Most of us long for miracles.  And Jesus’ perfect life, death on sinners’ behalf as the fulfillment of Passover, and His physical resurrection prove that He is willing and able to meet our greatest needs:  complete forgiveness and a new heart to trust and follow Him as our living King.  But even in the Bible, most of the journey with Jesus is lived in the moments between miracles.  In this 50-day series, we’ll consider some of those moments leading up to the next great miracle in the New Testament:  the fulfillment of Pentecost and the incredible growth of the Church.

“I’ll be back” and say it with a thick Austrian accent.  That mantra of Arnold Schwartzennegar’s for years.  And we knew he was coming back.

Thomas has his doubts about Jesus, though.  And after it had been eight days since the other disciples had seen their risen Lord, I’m guessing that his faith wasn’t getting any stronger. (John 20:26) Why did the Lord make him wait?  Scripture doesn’t explicitly say – just that He did.

More often than not, the Lord makes His people wait on Him.  The promised seed of Eve who would crush the serpent, Abram and Sarai’s son, Joseph’s rise to power, the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt, the next generation’s entrance to the Promised Land, Samuel’s arrival to offer sacrifices (for which Saul did not wait), a godly king David over Israel, the building of the temple, the Israelites’ deliverance from exile, Mary and Martha who called Jesus to heal Lazarus, and many, many more instances.

Psalm 37 is a key passage on waiting, and it gives us of a few basic instructions and encouragements.

First, the Lord never promised or even implied immediate gratification.  This world is broken and filled with more evil people than people who love the Lord.  If we’re suffering because of the world’s brokenness and others’ wickedness, that’s the norm here.  Which is a perfect segue.

Second, this world is not our home.  We’re not to expect satisfaction here.  And if we think we have it, that’s probably a bad sign.  We’ve not simple settled for the broken world instead of the Lord, we’re rejoicing in it.  Which leads us to the main point.

The Lord calls us to wait for Him.

Not merely the t-shirt He bought us at the beach.  Not the car He promised for straight As.  Not the surprise party we already know He’s throwing for us tonight.

No, of course the Lord doesn’t do those things.  He’s the Lord Almighty.  He’s called us to know Him as our highest love.  When we are without Him and His  safety, provision, meaning, joy, etc., we see that this world can not give us any of those things perfectly.

The Lord calls us to wait for Him.

Lastly, as David reminds us in Psalm 37, while we’re here and waiting to be with Him forever, we’re to obey Him and honor Him to show the watching world what real love looks like:  our love for Him that will not seek another love in our waiting and His love for us that always blesses the faithful – if not in this broken world, in the perfect Promised Land to come. (Isaiah 65:17, Hebrews 4, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1ff)

I hope today’s thought and others in this series will be helpful to you as you journey with Jesus in the moments between miracles.

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