. Both voices fight each other in your head. The voice of Treason causes such pain.
Mordecai said it best in the book of Esther as he spoke to his cousin, Esther. A peasant woman rose to be Queen. She had to wait for just the perfect time to tell the King of the impending doom that would befall the kingdom. She did wait, for the perfect time — however, when it was time, she froze up. Mordecai, her watchful cousin, stepped in and said exactly the right thing.
Esther 4:14
New Living Translation
14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
I quote C.S. Lewis. “If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”
As the song in the eighties said so well, “should I stay or should I go.” Don’t let the voice of Treason sell you a bill of goods in the name of God.
Listen and be still. God does know, if you can possibly stand still long enough to listen to His voice.
1 Kings 19:11-13
New International Version
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Pretty cool question, I’d say. How often does the Lord ask you that question? Or should I say how often do you hear the Lord ask you anything? It’s probably going to take me a lifetime of working at it.
Isaiah 55:8-9
New King James Version
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Not listening is different than not being able to hear. Not listening is stubborn we know that one, it’s easy to understand. Not hearing, on the other hand, is an acquired skill, worked, practiced and tried, again and again. The value however is well worth it, what would any of us give for the answers to the test? Basically this is what’s on the table.
Isaiah 55:2-3
New International Version
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
In today’s society if you deliver your product too soon it’s probably without quality control, if you are not patient while training people, they will fail you. If you borrow money from a bank before you collect receivables, you cost yourself dearly in interest and penalties. Try to avoid being “hot to trot”, or standing still in fear when the correct opportunity the Lord brings.
Proverbs 14:29
Whoever is patient has great understanding,
but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.
Trust Him. Never compare yourself to anyone, you are you and in Him you are best. Comparison is problem. A waste of the mind. My mind sees bad people doing well, and my eyes see good people who have more than me. All of it is an illusion, my eyes cannot see anything accurately. I don’t know the balance sheet of anybody, and even if I did, it has nothing to do with what the Lord has planned for me, personally.
I don’t see the difference between what is right or evil, how could I know the heart of anybody? Best I see what is mine to do and do it, and I see better in prayers and scripture, and the wisdom of true believers in fellowship.
Psalm 37:7
Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
It is easy to believe that what is, should be something else. (i.e. should be, could be, suppose to be, used to be, bla, bla, bla, it never ends). We must go with the way IT IS, period.
It is also stupid to judge a situation after the Lord has given you something. What do I mean? I judge what is given to me, like it’s not enough! How often do we easily do that? Get a check for half the amount and complain. Who knows, maybe in the negotiation for the rest we might find ourselves with a new contract, an upsell or a referral with better payment arrangements! Get into His perfect timing and quit living in aggravation.
Psalm 32:8 New International Version (NIV)
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
Trust Him.
I have learned to be patient with the Lord as He has been patient with me. Fear is without information and caution is with information, caution being the experience that God has given me throughout the adventures of my life. Fear being a test of Faith of course, as I proceed into uncharted territories. In fear one is without information, so get the information and learn to use it.
I have learned that fear is without information, without God, without knowledge, without wisdom, caution is with the information, proceed cautiously. Let God reveal His plan in you!
Psalm 144:15
New International Version
Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.
Prepare your heart and your mind to receive the wisdom required to do the next thing.
Ecclesiastes 3
New International Version
A Time for Everything
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
In conclusion, I want to be clear about Chapter 4, Line up and Wait. Line and wait presupposes that you have the plan, and know what needs to be done for the day. Line and Wait does not work running by the seat of your pants in reactive management mode. Like cooking, there is a plan. A time to wait for each element to be prepared and seasoned, set upon a plate for serving, certainly not to soon, for it will not be prepared properly and not too late or the food will not be the right temperature or ruined. Line up and wait also presupposes that you have a correct relationship with the correct God of the Bible, i.e., not one that you’ve made up or adjusted according to your needs or what is popular in culture or a community.
John 8:32
New International Version
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Chapter 4 Line Up and Wait 2024, it’s your time with the Lord, be all you can be.
Amen.
