How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. (Isa. 30:19)
Roger Staubach, who led the Dallas Cowboys to the NFL Championship in 1971, admitted that being a star quarterback who didn’t call his own plays was really difficult for him. His now Hall of Fame coach, the great Tom Landry, sent in every play. Coach Landry told Roger when to pass and when to run; only in certain situations could he change the play. Even though Staubach considered Coach Landry to have a genius football mind, pride still dwelt in him and he felt like he should be able to run his own team. Staubauch later admitted, “I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory.”
In Isaiah 30:19, the prophet told how when God’s people relied on him and patiently trusted in his promise and Word, God poured out his grace. Is it not the same for God’s people now? Even when we feel as though God is distant, he hears and promises to answer, blessing us spiritually and giving us true harmony, fulfillment, and victory.
Through patient trust and waiting we put ourselves in a space that allows God to do what is best for us. In his way. In his time. Are we, then, willing to obey and prepared to go when he answers?
Ask God to give you faith’s fruit: obedience and patience.
Jeremy Summers serves as multiplication pastor at Alive Wesleyan Church and adjunct professor at Southern Wesleyan University.
© 2019 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
