For More Than We Know: by Andrew Murray

 

And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions.
—Psalm 39:7-8

There may be times when we feel as if we do not know what we are waiting for. There may be other times when we think we know, and when it would be good for us to realize that we do not know. God is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. (See Ephesians 3:20.) And, we are in danger of limiting Him when we confine our prayers to our own thoughts of them. It is great at times to say, “And now, Lord, what wait I for?” I scarcely know; this only I can say, “My hope is in Thee.”

How we see this limiting of God in the case of Israel! When Moses promised them meat in the wilderness, they doubted, saying, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?…He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out…can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for his people?” (Psalm 78:19–20). If they had been asked whether God could provide streams in the desert, they would have answered, Yes. But, when they thought of God doing something new, they limited Him. Their expectation could not rise beyond their experience, or their own thoughts of what was possible.

Even so, we may be limiting God by our conceptions of what He is able to do. Let us beware of limiting God in our prayers. Let us, therefore, cultivate the habit of waiting on God, not only for what we think we need, but for all that His grace and power are ready to do for us.

In every true prayer, there are two hearts in exercise. The one is your heart, with its little, dark, human thoughts of what you need and what God can do. The other is God’s heart, with its infinite purposes of blessing. To which of these two ought the larger place be given in your approach to Him? Undoubtedly, to the heart of God. But, how little this is done. This is what waiting on God is meant to teach you. Confess how little you understand what God is willing to do for you, and say each time as you pray, “And now, Lord, what wait I for?” My heart does not know. “My hope is in Thee.” Wait on God to do more for you than you can ask or think.