Waiting upon the Lord

I copied this from a conversation in the forums at Studylight.org on October 19, 2005. I did not copy or indicate who wrote the post, but it is so very good I wanted to post it here anyway. Perhaps, one day he/she will see it and let me know who wrote it. The discussion going on at Michael Hyatt's blog started me thinking about it so I searched it out. Now here it is...

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This beginning of miracles Jesus did was in Cana of Galilee, and manifest forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. John 2:1-11 KJV.AV.

'Waiting upon God' I thought it might be interesting to look at one of the examples we have of just this.

We are probably familiar with this account from the miraculous turning of water into wine, but let us look for a moment or two at those to whom Mary said- “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”

They were probably household servants trained to serve, but what about the character that makes a waiter, one whose sole purpose is to wait upon others.
They would need to be –

Directed - without Mary directing them to heed Jesus, and to wait upon him they could not know what to do.

Attentive - for them to obey Mary they would have had to listen attentively, or to watch closely.

Patient - we have no intimation of whether the Lord spoke to them right away, or if they had to wait patiently.

Dedicated - they would need to be able to put all other things on hold to give him their full attention.

Obedient - they filled the water pots without question, even though they must have wondered at this.

Discrete - they did not question the commands of Jesus, nor did they gossip about what had happened.

Unobtrusive - no one but they and the Lord knew how this wine had been provided. Which thing meant that they had their 'special reward' for they were privy to the miracle in all it's unfolding.

There are other things to be learned from this account, but for now perhaps it might afford us with a clearer idea of what is required of one who is bidden to wait upon the Lord. 

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The take on this is, of course, serving God not waiting for an answer to prayer, but does delve into the mysterious realms of responding to His directives. 

We wait for answers to our prayers never realizing that in our obedience we are receiving the answer. Rarely does God gives us a peek at the full tapestry of His will. If He did that, we'd be sorely tempted to take shortcuts thus depriving ourselves of some special exercise purposed to strengthen one or all of our spiritual muscles including that most special exercise of obedience.


Question: In hindsight, how did your obedience to a directive from God strengthen your spiritual muscles?