"My Needs"

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him." (Psalms 62:5) Maybe what we need is a little more pressure, a little more squeezing out of these things that challenge our dependence upon the God who commands our respect. Can we honestly teach ourselves to be dependent upon God? I'm not so sure; maybe forty days in the wilderness might help; forty years might be more like it! And yet, when you study the children of Israel's forty year journey, it was God who schooled them on being dependent upon Him, they always continued to fail otherwise. Isn't that how it is for us? No sooner do we learn how to trust Him to get us through one thing, there arises another thing that challenges our dependence on His ability or desire to assist us; it's almost as if we have spent all of our 'God's Help Tokens', and now it's up to us or nothing. Do you ever feel that? How else do we explain where our "expectation" goes? I expected Him to work in this one area, but I don't know about this one; this one seems a little different, and I think God does not want to get involved with this one. I could not help but think of a joke I once heard, and that I have repeated over and over myself, many times over the last thirty years. It's about a man who is waiting upon God to save him from a flood; and at first there is a four-by-four truck that stops by, but he declines the help, saying, That's alright, God's going to save me. Next there is a boat, and this time he is on his roof; but he declines again, saying, No, it's okay, God is going to save me. And then, finally he is perched on the top of his chimney, and along comes a helicopter, with a ladder hanging down, and a voice crying out for him to grab hold; but again, he replies, It's okay, I waiting on my God to save me! That man did not survive the flood! What are you waiting for God to do, that He has not already done! God knows your needs far more than you do; He knows what you need to survive through the flood, but we keep looking for God to stop the flood...
"The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!" The LORD is good to those who depend on Him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of His discipline: let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD'S demands. Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. For no one is abandoned by the LORD forever." (Lamentations 3:19-31) NLT