As we enjoy God as our portion, we need to put our hope in Him, we need to wait on the Lord, and we need to call on His name; the Lord is good to those who wait on Him.
Praise the Lord, God is our portion, and there’s nothing on earth or in heaven that can satisfy us or can fulfill us except God Himself!
Even more, the God who called us, He is the One who will also do the work in us; we simply need to open to Him, put our hope in Him, wait on the Lord, and call on His name, for only He in us can do what He wants to do, as we cooperate with Him.
In our deeper study of the book of Jeremiah we see that this weeping prophet shed many tears, was grieved, and wept much over the desolation of God’s people.
He even wrote an entire book of Lamentations in which he lamented over the people of God and poured out his heart to the Lord.
However, as he lamented and wept and poured our his grief to God, he broke through and really touched something of God’s economy, God’s throne, God’s faithfulness, God’s lovingkindness, God’s compassions, and God being his portion.
In our case we may not be in the same situation as Jeremiah, but when we go through grief, sorrow, and pain, we can pour out our heart to the Lord, and we can open our emotions and feeling to Him.
As we open to the Lord, as we empty ourselves out before Him, He has a way to come in; He has a way to break through in us, and we will touch something of His faithfulness, His throne, His lovingkindness, His compassions, and Him being our portion.
We thank the Lord for His faithfulness; even though we are faithless, He cannot deny Himself – He remains faithful, and in His faithfulness He will bring us fully into the enjoyment of His Son.
In His faithfulness, God will sanctify us wholly and preserve our whole being complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!
Our God is faithful, and He is also our portion! God is our portion.
As we pass through things, as we touch God, we realize that only He is our portion, and nothing and no one on this earth can satisfy us, fill our hunger, quench our thirst, and fulfill the meaning of our life.
Even more, as the Lord is working to strip us from so many other things that we rely and to remove the replacements for Himself, we realize just like the psalmists and like Jeremiah, that God is our portion, and we hope in Him.
Amen, God is our portion – He not only shows compassions and lovingkindness toward us, but He is also our portion, our inheritance, and our everything! Amen, Lord, You are our portion!
Learning to Wait on the Lord and Hope in Him even when He doesn’t Answer our most Fervent Prayers
Although our God is true, living, compassionate, and faithful, in order for Him to test us, His people, He often delays in fulfilling His word.
Therefore, we need to wait on the Lord; we need to learn the precious and crucial lesson of waiting on the Lord.
In Lam. 3:22-25 we see how Jeremiah broke through and really touched God’s compassions, His lovingkindness, His faithfulness, and he enjoyed God as his portion.
Furthermore, he didn’t put his hope in himself nor in the people nor in anything or anyone else but only in Jehovah.
We need to realize that our God is a God of lovingkindness, He is compassionate, and His word is faithful; whatever He said in His word, He will do it.
On our side, however, we need to contact the Lord every morning, put our entire hope in Him, and wait on the Lord.
Sometimes it may seem that God doesn’t do anything to save us, to change the situation, or to deliver us; we do know that He is kind, loving, compassionate, and faithful, but He doesn’t seem to change our environment or situation to the better.
So we need to realize, just as Jeremiah did, that God is still our portion, He is still faithful, and we should still hope in Him, and we should wait on Him.
And though we may do this, we shouldn’t not expect that the situation will change immediately.
It is within God’s power and authority to change things just like that, but many times He tests us by delaying in fulfilling His word.
This requires that we learn to wait on the Lord, hope in Him, and call on His name.
If God would change our situation right away as we pray, if He would intervene and change our environment as soon as we pray and intercede before Him, we would not know how to wait on Him, hope on Him, and trust in Him; rather, we would like God to do things for us.
God is not here to do things for us; He is not our heavenly butler neither is He the “genie in the bottle” who answers all our prayers.
God is real, living, compassionate, and faithful; He is faithful to His word, He is our portion, yet we still need to wait on Him.
In Jeremiah’s case, he had to wait on the Lord for quite a long time. He did enjoy God as his portion, he put his trust in the Lord, he hoped in Him, and he waited on the Lord.
Jeremiah prophesied concerning the return of the children of Israel from the captivity, concerning the age of restoration, and concerning the new covenant; these prophecies were not fulfilled in his lifetime.
On the contrary, when he looked at the situation of the children of Israel, it was worse and worse, and they rejected God more and more.
Even today, the situation of Israel doesn’t seem to be a confirmation of those prophecies.
We all need to learn the lesson of waiting on the Lord; whether He answers our prayer and does something, we should wait on the Lord.
God waits to be gracious to us, and He remains on high to have compassion on us; He is a God of justice, and blessed are we if we wait on Him (Isa. 30:18).
All the promises He makes in His word are spiritual, and we stand on His promises; however, even if we can’t see the fulfillment of some of these promises with us, or we don’t see the answer to our most fervent prayers, we still need to wait on the Lord.
Lord, may we learn the lesson of waiting on the Lord. We believe into You, Lord, and we take You as our portion. You are our compassionate God, Your lovingkindness is so rich and tender, and Your faithfulness is in the heavens for us. We hope in You, Lord, we trust in You, and we seek You; we want to be those who wait on the Lord no matter what. Lord, no matter whether You answer our most fervent prayers, we wait on You. We are here on earth for You; we contact You every morning, we put our entire hope in You, and we wait on You!
Waiting on the Lord, Taking Him as our Portion, Seeking Him, and Calling unto Him
One of the most hardest thing to do for a human being is to wait; especially when you know that you can do something about it, you know the answer, and you are able to do something, waiting terminates you.
For us to wait on the eternal God means that we terminate ourselves; when we wait on the Lord, we stop ourselves with our living, our doing, and our activity, and we receive God in Christ as our life, our person, and our replacement (Isa. 40:28, 31).
We all need to learn to wait on the Lord; the times of waiting on the Lord are times of termination, level by level.
All believers in Christ and especially all those who serve the Lord must learn the lesson of waiting on the Lord (Isa. 30:18).
When we were regenerated, God did this for us in an instant; one moment we were sinners, sons of disobedience, dead and lost, without God in the world, and in the next moment we are sons of God, citizens of the kingdom of God, and members of the Body of Christ.
This is a miracle, for God came into us and, even though we didn’t realize it at the moment, we were regenerated with the divine life of God to be God-men, children of God born of God Himself.
However, after our salvation, especially as we go on with the Lord and He deals with us in many ways, we realize that God may not answer our prayer that quickly; rather, He waits days, weeks, months, years, and even decades before He answers our prayer.
We do know that the Lord answers prayer, and we may pray to Him for a particular matter, but He may not answer us that quickly. Oh Lord!
Such a matter helps us to realize that our God is true, He is living and compassionate, and He is faithful; however, He often does things not as quickly as we expect, and not in the way or the time that we would like to.
So we need to wait on the Lord, seek Him, hope in Him, and put our trust in Him only; we need to simply wait on Him and call on His name.
Like the prophet Jeremiah, we can call on the name of the Lord (Lam. 3:55); what a wonderful thing it is for us to call on the name of the Lord!
If we hope in the Lord, wait on Him, and call upon His name, we will be under God’s dispensing in a practical way.
Even though the situation around us may seem to be hopeless, we need to realize that our God can never be defeated – what He has spoken, He is faithful to also fulfill!
So we should believe all that the Bible says, and we should pray the words and promises in the Bible, for the Lord will do them in us!
Our trust should be in Him, for He is our portion. Whether He answers our prayers or not, whether He answers our prayer now or later, we need to put our hope in the Lord, wait on Him, and call upon His name!
The result will eventually be according to His purpose, and we will be benefited by Him.
Today is not the time of the ultimate consummation, so we should wait on the Lord (Isa. 64:4). If we seek the Lord, we will find Him if we search for Him with all of our heart (Jer. 29:13).
So we should call unto Him, and He will answer us and tell us great and hidden things, which we don’t know (33:3).
Amen, may we be those who enjoy His new and fresh compassions every morning, take God as our portion, touch Him and His throne, and realize His faithfulness; as we wait on the Lord, we seek Him, we call on Him, and we gain Him!
What a wonderful God is our God! We praise Him, thank Him, worship Him, serve Him, and enjoy Him!
Lord, we wait on You as the eternal God; we stop ourselves with all our living, doing, and activity and we receive God in Christ as our life, our person, and our replacement. Oh Lord, our hope is in You, for You are our portion. We seek You and we call unto You: O Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus, we seek You with all our heart and we call unto You: answer us and tell us great and hidden things, which we do not know! Amen, Lord, even when You don’t answer our prayers in our time or in the way we expect, we still wait on You, we trust in You, and we call unto You! O Lord Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Lamentations, pp. 7-9 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 7, Knowing Jehovah, the Eternal God, in His Lovingkindness, Compassions, and Faithfulness.
- Recommended listening: the message for this week by brother Ron is very recommended; most of the things shared in this article are inspired from his speaking. You can purchase and download this message via lsmwebcast.com.
- Hymns on this topic:
– My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord! / First let Him speak to thee, then speak to Him; / True prayer in thee the Lord initiates, / Thou but a channel art expressing Him. (Hymns #793)
– Waiting on Thee, Lord, waiting on Thee; / While here with Thee I stay, / Show me Thy glorious way, / Ever by Thee to pray- / Waiting on Thee, waiting on Thee. / Waiting on Thee, Lord, waiting on Thee; / Mingle Thyself with me, / Till truly one with Thee / Thine image I will be- / Waiting on Thee, waiting on Thee. (Hymns #792)
– Have Thine own way, Lord, / Have Thine own way; / Thou art the Potter, / I am the clay. / Mould me and make me / After Thy will, / While I am waiting, / Yielded and still. (Hymns #449)
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