God’s desire is to bring us out of our independence and back into a joyful dependence on Himself. After all, God is the only totally dependable factor in our lives. Wouldn’t it be absurd for you and me to trust anything or anyone else and not trust God?
I believe there are two primary approaches God uses to move us out of our independence. The first is waiting. Whenever I preach about waiting, a stillness often descends upon the congregation at the mention of that word. Nobody enjoys waiting, least of all contemporary Americans. It is totally contrary to our present culture to wait because our consumer society is built around instant gratification. However, nothing will come to us in our Christian walk until we learn to wait. Why? Because God insists on it.
In the Old Testament, there are two examples of great men of God who had to wait—Abraham and Moses. God had a destiny for each of them. He knew what they were going to do, so He chose them and set them apart.
ABRAHAM
The very center of God’s whole program for Abraham was for him to have a special son by his wife Sarah. God made that promise to him when he was seventy-five years old. However, Abraham had to wait another twenty-five years for the fulfillment.
Why could God not have given him a son immediately? Because He had to bring Abraham to the place of total dependence on Himself. You are probably very familiar with the story. After twelve years, Abraham must have believed he had waited long enough. At this point, his dear wife Sarah gave him some bad advice. She suggested, “Go on and have my servant Hagar (which means ‘a stone’); I’ll let you have a child by her” (see Gen. 16:2). The result was Ishmael.
I do not want to go into controversial, political issues nor cast bad light on any group of people. But I believe one of the main problems of Isaac and his descendants, the Jewish people, for four thousand years has been Ishmael and his descendants. That should be a warning to us against taking matters into our own hands. Because if we do, what will be produced will not be an Isaac but an Ishmael. Many of us have produced Ishmaels in our lives because we have not been willing to wait for God’s timing.
I find this story very interesting because the Scripture tells us that Sarah gave Abraham two pieces of advice. The first time she said, “Go on, have a child.” The second she said, “Cast out the son you’ve had” (see Gen. 21:10). When you get carnal advice, it tends to contradict itself.
Abraham had to learn to wait—and as a result, he came to the place where he was totally dependent on God. He had no alternatives; he had exhausted every other possibility. Finally, when Abraham had reached that place of dependency, God met him there. It was then that Abraham had the son whom God had promised.
Clearly, God tested Abraham in a way He would never test most of us. After Abraham had the son God promised, God told Abraham to now offer him as a sacrifice. Once again, Abraham had to be totally dependent on God. He was prepared to kill his son and depend on God to raise him up as the Scriptures indicate (see Heb. 11:17-19). What was God’s ultimate purpose toward which He was working in Abraham’s character? One result—total dependence on Him.
MOSES
Let’s next consider Moses, who had a very privileged upbringing in the court of Pharaoh. He was instructed in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, the leading cultural empire of the day. However, when Moses realized he was really an Israelite and that his brethren were suffering, he thought, “I’m the one; I’ll go out and deliver them.” Moses was about forty years old at the time. As we know, his efforts ended up in a fiasco, which caused him to flee for his life.
As a result, Moses spent the next forty years in a rather barren wilderness, looking after a little flock of sheep belonging to his father-in-law. Truly, this was not exactly an exalted position. If you have ever tended sheep—I did for a little while—you know that this task in itself develops patience.
When Moses had reached the age of eighty—well past retirement age—his life was pretty much over with nothing to show for it. All his education, ability, and strength had produced nothing. But it was at that point that God said, “Now, Moses, we can begin.” For the next forty years, Moses was, in my opinion, the most powerful human being history has ever recorded. If you consider what he did, it is astonishing. If you want to be a man or woman of power, here is one of the secrets found in Numbers 12:3, “Now the man Moses was very meek [humble], above all the men that were upon the face of the earth” (ASV).
Can you see that God cannot trust power to anybody except the humble? How do you achieve humility? Spend forty years in the desert with a flock of sheep! Somebody once asked Bob Mumford why Moses had to spend forty years in the desert. Bob answered, “Because God couldn’t do it in thirty-nine!”
WAITING DEALS WITH INDEPENDENCE
God will keep you in a place of waiting until His process is complete. You can struggle; you can complain; you can pray. But, God is too merciful to answer those prayers. Why? Because He is not going to let you leave the place of waiting until He has fulfilled His purposes for you. Waiting deals with our independence.
Let’s look at some Scriptures on this subject of waiting. Isaiah 64:4 says:
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him (NIV).
God is a totally unique being. One of His unique features is that He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. Do you want God to act on your behalf? If you do, then you must learn to wait for Him. Actually, in the process of waiting you will become increasingly dependent on God and less and less dependent on yourself.
In First Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul is writing about his original contact with the Christians in Thessalonica and how other people reported the remarkable impact on their lives. Paul says of these other people:
For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you [the Thessalonians], and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).
Paul says the Thessalonians displayed two activities—serving and waiting. That is the Christian life. Some of us may be willing to serve, but how many of us are excited about waiting? The Christian life is not just serving. It is serving and waiting.
Why is waiting important? One reason is because waiting deals with that independent spirit in us. Waiting brings us to the place of saying, “God, there’s nothing I can do. I’ve come to the end. If You don’t do it, it won’t happen.” God is working on you and me to bring us to that place.
Not only do we wait, God also waits:
Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him (Isaiah 30:18).
God waits for us to meet the conditions so that He may be gracious to us. Please note that if we want to be blessed by His mercy, we must also wait for Him.
Do you find yourself in a season of waiting? Is God requiring you to wait? If so, please understand that God is doing it for your good.
Waiting is one way God uses to bring us into fuller dependence on Him. Another way is to bring us to a place of desperation where we cry out to Him. That is the topic we will explore in our next chapter.