ZPCBlog

About the author: Gretchen, and her husband, Darin, have been members at ZPC since moving to Zionsville thirteen years ago. They have three children, Luke, Kyla, and Teagan. As a family, they have been blessed by and served in the children’s and youth ministries, the Great Banquet, Grace Marriage, and various classes and Bible studies that have challenged them in their faith. They have spent Monday nights the past nine years doing life and building relationships with their Home Group family.

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!  Psalm 27:14

The book of 2 Kings tells the story of an Aramean king who wanted to capture the prophet, Elisha, because Elisha kept thwarting his plans. The king found out where Elisha was staying and sent a great army to the city. It was Elisha’s servant who went outside in the morning and saw that they had been surrounded by the enemy army during the night. In obvious terror, he asked Elisha what they should do. Elisha responded, not by praying that God would deliver them, but by asking that God would open the eyes of his servant so he could see that deliverance was already there. The passage reads, “So the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw; the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha,” (2 Kings 6:17). There was nothing to fear.

I think of this passage often because it reminds me that what we see with our eyes is not the whole story. Few people understood this better than David. Starting with his time in the wilderness as a young shepherd, he developed a kind of vision that allowed him to “see” the kingdom reality that undergirds what is visible. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” David lived by his conviction that God was powerful enough to overcome any enemy or obstacle, no matter how large or unconquerable they looked, and that he would do so because of his goodness and faithfulness.  

We can’t know when David wrote the words of Psalm 27; he had many enemies in his life and many reasons to fear. Whether fleeing King Saul’s murderous pursuit, or facing down the many enemies of Israel, or reeling from the treachery of his own son, Absalom, David was no stranger to adversity. As you read this psalm, you can practically see him wrestling to fix his eyes on the Lord, despite the overwhelming odds against him. He remembers God’s faithfulness in the past. He chooses to trust him to deliver him in the future. He determines to wait with confidence for God to respond on his behalf, stating, “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident,” (Ps. 27:3). David very deliberately chose to trust in what he could not see. He decided to place his hope in the deliverance he knew God was able to provide. When he said to wait on the Lord, he wasn’t talking about a kind of wishful thinking that God might come through. He was revealing the solid foundation of faith his entire life was built upon. 

As we enter into this Advent season, where are we choosing to fix our eyes? Are we staring at the Goliaths before us or are we deliberately turning the eyes of our heart to the God we know is there? When life makes hope seem like an exercise in futility, can we have the courage to believe that God is firmly in control and that his kingdom is advancing even now? Will we wait as David waited, with the conviction that we will experience the deliverance of God?  

Prayer

Lord, during this season of expectation, we ask that you would develop in us faith-filled eyes. When confronted by obstacles before us and division and strife around us, give us the courage to hope. Help us to choose to say like David, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” and to act on that conviction. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

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