Lord what are you waiting for? I have prayed. I have waited. Why are we still in this situation? These questions might sound familiar. They are questions I have had and continue to have at various stages of my life. Before I found my wife. When I was looking for work. Prayers for a loved one. Why the wait when God can do anything whenever he wants. Have you heard the phrase “Waiting on God?” Many have tried. Jude writes in his epistle “waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” and this idea is what we will deep dive into today

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21 ESV

Our Focus

In this epistle Jude spends a large portion of time pointing out what bad preachers look like. These shepherds of selfishness have no desire to wait on God but rush to fill their lusts right away. But in the second part of the book Jude tells those of us who are not bad people what we should focus our time on. And that phrase “waiting for the mercy” calls to me. Waiting on God.

Jude the brother of James and half brother of Jesus encourages us to continue to live the life we have been called to live while waiting for the mercy of Jesus that leads to eternal life. Wait on God. There are 4 key components that make up waiting on the Lord that Jude calls out in these verses. Holy faith, praying, waiting, and finally glorification.

Holy faith

Jude calls faith the most holy faith. Faith as defined in Hebrews 11 as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Our hope is in the future for the promises that God has made. We wait on God for what will come and that is faith. Jude gives faith another dimension when he calls it “Holy Faith.” So what does Holy mean? It means to be set apart. Jude tells us to have a faith that is set apart for God. That means that our faith, our hope in the future is more than just some random hope on things unseen. Our Holy faith is a hope in the one Creator God of all creation. Our faith is set apart unlike anything else in this world.

Here is a call for the endurance of the [Holy], those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Revelations 14:12 ESV

Praying

I once heard a preacher advise that for every hour spent crafting a sermon another hour should be spent in prayer. How should a Christian waiting on God conduct themselves while they are busy working things out in this life? They should be in prayer. But not just any prayer. Prayer in the Holy Spirit.

In the famous book by C.S. Lewis the Screwtape Letters the demons strategize on the best way to hinder a Christian man. Part of that strategy is to make prayer superficial and misunderstood. Prayer is not a laundry list of to-dos for God. It is not another task that must be done by us. Prayer is connecting to the Savior and really taking ourselves to him. Prayer is time when we come before the Holy God by way of the Holy Spirit and God alerts who we are and our desires.

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints Ephesians 6:18 ESV

Waiting on Mercy

For me personally I hear I ton of “No” in my prayers. Lord will you do this? “No” and part of the reason why is because my ask is selfish and not good for me. God’s mercy (we are waiting for the mercy) is so big that he protects me from myself. I am taking my requests to Him but the Bible is full of examples where men have taken action without God and have later regrated it. God’s mercy was not with them.

[Saul] waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” … 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 1 Samuel 13:8-13 ESV

Saul lost it all because he wanted to do it himself. Why wait on God if you have the power to take on the world? This is me. I have the power, money, smarts, and energy to do anything. Or so my pride tells me. But God reminds me that is not my desire and energy that make it happen. It is God who has mercy that makes it happen.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Romans 9:16 ESV

Glorification

So what are we waiting on? I will tell you we are waiting for God to level the path and make it straight (Proverbs 3:6). We are waiting on God’s mercy to be ready to give us success. We are waiting for God to fight the battle before us. Wait dear reader for Glory. Saul did not wait for God’s mercy and he lost the kingdom. We want to work and we want to strive but if God is not in it then we will fail at what he wants for us. If we do not have his mercy then we could be doing more than just wasting energy we could also be harming our relationship with him. Dear reader God’s No today can be a Yes tomorrow if we trust him. If by prayer he has laid a vision on your heart. Don’t run ahead of him. Wait on God for his mercy.

I ask again what are we waiting on and the real answer is glory. We await God’s glory which means eternal life for those who have holy faith.  

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” John 6:27 ESV