Our Lord Jesus Christ said that because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. And when the son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? And in the parable of the talents, he says that after a long time, the master came to settle accounts with his servants. There's an unpopular reality of the Christian life, an unpopular doctrine, and it's the doctrine of patience. You've heard the man say, Lord, give me patience and I want it now. There's a paradox there in that waiting is unpopular and waiting is difficult and waiting is tedious and waiting is hard, but waiting is our calling. We've been looking in the messages from Psalm 119 at the psychology of somebody who is a believer, the inner workings of the heart of someone who is saved, someone who has come to faith in the promises of God and the salvation that he offers. And the first stanza of that 176 verse poem, don't worry, we're only covering eight verses today and eight verses tonight, But the first stanza says, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with a whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. And if you're listening carefully, you think, well, that leaves me out. They do no iniquity. That leaves me out. The undefiled in the way. They're perfect. They do what's right. And we've suggested, no, it doesn't mean they're perfect. It means that their hearts are firing in all cylinders. It means that they are mature. And so for 176 verses, he's going to describe what this happy life looks like. Now, blessed is a richer concept than happiness, but happiness is included. It's a life where we continually keep coming back to a place of blessed contentment and joy in our Savior and the salvation that he gives. He says they also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. I will praise you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments. I will keep your statutes. Oh, do not forsake me utterly. We sang the verses, I appreciate the singing, the Isaac Watt Psalm, where he says in verse 9, How can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? With my whole heart I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments, your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Now, I mentioned that the theme we're going to come to today is the theme of patience and of waiting. And I saw that in the psalm we sang, the portions of Psalm 119 that Isaac Watts put into poetry, he talks about those who wait and hope. He said, I wait, I hope. Well, that's very convenient because in Hebrew, those are the same word. So what's the difference between waiting and hoping? You know, when it comes to a sermon by someone with a lot to say, it's waiting for the sermon to come to its conclusion. It's hoping that it will come before rigor mortis sets in, before I go into a comatose state. Actually, waiting and hoping are very different, though. Some people wait without hope. You want to find somebody who is discouraged and who is heading to a bad place psychologically. Find someone who is looking forward to exactly nothing. Find somebody without something that he is looking forward to, and you'll find a heart that is starving because hope is to the heart what food is to the body. Lamentations 3 says, the Lord is my portion. He's what I've got coming, so I hope in Him. We need something to look forward to, and the Bible offers us hope. In World War II, when Douglas MacArthur gave his famous line as he got into the PT boat, he said on the shore of the Philippines, I shall return. And General Jonathan Wainwright, who was tasked with the thankless job of defending Bataan Peninsula and the island fortress of Corregidor, had to wait a long time for that promise to be fulfilled, and many died. But ultimately, it was on MacArthur's orders, the one who said, I shall return, that the mission was ordered to go and rescue those death march survivors in the prison camp. There was a promise that was made so that those who were waiting could wait in hope. Now, we have a custom among single people, or at least it has been a custom, that a young lady who is looking forward to getting married has a box called what? A hope chest. Now guys have this too. It's under their bed and it has fireworks and other things in it. You know, they're hoping for a day when they can commit an act of pyrotechnics that will really, no. We all have a hope chest. We have that box in our hearts where we're lining the walls with expectations of things that we're looking forward to and we're counting the days. And single people often are pretty intentional about getting ready for marriage. And things don't often go the way that we plan. I had a plan from the time that I was a young teenager. I was going to get married at about the age of 19. Or maybe 20 because that's what my sister had done and I thought this is working for my sister Sharon So I'm gonna do this also. Well, I got married at age 34 Our plans and what we hope for are sometimes Deferred and Proverbs 13 12 says hope deferred makes the heart what? sick Do you have hopes like that? Do you have hopes where you're saying? I believe that God has promised me something and Or if he hasn't promised, he's at least made me believe and hope. Hope that I'll get married. Hope that I'll have this come true in my life. And then the hope gets pushed down the road. And perhaps the fault is our own. We thought we knew. We thought we had read the signs correctly. We knew it was going to happen. But then we have to hope for something later. And hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comes, then it is a tree of life. You know, let me just say that I believe some of the most godly, most spiritual people sitting in this room are those whose hopes keep getting pushed back. I believe that if you are in this situation yourself where your heart is a bit sick, Because something you hope for, you've been told no, or you've been told, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. And God has required you to wait. I believe you are the spiritual giants in this room. We tend to reverse that. We tend to think it's the people whose lives have the Disney fairy tale ending who are the spiritual ones, that they have these stories that they tell us. And I prayed, and then I got a check for six digits in the mail tomorrow. or some fairytale ending that comes true quickly, when rather it's the people who wait for what is promised that seem to be those who are the most spiritually mature. You look at Exhibit A, Abraham, and as Pastor Drake was preaching about Abraham buying his burial plot in the promised land, the land that he was promised. And if you'll turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10, we'll get back to Psalm 119, I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 11, We have this paradoxical language about how God has promised people certain things, and they wait for it, and wait, and wait. One of my favorite theologians is a fictional character named Walt D. Pixar. And Walt D. Pixar over and over again captures things that are true in life. And when Mr. Incredible is lifting up his car in his driveway, there's the little boy blowing bubbles at the end of the driveway. And he says to the little boy, what are you waiting for? The little boy has great biblical theology when he says, well, something awesome. I'm waiting for you to do something awesome. Well, look at the same attitude as we describe these giants of faith in Hebrews 11, 13. Hebrews 11, 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them and confessed. that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they'd called to mind that country from which they'd come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Skip down to verse 39. Hebrews 1139 and all these having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us. You see some of the most spiritual people wait and wait and God in a way and in a fashion known only to him I believe causes them to wait as things are developing in their hearts. My family and I know two godly women who were single, never married. One lived to about age 88, and the other lived to age 104. And Vi Hanson went to Trinity Bible Church here in Dallas all her life. We had an event where she came and recited the whole book of 1 Timothy. And she recited that 1 Timothy chapter 6. Fight the good fight of faith, she said, at age 83. And she was fighting that fight of faith because in her case, at least, she had wanted to be married. The other was my Aunt Mary, for whom our daughter Mary is named. who is a beautiful girl who went off to Bible college to prepare to serve the Lord overseas and wound up taking care of my Ukrainian grandparents for the last years of their lives. They waited. They waited. They had hope. And yet, Hebrews 11, God had provided something better for them. And the stanza that we're looking at in Psalm 119 is a stanza that teaches us to wait, to wait for it, to wait for the things that God has promised. Look with me at Psalm 119 and we'll look at verses 41 through 48 today. Let your mercies come also to me, O God, your salvation according to your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in your ordinances. So shall I keep your law continually forever and ever and I will walk at Liberty for I seek your precepts I will speak of your testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed and I will delight myself in your commandments Which I love my hands. Also, I will lift up to your commandments, which I love and I will meditate on your statutes What are you waiting for? Well, the psalmist was waiting for God to save him and Wait a second. I thought this was David. I thought this was the man who had the Holy Spirit come on him. This is the guy who killed Goliath. This is the guy who had the promise that he would be king, and he's waiting to be saved? Yes. He says, let your mercies come to me, your salvation. Bring it on. I need to be saved. What about you? Are you saved? This is a trick question. Are you saved? You save from your sins. Some are nodding, some know this is a trick question, so they're not nodding. We are saved in the sense that by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But do you still need saving? I do. I need to be saved from sins of the temperament that still rule me too often. I need to be saved from various threats and some of them are physical, some of them are spiritual, some of them are relational. I need to be saved from enemies that are too strong for me. And so, you can say with full confidence, I have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, I am saved, and yet we can still say with the psalmist, Lord, let your salvation come to me, let it work itself out in my life. And this psalm, or this stanza of this psalm, breaks down real neatly. You may know that this poem is arranged alphabetically. This is an A, B, C, D psalm so that everybody who could in this room can learn Hebrew could memorize it. Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet. And we're on the W. We're on the Vav stanza. And the Hebrew word for and or also or thus is the letter W by itself with a vowel under it. And so over and over again, he says, and I'll do this and I'll do this. And I'll do this, and really our outline this morning, if you look in your bulletin there, it's arranged under the five main things that he says he'll do when God saves him. Look with me again at verse 41 through 43, where he has this series of prayers, and then in verses 44 through 48, he follows it with a bunch of I will statements. I'll do this, I'll do that, I'll do this. And so first of all, let's look at the prayer together. We said verse 41 already, so let's skip to verse 2, verse 42. So I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word, verse 43, and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in your ordinances. So here's the request. God, would you please save me? Would you please let your mercies come to me today? And when you do that, I will do these five things. Now, they're actually six times, he says, I will. And two times, he says, I shall. Did you notice that you can see them in your Bible there? First one is in verse forty two. So shall I. I have an answer. Verse forty four. So shall I keep your law continually. Look at verse 45, and I will walk. Verse 46, I will speak. Verse 47, I will delight. Verse 48, I will lift up my hands. And the end of verse 48, I will meditate on your statutes. You get that little drama there? God, you do the saving, you do the mercy, you do the rescuing, and here's my part. Here's how I'm going to respond and here is how I'll respond with infinitely more zeal when you do the saving, when you do the part that is yours to do. And so we have this need to wait and to be patient. First of all, We wait for God's word to form our witness. Now, you know, we're called to be witnesses of Jesus, who he is and what he's done. You don't have to make this stuff up. You're allowed to be a witness of the things that God has done. And first element of witness we see is in verse 42. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me. You know, President Obama was fond of talking about being on the right side of history, and he was actually alluding to a theologian of a generation ago who said, the arc of history bends towards justice. Now, it's interesting, who winds up being on the right side of history? Who really winds up being on the right side of God's law and God's salvation are those who know him, are those who know his word. And so he says here, I'll have an answer for him who reproaches me. The word reproach means he causes me shame, the one who makes fun of me, the one who looks down on me. Psalm 1 calls these the scoffers. It's a similar idea. Those who are like, Christianity. They mock. They make fun of it. They think little of it. You might have told somebody recently, I'll be praying for you. Have you ever said that to somebody and watched him scoff? watched him make light of it. You know, the water is changing around us. My mom gave a gospel tract to a lady at the airline counter, and I watched in disbelief as that airline employee tore it into little pieces in front of my mom and tossed it in the trash. You know, that's going to become more common. And, you know, some of this we've brought on ourselves by our sub-Christian behavior. But some of it is because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But you know what? If God saved you, if He is still saving you, if you see Him in your life continuing to show up and do things for you, and you have something to share, verse 42, you'll have an answer for the one who reproaches you. It'll fire up your testimony. You know what I love about being saved? is that there is a passive sense to it. I am being saved. I'm not saving myself. And so he says here, Lord, let your mercies, that great word hesed, H-E-S-E-D in Hebrew, which has that idea of loyal love, and it's plural here. Lord, let the acts of your loyal love come to me. Why? So that I can have an answer for the person who makes fun of my Jesus, for the person who scorns my Christ, for the person who mocks, the things that I love so preciously. Lord, do something in my life. If you think the psalmist is being bold here, he says, your salvation according to your word. Lord, do what you've promised. Do you think God minds being reminded of his word? This is another benefit of memorizing scripture, by the way. Lord, you said you would do this. Bring it on. Father, you said you would not leave me or forsake me. I'm ready for the experience of that. Father, you said that the fruit of the Spirit is love. Personally, I'm a little bit short on love right now. I'm ready for your Spirit to work that in me. Lord, when you do that, I'll have an answer for the one who reproaches me. Skip down to verse 46 where he says, I will speak of your testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. Have you ever stepped up to the plate and done a royal strikeout when it comes to this matter of being a witness for Jesus, where you have your worst possible moment at the worst possible time, and you walk away thinking, F, no, no, F minus for my grade for this situation? Well, that happens, and it also tends to happen when we're in front of, quote, important people. We sometimes are willing to share Christ with maybe, you know, a child or someone that doesn't matter much if this person makes fun of me. But when it's somebody important, like a policeman, or somebody important, you know, like my doctor, or maybe other people are listening, we tend to get a little bit ashamed. But when we say to God, Lord, here are your promises. Save me. according to your word from this sin. And I don't just mean save me from the penalty of my sin. Lord, save me from its power. And when I see you do that, I'll tell everybody about you. I won't be ashamed. Why? Because I've experienced firsthand that you're a mighty God who saves. You save me. And so it will fuel, I'm sorry, form my witness. Number two, it will fuel your faithfulness. Look at verse 44. So shall I keep your law continually forever and ever. He couldn't just say it once. He had to say, I'll keep your law unto the ages and beyond. I'm going to stay faithful to you when I see you do this. And by the way, this is the right response while you're waiting for him, for his salvation to show up in your life. And again, I'm talking about two different kinds of salvation. There's the kind of justification where I've been brought into God's family. How does that happen? I've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm saved and kept through faith, ready for salvation to be revealed in the last time. But I'm being saved as well. Saved from these various problems and enemies and trials and things that are too strong for me. And when I see that happen in my life, Not only is my witness form, but my faithfulness is fuel. God, I want to seek you harder than ever. And when I see you show up in my life like this, I'm motivated to serve you and to keep your law continually forever and ever. Now, this can be illustrated from the realm of dieting, like most things can. Contrary to one preacher's opinion, lay aside the weight That is not a command of dieting. But, you know, when I was preparing to get married and the promise was about to come true, it exercised a change on my behavior and my diet. I began to think, you know, I better eat a little more healthy. I better not expose myself to needless risks because I need to live. for August 4th, 2001. I need to survive till that date. I need to show up in reasonably good condition. Why did I get more serious about what I ate? Well, because the promise was in view. The promise was coming closer. And when we are aware of God showing up in our lives and saving us, and I don't want to back off from this, saving us in the here and now, not just at the judgment seat, not just when Christ comes, but I'm seeing him save me now, it motivates me. to serve him more faithfully. And I think it's legitimate to say, Father, I need you to save me. I need your loyal love, your hesed, your faithfulness, your kindness to show up because it'll form my witness so I won't be ashamed before kings. It'll fuel my faithfulness so that I'll seek you harder now. Number three, not only does it form our witness and fuel our faithfulness, but it frees our feet. Verse 45. and I will walk at liberty for I seek your precepts." Have you ever taken a mountain walk and been on a narrow path where to step off the path would lead you to a broken ankle or a broken leg or worse? There's a narrow path. Now, you know, there was a story that went viral a few weeks ago about a guy who got attacked by a mountain lion while he was jogging. Now, that story sounds good until you find out that it was a young mountain lion that weighed about 45 pounds. But it's still a good story. So he's attacked by a mountain lion while he's jogging in the Rockies. And, I mean, what a man's man. He strangles the mountain lion to death and walks away with his life. Now, I mean, the thing was a kitten practically, but it's still a good story. So he strangles this mountain lion kitten to death. Well, you know, a 45-pound mountain lion is probably lethal. But, you know, that guy has learned to be careful. I think his line was, I'm never going to jog alone again, or I'm never going to jog in certain places. I'm going to be very careful the way that I walk, very strict because it's a dangerous path. But look at what he says in verse 45 there. He says, Lord, when your salvation comes, I will walk. And the phrase that liberty is a phrase that means I get to walk in a wide place. You know, have you ever been on a road at night that's narrow and poorly marked? It's dangerous. And, you know, some of you have driven in other countries and you don't think you're going to survive because these roads are winding and you've got to stay very fixed on what's ahead. Well, when you walk in a wide place, it's the idea of freedom, of freedom. You know, our culture loves to talk about freedom, and they have the misconception that freedom comes about when I am my own master. And the psalmist knows something different. He says, when you save me, when I see your mercy, when I see your faithfulness, there's a freedom that comes into my life. There's a freedom to walk in a wide place, for I seek your precepts, I pursue them, and the result is liberty. You think Jesus knew this passage? I think Jesus is quoting it when he says, if you continue in my word, you're my disciples indeed. And what? You'll know the truth, and the truth will do what? set you free. See, we think of truth as something that constricts us, that narrows us, that causes joy sclerosis. No, truth is something that widens my scope. It enlarges my heart. It frees my life to be what I was made to be. And Lord, when you save me, when your salvation, your chesed, your loyal love shows up in my life in the here and now, all of a sudden my mouth is open to talk about you the way I should, my intensity of my devotion is increased, and my feet are freed to walk after your precepts. This is a good deal. It keeps getting better. I'm waiting for your salvation, Lord. I'm waiting for you to deliver, to form my witness, to fuel my faithfulness, to free my feet, verse 47, to flood my heart. And I will delight myself in your commandments, which I love. Now, you know, we don't often think of law, commandments, as something to delight in, but he's got a different attitude. I'll learn to love what you have commanded. I don't know what your employer-employee situation is like, but have you ever worked for a boss that you respected so much because he, A, led by example, because he didn't have to say, do as I say, not as I do, but he could say, do as I do, He's the boss who doesn't ask you to do anything that he's not willing to do himself. He's the boss whose decision making just reeks of wisdom. He's deliberate. He's patient. All right. This is what the psalmist is saying. I've come to know you as the God who saves. And so I delight in your commandments. I delight to do what you've said. My heart is flooded with an affection for the law giver. And this word delight even has the idea of fun in it, or in one place it's translated with the idea of fun, of playfulness. I love your word. I revel in it because I know the one who's spoken it is the one who has saved me. When you save me, Lord, as I wait on your word, I wait for it to come true. You'll open my mouth. You'll fuel my faithfulness. You'll free my feet. You'll flood my heart. And verse 48, he says, my hands also I will lift up to your commandments, which I love. And last, I will. I will meditate on your statutes. Did you hear Pastor Drake's reminder about the lost art of meditation? You know, this is not where you put your fingers in a certain position and chant the word om. This is where you take truth from God and you turn it over in your mind over and over and you chew on it and you think about it and you ask him about it and you speak to him and you wait for him to speak to you through his word. You meditate on it. The Hebrew word has the idea of an inward muttering conversation where you talk to yourself You're having this inward conversation about what God has said. And so he says, not only will my witness be formed, not only will my devotion, my love for you be fueled, not only will my feet be freed and my heart be flooded, but my mind will be filled. Filled. Now, we don't know what Isaac was meditating on. Pastor Drake, you know, gave some good suggestions. But we know that he was out in the field meditating when Rebecca came riding up. I'm sure that was someone in his meditation. Who am I going to marry? Who's the servant going to bring back? And I imagine the word had reached him that the caravan was returning. But let me just ask you this pointed question. When do you meditate? It's in that microsecond of time when Facebook won't quite load up yet. Okay, it's when the St. Louis Cardinals, you know I was gonna mention this today. It's when the St. Louis Cardinals website is slowed down just a little bit and it won't load up. You know, one of the main reasons that we need disciplines with our devices is because they are encroaching on our meditation time badly. It was already, you know, the discipline of meditation was on life support before the internet came. It was already an endangered species before Facebook was invented. It's threatened now. You need time to meditate. Tommy Kidd is a history teacher at Baylor and I highly recommend his blog or his list server. Wait, I think I just contradicted myself. Okay. When you're on your device, when you're on your device, you know, it's hard to do. When you're on your device, Look at Tommy Kidd and you'll find out that this guy who gets interviewed by C-SPAN, this guy who is a Gospel Coalition blogger, this guy who teaches history at Baylor and writes books on U.S. history, wrote a biography of George Whitefield, biography of Benjamin Franklin, spiritual biography of Benjamin Franklin, and a U.S. history, that he only checks email from 8 to 5. and he narrows the opening through which people can reach him. The people that are allowed to text him are very short list because he has to narrow that input and he puts his phone away from the time that he gets home to the time that he gets up the next morning. Now, not to be legalistic about that, not to say that Tommy Kidd's regimen should be yours, but do you have one? Do you have a regimen, a discipline that leaves time open for meditation? And I'm pointing at you with one finger and pointing back at myself with six. Do you have a regimen for allowing time to meditate? You know, it's interesting, when instructions matter to us, we are very zealous to find those instructions. I know most men, they get a new power tool and they put the instructions aside, they go out and use it and break it, and then they look at the instruction manual. But you know, those instruction manuals become precious to us when we need what they have to say. And so when God's salvation, when His mercy is making me wait, when I am beginning to see it coming in my life, all of a sudden I want to meditate on that instruction manual. I want to learn it chapter and verse. I want to fill my mind with it. You know, hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. You know, we were eager and zealous for the birth of all five of our children, those three that we had come to birth and those whom we lost in miscarriage. But, you know, The beauty of when the child arrives is something like nothing else. And faith in particular was two weeks late. And I remember waiting, and of course being the first time, waiting and waiting and waiting. And you're thinking, when is this going to happen? You know, there's this limited period of time. And yet when faith came, when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. It is a joy. And I don't know what you're waiting for this morning, something awesome, I guess. But I can bet that you're waiting. The question is, are you waiting with hope? Are you waiting for what God has promised? If you're not, you need to get a hold of what He's promised you. You need to get a hold of His truth. Because as you wait for His promise, Your heart will change as you follow in this path. Your witness will be formed. Your faithfulness will be fueled. Your feet will be freed. Your heart will be flooded. Your mind will be filled. You need to wait for his word. There's this great little line from Rich Mullins where he says, if I stand, let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through. But if I can't let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you. If I sing, let me sing for the joy that's born in me these songs. And if I weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home. I hear in that little poem the kind of hope that's deferred. I'm weeping because there are things promised that I haven't experienced yet. And I hear the kind of hope that we're all called to have, hope in the promise. I'd like to close with this passage that you don't hear very often. I bet you haven't been there, this portion of your Bible, in a while. But it really is one of the most famous passages in the Bible because Paul, when he wanted to reach back to the Old Testament and find something that illustrated justification by faith, he reached to this chapter, Habakkuk chapter 2. I'm sorry, Habakkuk chapter, yeah, Habakkuk chapter two. I have to sing a song. Okay, so yeah, find Daniel, Hosea, go to Jonah. Habakkuk written during a time when things weren't going well politically for Israel. I will stand my watch. I'll set myself in my rampart. I'll watch to see what he will say to me, what I'll answer when I'm corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But at the end, it will not lie. It will speak and it will not lie, though it tarries. What? Wait for it. Wait for it. What's God promised you that you haven't seen yet? Wait for it. Wait for it. You remember when Apollyon makes fun of Christian in the Valley of Humiliation? He knocks him down and says, where's your God now? Don't you know that those who follow your God mostly have miserable ends? If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. What fools! But Christ in you, the hope of glory, though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come. It will not tarry. Behold, the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live. By what? By faith. This is the Christian life, saved by faith, walk by faith, patiently wait by faith as you cling to his promise. Let's pray. Father, thank you that when we were without strength at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. And what a great salvation that you have saved us, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to your mercy, and that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Thank you, Father, that you've been pleased to answer many of our prayers already. And we have people in our lives who love us. We have food. We have many things to look forward to in the temporal realm. But Lord, in your providence, there are those things that we're waiting for. And there are those hopes deferred that sometimes cause our hearts to get a little bit sick as we're waiting. So while we're waiting, would you fuel our witness? Would you free our feet? Father, would you fuel our devotion to you? Father, would you flood our hearts and fill our minds? Teach us to meditate on what you promised so that our hope is clearly in focus. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are mighty to save those who call on you. Thank you for saving us. And we trust you that you will yet save us. from the things that we're worried about today. The things that even hurt our hearts or break our hearts today. You've saved us, and you are saving us, and will save us. We trust you, Lord. We're yours. Save us. We pray these things through Christ. In Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen.