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START WITH 7
Praying Through Psalms // PSALM 40:1a
Thank you for joining us with Start With Seven. We start every weekday with seven minutes alone with God. We hope you'll find a place in a time where you can be alone and still and focused. If you're able, we hope you have a Bible in your hand. And we want to spend a few minutes fixing our thoughts on the greatness of God. So the next seven minutes, we'll have some guided time through a verse of scripture, some prayer time, and then some opportunities to follow up with next steps in your devotional pursuit of the Lord. So let's begin Start With Seven today. - We meditate on the scriptures. We consider slowly what God was saying to us then and what He's saying to us now. And then we pray these things back into our life, back to the Lord. We're walking through the Psalms verse by verse together, continuing today in Psalm chapter 40 verse one. If you have a Bible in hand that is ideal or not, I'll read it for you. David writes many of the Psalms. He writes this one, one of his most well-known Psalms. He says in verse one, I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. I waited two of the most difficult words in scripture are leave and wait. And many would say that waiting is one of the hardest things to do. Waiting means we are not sure of what's gonna happen. Waiting often means things are beyond our control. If we knew what to do or could do something, we would move, we would act, we would decide. But waiting means that we're in a position of inability to some degree. It's a position of dependence. David is waiting. He spends a long time waiting. He spends a lot of time in the scriptures waiting. All throughout the Psalms, he talks about waiting. Much of his life was waiting. Maybe you're in a season of waiting, meaning you're not sure exactly what to do, not sure what's gonna happen or when it's gonna happen or if it's gonna happen. Complete dependence upon the Lord. Maybe for a moment you would just verbalize that, God, I am waiting. I've been waiting a while. I'm not sure what to do. I'm waiting on some things that I believe you promised me some things I desire. I'm waiting. David said I waited patiently for the Lord. I waited patiently. Sometimes it might be confused that patiently means without emotion. I don't think that would be true of David. He expressed a lot of emotion often. Patiently would at least mean that it is under control with some kind of discipline, with some intentionality, some decision. I'm waiting on purpose. I'm not recklessly waiting. I'm waiting patiently. I have some things in my life that I have disciplined and they're under my control. I'm not erratic. I'm just trusting God. Waiting does something for us. It defines so much of who we are. Learning how to wait patiently is part of the purpose of waiting, is forming something in our soul. Learning how to depend, how to trust. Maybe for a moment you would say, God, I want you to form me. While I'm waiting, I want to be formed more in your image. I want to be more disciplined, more controlled, more measured, more trusting, more dependent upon you. Please form me deep in my spirit in the way that you want to while I'm waiting. (gentle music) I waited patiently for the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is one of the greatest acts of faith. We're waiting patiently for the Lord. Waiting is tough, it's an act of faith. Patiently our spirit has been disciplined to a degree and that we're waiting for the Lord. We're not waiting on an individual. We're not even waiting on ourself. We're waiting on God. This is the ultimate act of faith, this first line of Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. I'm waiting on God. This God who I don't see but I believe in, I'm waiting on him to move and to act. I'm waiting on him. I'm not hoping that some situation will change. That's not what ultimately I'm waiting in. I'm not waiting on myself to come up with some new ability. That's not ultimately what I'm waiting for. I'm waiting on God an act of God, a movement of God. God to show his hand or to speak or to do something. I'm waiting for the Lord. This is really beautiful when you boil it down and it's pure essence. This is just faith. God, I trust you so much that I'm waiting for you. Teach me how to do this. Please refine me. Let's pray this verse together now. God, thank you for David, this man of action and strength and bravery and leadership and also a man who had to wait on you. You had to discipline him and form him and teach him how to wait patiently on you. I pray that you would teach us this. I pray that you would form these things in us. I pray that there would be this quiet confidence about our spirit that you are up to something always. Teach us how to wait patiently for you. We love you Jesus. We pray all of this in your great name. Amen. (gentle music) - Thanks for joining us for "Start With Seven." My name is Jason Shepherd and I enjoy spending time with people as we're pursuing loving Jesus more and knowing his word, living our life for him. We hope this "Start With Seven" is a start that you will spend even more time with God throughout your day. There's a link attached here where you can find more resources for reading your Bible, growing in your faith, understanding who God is more and sharing him with other people. We look forward to joining this journey with you together. Have a great day. [MUSIC PLAYING]