I found a little snippet in Psalms this morning, and I’d like to share it.
There’s an old saying which goes, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.”
I have the feeling that lots of people have lots of different interpretations of what it means. Personally, I agree with the idea that it’s speaking against laziness… if it can be taken to mean that.
But I was reading Psalm 147 this morning, and look at what I found:
The Lord favors those who fear Him
Those who wait for His lovingkindness.
What does it mean to “wait for His lovingkindness”?
To me, it means the same thing as when my daughter says, “Mommy, can I have some cookies?” And I say, “Yes, I’ll get them for you.” Or maybe I say, “I’m not sure. Let me think about it.”
Sometimes she waits patiently. Sometimes I test her patience and willingness to wait (not always for good reasons, either) and she ends up having to wait an hour or more.
She is waiting on my lovingkindness.
But then, if I don’t get up and get them as quickly as she thinks I could or should, sometimes she will get up and go get them herself.
I’m afraid that we do this with God a lot. We reach a point where we’re no longer willing to wait on His lovingkindness. We want the thing we’re praying for more than we want to see Him provide it. So we “help ourselves” and do what Sarah and Abraham did when they decided to have a son through Hagar, the servant girl.
I think we’ll see all sorts of glories we can only dream of if we learn this willingness to wait on His lovingkindness. After all… this verse says that the Lord favors those who learn this!