Psalm 119: Part 6 - Are You in a Season of Waiting?

🎵Outro Music Plays🎵 Hello Victorious Living family! I am Christy Overton Johnson and I want to welcome you to this episode of More Victorious Living. Today we are continuing our study on Psalms 119 and today I am at Pine Mountain, Georgia. As you can see across the lake, this is Robin Lake at Calloway Gardens and it's in the little town of Pine Mountain, Georgia and if you hear some announcing in the background it's because the US Masters Water Ski and Wakeboard Tournament is going on right now and I was blessed to be able to compete on these waters from 1983 until 2009 and so 26 years I had the opportunity to be a competitor here. Man was it such a big deal to get an invitation. I was fortunate enough to be the youngest. Now if I was out there I'd be the oldest. I had a great career but as I go through watching the tournament, as I'm here and I'm on the pavilion now watching the athletes and there's so many of them out there. I mean this is the best of the best and they're tearing it up but there are people out there who have never ever tasted the victory out here and they've been coming for a decade. I watched someone today finally win it and to see the emotion and sometimes you're just like how long is it going to be before I finally experience what I know should be mine or what I should experience that other people are experiencing and maybe it's freedom maybe it's a relationship with a father or a mother or a spouse or your children and there's so many times when maybe it's your health where you're like you get up you're moving forward and then wham you are falling and you feel like the old commercial I've fallen in I can't get up so that's really you know as I watch these athletes I think about the weight the weight and how so much of the battle is won between the ears it's not that one person is that much more talented than the other these are the best of the best it's about what's going on in here and the ability to maintain positive thoughts to be able to encourage yourself to build yourself up to keep taking to the water time and time again even when you don't want to and the problem is sometimes we just give up too soon I remember 1983 and I was only 13 but no matter how old you

are or how early you are in the career with a fall is a fall and it hurts and I remember my dad saying to me put it behind you get out there and train and keep going keep believing and keep hoping and sometimes I felt like there was no reason to hope that that victory would never be there but I want to encourage you today I want to move from these water sports analogies and I want to encourage you today because there's someone probably in a wait right now and you're like how long is it going to be before I experience what I know God's promised me and so as we continue our study we've been doing a series on Psalms 119 I wanted to take the opportunity to come to you from this location and to be able to encourage you that David King David who God says is a man after my own heart he often felt the very same thing he thought man I don't know if I'm gonna be able to hold on I why is it taken so long God how come I'm not seeing the victory and we see this in Psalms 119 and today I'm going to talk to us from verse 81 and this is the 11th section remember we talked about in our study how the Psalms 119 are divided up in these poem stanzas and so today we're going to pick up on 89 verse 89 of Psalms 119 and I'm reading as always from the New Living Translation and it says your eternal word O Lord stands firm in heaven your faithfulness extends to every generation excuse me I said we were gonna start in 81 it says I am worn out waiting for your rescue but I have put my hope in your word can you hear it like I'm worn out waiting for your rescue this is someone that has tried to stay up tried to stay positive keeps going back to the word keeps claiming the word is believing God that he says I'm worn out how long will I have to wait my eyes are straining to see your promises come true when will you comfort me then he says I'm shriveled up like a wine skin in the smoke this this person is at their wit's end and again the author is unknown some say it was David and I was alluding to perhaps it was but whether it was David or Ezra or Daniel or Jeremiah whoever this person is they're a follower of God and they're saying God I'm worn out maybe that's you today you're tired your eyes are straining to see the promise come true and you're

like how long am I gonna have to wait God and that's what they're saying and it says but even though I haven't seen it come to fruition yet I have not forgotten to obey your decree so this person is not giving up on God it's not saying well forget you God I'm just you have it come through for me I'm just going to go do my own thing that's not what he did instead this person says I will still obey you is how long must I wait when would you punish those who persecute me maybe right now you're being persecuted for your faith maybe you're being persecuted by those in authority of you over you this is what this person it's like there are arrogant people and they hate your instructions God they're evil people they've dug traps deep pits to trap me but he says again all your commands are trustworthy protect me they've almost finished me off but I refuse to abandon your commandments in your unfailing love spare my life and so I just want to encourage you today maybe your eyes are straining to see God's promise maybe you feel worn out from the struggle maybe God has said to you you're gonna get out maybe God has said to you you're gonna and you're gonna have a spouse maybe God has shown you you know a lot of these things we don't see it in the word but the word will line up with things we're praying about and the Holy Spirit will whisper things in our hearts and our minds and we are just like God I know this is what you've shown me I've experienced that in certain scenarios where there's things that I've prayed for and God has promised me he has whispered in my heart in the night and he says it's coming but you got to remember God's timing it's not like our timing and I think about Noah who God says the rain is coming I need you to go do this Noah's building that ark a hundred and twenty years later the rain still hadn't come but God's promise did come the hundred twentieth year Noah stood fast he had clung to the word the promise the command that God had given him and because he walked in obedience he and his family were spared he didn't give up on God he didn't say people are laughing at me God I'm out here building a boat and I've heard and if people have heard sermons on this it had never even rained it before like God's telling to build a

boat there's gonna be this flood water is gonna be coming down from heaven it's gonna flood the earth and you're gonna need this ark to be in to be safe and Noah is waiting and he's waiting and he's obeying and he's building and he's being faithful in the weight and that's what we have to do and that's what the author of Psalms 119 is saying I am being faithful in the weight I am being faithful no matter what I see no matter what I experience I am going to continue to trust you God and I'm going to continue to walk in obedience I'm going to forgive people I'm going to love people I'm going to trust you I'm not going to be afraid I'm not going to be anxious over anything I am going to fix my eyes on you the author and the finisher of my faith and then it goes on in verse 89 he says your eternal word Oh Lord stands firm he's starting to build himself up So the first part of Psalms 119, he's talking about the Word, all the things that the Word does for us. He's talking about having a teachable spirit, and we've already talked about that. Someone's doing something great on the water. Can you hear the announcer? But now he's saying, okay, your Word is faithful. Your Word builds me up. It's important to be teachable. It's important to walk in obedience. But now he's expressing his heart. It's hard, though, God. It's hard. But now I'm going to build myself up again, and I'm going to remember, God, that your faithfulness endures forever. It extends to every generation, not just the ones before me, but to me too. Your faithfulness, God, extends to this generation, to me too, and to the ones that are going to follow, to my children and my children's children. Your regulations remain true to this day, and then he says in verse 91, for everything serves your plan. Listen, you might be going through something right now that is so difficult. It will serve God's plan for your life. He doesn't waste anything. If you feel like you've been in prison way too long, and you feel like you've been overlooked, God sees you. He knows you. He knows where you are, and He has not abandoned you, and everything will serve His purpose for your life. He won't waste it. He won't waste it. It says, if your instructions hadn't sustained me, I would have died in my misery. This is the key to enduring the wait. This is the key. It's the Word of God, His instructions to get in, keep getting in the Word, no matter how long the wait, and keep building yourself. And that's what He says, if I didn't have your instructions,

I would have died in my misery. Don't die in your misery. Keep living. In Jeremiah 29, we know 29 11, where God says, for I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, and they're good, and I have a good plan for you. I have a future for you. He promises that to His people, but He's saying that to people in captivity. And in Jeremiah 29, it starts out, He's speaking to people in captivity who aren't where they want to be. They're waiting, and they're waiting, and He says, don't dwindle away there. Don't die in your misery. I know it's going to take a long time. I know it feels like I've abandoned you, but I haven't. He says, be fruitful where you are, for I know the plans that I have for you. And God knows the plans that He has for you, my friend. So do not die in your misery. Keep going to the Word. Keep surrounding yourself with godly people. He says, I will never forget your commandments. This is verse 93, for by them you give me life. You can have life, even when you're in a place like the author of this Psalms 119, where you've been waiting, and you feel exhausted. He says, I would have died in my misery, but your words are giving me life. I am yours, God rescued me. Can you just say that today and say, God, I am yours. Though the wicked hide along the way to kill me, I will quietly keep my mind on your laws. Even perfection has its limits, but you, God, your law has no limits. I just love that. Like the most perfect day or something that you can look in the mirror and say, oh, everything looks perfect. I have not done that before, but I have looked at like an article or something that we've written for Victorious Living, and I'm like, oh, it's perfect. Perfection has its limits, but God has no limits, and God's word has no limits. That means that it can sustain you. It can keep sustaining you. It never reaches the end. Every time you go to it, it can teach you. It can give you life. It can help you. So I just wanted to encourage you. I wanted to stop here. I've had a great weekend, but I was just driving out, headed back home, and I just saw this, the waters, and I said, you know what? I want to take our Victorious Living family, give you a glimpse of one of the places that I used to have the opportunity to ski, and just encourage you that the waters are tough. The waters of life are tough, and it's difficult waiting for the victory, waiting even for the invitation to move out on the water, or for you to put it in life terms to... move to that next level, to be released, or whatever it is. Don't give up. Don't give up. Keep getting up. Keep getting up. God's got you. His Word will sustain you, and He's not done. May the Lord bless you on this journey. May He keep you safe. May His face shine upon

you. I just spit on you, sorry. And may He be gracious to you. I love you. I appreciate you. If there's anything that our ministry can do for you, pray for you, please write to us. There's some slides at the end of this broadcast that'll share with you how to connect with our ministry. If you don't have a Bible, listen, reach out to Rescued Not Arrested. If you don't know how to get up with them, you can contact our ministry. We'll connect you. There's so much growth that you can continue to have. You can be fruitful where you are as long as you choose to keep moving forward, to keep building yourself up in the world. You will not shrivel away. I'm declaring that right now. You will not shrivel up. You will not dwindle away. God has a plan and He has a purpose. And may He fulfill that in your life today. God bless you. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, P.O. Box 2751, Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. Or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098. Or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.