WAIT UPON THE LORD: Forget Yourself

Anchor Scripture:

Isaiah 40: 31

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” 

Focus Scripture: “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne . . . .” – Revelation 4: 10

Scripture References: Judges 7: 1 – 7; 2 Samuel 6: 16 – 23; Psalm 121: 1 – 3; John 3: 25 – 31; 1 Corinthians 1: 19 - 20

Admonition

Greetings from the Throne of Grace!

One of the greatest ways man has always hindered God in his case is his consciousness about himself. It is a common saying amongst men that “heaven helps those who help themselves”. But, my search through the Scriptures has proved this maxim to be very, very untrue. It is a part of what the Bible calls the wisdom of men.

Several unforgettable events in the Bible tell us that where and when human efforts end, God steps in and did the unthinkable which we often call miracles. In such instances, God made foolish, the wisdom of men. It is when we go to Him helpless that He is able to prove His Almightiness. And all through the Scriptures, whenever God is out to do something great but man wants to put themselves in His way, He often finds a way of removing them. an example of such a case was the Gideon army in Judges 7: 1 – 7, when God reduced thirty-three thousand warriors to just three hundred men to defeat the Midianites in war.

Forgetting oneself in the presence of God means not counting oneself as anything because of Him that is higher than all. It means forgetting one’s achievements and statuses in the presence of Him Who made them possible in the first place (John 3: 27). In totality, it means reducing oneself to nothing, no matter who was there physically, just as John the Baptist did and said saying, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3: 30)

This is the exact attitude of the twenty-four elders who sit about the throne in our Focus Scripture this morning. The fact that the Bible calls them elders shows that they were “seniors”, so to say, to every other heavenly creatures of God. They were not just elders, but they also have on their heads, golden crowns which signify their great achievements. But they laid all these aside, forget who they were and acknowledged Him Who was, is and will forever be.

Another event I will like to quickly mention in this all-important is David’s dance that God accepted in the book of 2 Samuel 6: 16 -23, that many have interpreted to mean all these worldly dances. Before that dance, David had been somebody, perhaps because of his firsthand past experiences with God, who doesn’t see himself as anything before God. And that was the same attitude the King put up on that day. The Holy Spirit says I should add it here that it was not just David’s dance style that enthralled God, but the state of his heart at the return of the Ark of Covenant to Jerusalem.     

As we close this morning, let us bear in mind that one of the ways of waiting on God is to forget oneself in terms of ability, strength, knowledge, wisdom and the likes, but allowing God to have His way. It must be mentioned however that one may not necessarily fast (deny oneself food and water) to do this. It is an attribute that every true child of God who wants to FINISH STRONG in and with God MUST have. At that point when you forget yourself in God’s presence, you’re making it possible for heaven to come and help you. You’re practically telling God you can’t!

Till tomorrow when we shall meet again on this beautiful journey of FINISHING STRONG together, please keep keeping on in Him!