Regaining Lost Ground

Shane Idleman: Waiting on God is always tied to trust and obedience. You're not waiting on the Lord if you're not trusting Him and you're not obeying Him. They go together. How can we say, "I'm trusting in the Lord," but I'm disobeying Him, I'm in disobedience? No, you're not trusting Him. They're always married throughout Scripture.

I'm waiting on God, I'm trusting in Him, and I'm obeying what I know to be right, obeying biblical principles. That's a powerful combination because you can rest in that. How many of you know you can't rest when there's disobedience?

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us here at Westside Christian Fellowship, located in Leona Valley, California, one hour north of Los Angeles. Today on *Regaining Lost Ground*, we hear part one of this peace-filling message titled "How to Wait on the Lord."

Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Join Pastor Shane as he teaches how God's sovereignty is our sanity because when we let Him take the wheel of our life, He is faithful to be with us through any struggle. From anxiety, depression to hopelessness, all thoughts and emotions can be calmed when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus.

Take a listen. You can hear the whole message at Pastor Shane's YouTube and Rumble channels. Make sure to subscribe today. For more information, visit us online at westsidechristianfellowship.org. We also encourage you to hear more truth from Pastor Shane with *The Idleman Unplugged* weekly podcast. And now from Westside Christian Fellowship in Leona Valley, California, here's Pastor Shane Idleman.

Shane Idleman: How to wait on the Lord. I'm going through Psalms at a rate of once every month and a half right now. In addition to reading the Bible, I just can't get enough of Psalms. I've got to be in there every single day. There are so many times it talks about waiting on the Lord, waiting upon the Lord, those who wait on the Lord do not lose heart, wait on the Lord. It's such an important topic.

This comes from Psalm 27:14, and it says, "Wait on the Lord; wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" Anytime a verse repeats itself, it's trying to make emphasis on something, and that being waiting on the Lord.

But how do I wait? That's the big question, is it not? How do I wait? Waiting is the ultimate test because we can't do anything. I don't have answers right now except waiting on God. Sometimes that drives people crazy. I can't tell you how many people I've upset just saying, "I'm just waiting on the Lord."

"What do you mean? You can't do that. You're going to die." Give me the worst-case scenario: you'll be with your Savior. People just don't understand waiting on the Lord because you've got to be doing something. I'm not talking about throwing caution to the wind and just being naive and lackadaisical, but you're trusting in the Lord. You're waiting on Him, and that's a very secure spot to be.

Waiting is really the ultimate test of our faith. Will our faith crumble or will it strengthen? Will we stress out or will we strengthen ourselves in the Lord? This is what waiting does. It tilts the scale because this is where people lose it and they go off the deep end. They run back to that relationship or that addiction or their anger against God, and they just can't handle it anymore. They snap in that waiting time.

Actually, for many of us, as you know, your faith is strengthened. My faith has actually been strengthened a lot more in the last four or five months than it ever has in my life. If I were to add up everything in my whole life compared to five months, my faith has been strengthened more in five months than 56 years, without a shadow of a doubt.

Were there times where it was tilting? Of course. Fear comes in. But also, why is waiting so important? I saw a picture and I had to share this because this is really good. Something's burned when rushed; others become a masterpiece with time. That's why waiting is so important. Which one would you rather consume? It's kind of funny, but that is true for the Christian as well.

Waiting is so important because this is when character is developed. This is when your prayer life comes alive. This is when your walk with the Lord is strengthened. Of course, you can go the other direction, but it's the building process of the Christian because we want to rush. We want to get answers now. I want to fix this now.

As soon as I got my news, I was on an airplane five days later. I'm going to fix this. God says, "Not yet, tough guy. You're going to wait on me for a while. I'm going to use this to sharpen and to shape and to direct you." That's what He does with you as well. That's why it's so important; it really shapes who we are.

Teaching our kids to wait on the Lord is challenging, isn't it? Because they want answers. In the high school years, what college, or where are we going to work, or what's my career? If we can just wait. Wait on the Lord. He's not in a hurry. God never says, "Oh, we missed that one. What am I going to do now?" It's usually that waiting time—it's not wasted time. Waiting time is never wasted time. It's precious.

More and more Christians are asking me, "How do I wait on the Lord?" That's why I said, "Let me put something together." Waiting discerns our motives. It prevents us from reacting in anger or in fear. Waiting considers the consequences and it weighs the options in light of wisdom. It says, "God, I don't know what to do, but you do. I will wait on you. I will trust in you."

So, the waiting time discerns motives. We need our motives checked from time to time. Motives are why are we doing what we're doing, and the waiting time will check those. Also, what I love about waiting is it forces me to not react. Any reactors out there? You get hit, you're hitting back. I'm embarrassed to say I did not pull out of LAX airport yesterday very well. My kids saw me say something to a guy next to me who wouldn't let me in.

I didn't curse, but I was like, "Come on, man, what are you doing? Honking, let me in." He's acting like he's letting me in, but he's not. And I react. That's what we do. But waiting time in the Christian faith teaches you to respond. And when you respond, you feel good about it because you didn't react.

Reaction is an emotion-driven response. My emotions are driving me and I'm reacting. Responding is weighing everything, considering, and then the right timing. Let me give you some consequences of not waiting on the Lord. What happens is we become anxious because we move too quickly.

Angry—we get angry when we don't wait on the Lord and we injure others or ourselves. We become critical when we're not waiting on the Lord and rushing ahead. And what happens when we become critical? We damage others emotionally. We know we're not happy when we move too quickly in the will of God. Again, react versus respond.

We become irrational and we make bad decisions and we go the wrong direction, and that leads to sin when we don't wait on the Lord. Have you ever made an irrational bad decision because you didn't wait on the Lord? And we become self-centered when we don't wait on the Lord because it's all about me trying to fulfill what I want to do. The Bible says God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. I want God's grace.

Finally, we can become uncaring and lack compassion when we don't wait on the Lord. We just move impulsively and we want our way. And when we want our way, we steamroll ahead and we step on others and we push people out of the way because we want to do what we want to do and we can become very uncaring. Don't worry, it'll get positive in a minute.

But let me also talk about five things that kill waiting on the Lord. Number one, busyness. It's hard to wait on the Lord if there's a lot of busyness in your life—planning this, going here. Because most people wake up like this: alarm clock. I've got to make my way to my Christian crack. Now I've got to get out the door. I'm busy. Then we're running here—moms and all the sports.

It's hard to find that time for God. It kills intimacy; it kills waiting. Busyness. That's why some things have to go and slow down. More than any other generation before, we have a challenge in this season because of everything going on. Now there's a device where they can get me on X, on Twitter, on Instagram, three Facebook messages, and call and text it. God got me 24/7. I'm good at boundaries, but busyness is everywhere.

I thought of this when we were—we actually went to the Hill Country in Texas. It was beautiful. We went down to the Guadalupe River just upstream from where the Camp Mystic tragedy happened with that flooding exactly a year from when we were there. As I was walking through and sitting down, there was one store that had *Little House on the Prairie* on. They were not busy. Just that life.

It just reminded me of how now we have to be very good stewards of our time because we can get too busy and that robs us from the intimacy with God. Of course, we need to be productive. Of course, we need to get things done. But you have to put Him on your calendar. If that means going to bed earlier to get up a little earlier to spend time with Him and wait upon Him.

Let me tell you a trick: unplug the TV, turn off your phone, open a book, and get some chamomile tea, and you'll fall asleep really quick. But those other things, they stimulate and we're just so busy and they rob us of that waiting. It's hard to wait on God when we're constantly moving. Now, there are seasons. Some people have to work seven days a week from time to time.

I had to do that back many years. It was hard. God knows that. His heart, of course, is tender towards us, but we've got to be able to set boundaries and control that busyness rather than allowing it to control us. The to-do list—I know for me it's hard to get up because I have stuff that needs to get done. And the sooner I get it done.

Anybody else like me? By the time the day's over, you want all those emails gone and all the text messages checked off. Or if you look at my wife's phone, she's got like 158 text messages saved. How do you live like that? 158 text messages you haven't responded to? "Oh, I'll get to it someday." I wish I could live like that.

But the to-do list—I've got to get this done and the quicker I get this done. And you have to put that aside as you wait upon the Lord because it will kill that waiting time. And there are some days where you just have too much going on. But maybe on a weekend or on a break or something, take that time.

Boredom, believe it or not, boredom kills waiting time. Because when we're bored, we usually do things that we shouldn't be doing. Or instead of waiting on the Lord in His word, the boredom drives us to do things opposite of waiting on God. Where instead we need to open the word, relax, focus on Him, wait upon Him, versus "I'm bored, what should I do?" and we find other things to do. It's a competing passion.

And distractions—phones and friends and finances. You name it. Whatever is distracting us from the Lord, it pulls us away from that important waiting time. Do you turn off the phone? Airplane mode? Put it in a different room? There's got to be a way to control those distractions.

Of course, energy drainers. When I'm waiting upon the Lord, it's hard for me to pray and really seek Him on a full stomach. It's either-or. Eating's good; we need to. But that's why I don't eat when I preach, before I preach, or on the Sundays or in the morning when I pray. Your body—50% of your energy is going to digestion and your energy's drained.

Give God the freshest moment of your day, whenever that is. Evening person, morning person, whatever it is. Other drainers—what about people? Anybody have any people that drain you? And you know that phone goes off; it's 6:30 in the morning. Oh, going to drain my energy. Whatever's pulling you away from the Lord.

The reason I did put that, my point was, if you set aside a time to seek the Lord, also let that be a time of fasting. Even if it's an hour, two, three, four. Don't let that be a big meal. Let that fasting be the time of waiting upon the Lord because that's what they would do. They would pray and they would fast. It competes; these appetites compete.

And then five, stimulants. What we consume, what we drink. This is important because I hear this a lot. A lot of people, especially in the prayer room, every single Sunday say, "Shane, I just can't concentrate on the Lord and I can't wait on Him and I tried to read the Bible." How many of you do this? I read the Bible and within two verses, my mind's going everywhere and I have to put it down.

Okay, how many monster drinks have you had? How much marijuana did you smoke? I've been seeing ads for people telling me about wine-tasting Bible studies. Do one or the other, but I don't know if they're going to go together because these things, they affect us. And I've opened up about this before and I shared: it's hard for me to have lots of caffeine if I'm going to wait on the Lord and study His word patiently and calmly and quietly.

Others it might not affect; that's great, good for you. But others it triggers, and you know what those things are maybe. If there's something that stimulates you away from waiting on the Lord. Maybe exercise—it's hard for me. Prayer walks are so important. It's that time where my body really slows down and waits on the Lord.

With those things in mind, let's talk about waiting on the Lord. Waiting on God is always tied to trust and obedience. You're not waiting on the Lord if you're not trusting Him and you're not obeying Him. They go together. How can we say, "I'm trusting in the Lord," but I'm disobeying Him, I'm in disobedience? No, you're not trusting Him. They're always married throughout Scripture.

I'm waiting on God, I'm trusting in Him, and I'm obeying what I know to be right, obeying biblical principles. That's a powerful combination because you can rest in that. How many of you know you can't rest when there's disobedience and fear and not, "Lord, I'm not trusting you."

I opened up—I think it was a month ago—I got an email from somebody, I think in a different country, and how God really spoke to him one morning. I believe God impresses things on our heart if it lines up with Scripture and it's biblical throughout the Bible. Thank God for that. I want to know that God is leading me.

Anyway, he felt impressed that God was saying to him, "I know you love me, but do you trust me?" And I broke down that morning. I put down the email and I just cried because He got me. I loved Him, but I wasn't trusting in Him. I was trusting in the medical industry or certain alternative protocols or the opinions of others or the feedback of others. I wasn't trusting in Him.

I loved Him and it just—boom. Do you ever get hit like that? You know that sledgehammer came from heaven. It was actually at that point I kind of just stopped everything and that's actually when I started to feel better and I could feel changes were taking place just by trusting in Him. Because let's be honest, God doesn't need anything, does He?

Will God use chemo, radiation, surgery? Absolutely. Does He need it? Will He use alternatives and healthy lifestyle and fasting? Of course. Does He need it? What about if He's using something, "Shane, I'm going to use this very big challenge to renew your faith like never before." No diet's going to fix that. No ivermectin and fenbendazole, mebendazole and all these things—that's not going to fix it because this is a test of God.

And so that's why waiting on Him and trusting Him is so important. He'll lead, He'll direct. Maybe to all of those things, who knows? God does whatever He wants. But I begin to realize He doesn't need anything. He's like, "Okay, if you want to, go ahead." But does this register? He doesn't need anything. Now we should steward our health, of course. Thank God for that.

But it just finally really resonated when I wasn't trusting in Him. I was trusting in these other things. And once you begin to trust Him, maybe He'll lead you in a certain direction. But waiting on God is always tied to trust and obedience. I believe also that's why He closed that door in Mexico for me.

Did I ever share this? I scheduled my first PET scan a couple months ago and I walked in at two o'clock. "Okay, Mr. Idleman, I'm going in." They're like, "Oh, the machine broke." "The machine broke?" "Yeah, the machine's broken. We'll call you later." Okay. So weeks go by. I'm like, "I'm not in a hurry." And then somebody's like, "Oh, you've got to do this, you've got to do this, you've got to do this."

Okay, so I'll do it. And so you see all these things as God closing the door and teaching lessons. Maybe, I don't know, but I'm not going to rule it out. How He guides me is going to be different than how He guides you. But we like to tell other people how to do things, don't we?

Shane Idleman: Hello, this is Pastor Shane Idleman. I want to tell you about a new booklet I just released titled *The Dark Night of the Soul*. This book came from a very challenging season in my own personal life. Dark seasons reveal what we actually believe, not just what we say we believe.

The phrase "The Dark Night of the Soul" captures a moment we all dread. It's the moment when the floor drops out from underneath us and we realize that we are not in control and we come face to face with something we cannot fix. Time and time again, God demonstrates that what appears to be the end of something is actually only the beginning.

So again, I want to encourage you to take time today and download my new booklet, *The Dark Night of the Soul*, for free right now at westsidechristianfellowship.org. Again, download it for free at westsidechristianfellowship.org. It is on Amazon, but we're encouraging people to go to our church website where they can actually download the booklet for free, the PDF, and share it with friends and family at westsidechristianfellowship.org.

Guest (Male): Westside Christian Fellowship is located 60 miles north of Los Angeles in Leona Valley, California. Thank you again for listening to today's message of *Regaining Lost Ground*, where we are reminded daily: times change, truth does not.