Welcome to Affirm Foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Gordon McDonald tells about a luncheon he had several years ago. It was with a professional football player and while they were eating lunch, the player mentioned that in six days we’re going to play the Dallas Cowboys. So MacDonald asked him, how are you going to prepare yourself to play against the Dallas Cowboys? The football player replied, well, the mornings will be spent in practice. We’ll arrive early and leave around noon. We’ll go to the stadium every day, practice. Then in the afternoon I’ll go home and then I’ll start to look at videotapes of the Dallas Cowboys. And then I’ll eat a quick dinner. I’ll go back to my study and I’ll spend the evening watching more videos about the Dallas Cowboys. I’ll spend 10 hours every day for the next six days in preparation for that game. Looking at the videos.

I’ll spend the mornings in practice. McDonald then asked, why would you spend so much time looking at these videos? The response I’ll study the Dallas Cowboys until I know them better than their wives know them. I’ll check every movement they make and when they come out of the huddles, I’ll be aware of every subtle sign for any signals that they give to each other. I want to know when they’re going to run, when they’re going to block, when they’re going to stay still, when they’re going to move ahead. I want to know when they’re going to turn to the left, to the right. I want to hit those players so hard that if they come into my zone, that when they’re lying on the ground, they’ll look up to the sky with glassy eyes and pray that there’s not another play in the game.

I want totally dominate them, Macdonald says, that’s passion. And at that luncheon, in reflection, he said, I only know that when I saw my friend’s passion to win a football game, I was inwardly embarrassed to realize that there was no part in my life where I could say I was paying a similar price. Not in my family life, not in my work, not in the pursuit of my faith. And I’d like to ask you, are you working with a spiritual passion or is the tank empty and at times it feels that you’re running on vapors? Someone has said what starts out in the Christian life as a pilgrimage has degenerated into a rat race and the rats are winning. Do you feel that you have lost that initial zeal, that initial passion that you had for Jesus Christ.

Do you love Christ as much today as when you first became a Christian? Are your batteries so charged that when you meet a person, you think of them in terms of eternity, and you want, above all, to share with them what you found in Christ? Do you remember the zeal that you had when you first became a Christian, of wanting to talk with those family members, those people that you loved, to make sure that they knew about Christ? Do you remember how you were to be found in prayer? And it seemed that nothing was too much to ask of you? Why? There was a passion, a love, an energy, a desire to serve the Lord. Do you have the same passion, the same joy, as when you began? If you say honestly, no, it’s not the same as when I began.

There are times when I am discouraged. There are times when I feel so weary that I can’t go on another step. Yes, it seems that I have lost part of that passion for Christ. Then let me say, you’re in good company, because the Bible is filled with examples of people who, for a season, seemed to lose that passion. David cried out, why art thou cast down, o my soul? Why are you disquieted in me? Job lamented, let the day perish wherein I was born. Moses knew the weariness of persevering from day to day. He said, I am not able to bear all of these things. It’s too heavy for me. The apostle Paul felt such a degree of frustration that in his letter to the Corinthians, he writes, for we would not.

Brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that were pressed beyond measure, above strength, that we even despaired of our own lives? You mean to say that the apostle Paul reached a point, a season in his life, where if you were to meet him, you would read on his face despair, weariness, a lack of that passion? He says that he came even to the point of despairing for his own life. Wherever I go and ask this question, I seem to get the same answer. The question how are you doing? The universal answer. Do you really want to know? I feel as though a truck has run over me. It seems to be part of the day in which we live.

I know one man that measures the success of his day by the number of trucks that have run over him. He says, if it’s a one truck day, it’s normal. Ten trucks. That’s enough to create a need for a week’s vacation. Well, how many trucks have run over you this week. There must be some reason for this sense of loss, of the passion that moved us from the beginning. There must be a reason why so many people feel spiritually worn out. Isaiah made this promise to God’s people. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and they won’t faint. They that wait upon the Lord.

How willing are most of us to wait on the Lord if we spend ten minutes at the grocery store waiting in line? That’s too long. But the promise is, those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Noah waited almost a hundred years from the time the promise was given to him that the rain would fall and he built that ark, and he waited upon the Lord. Moses was told that he would set the people free. How long did he have to wait upon the Lord for that to occur? 40 years. There would be 40 years that he would leave and go to the mountains as a shepherd. And then it would be an additional 40 years before he would see his people enter the promised land. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Job had to wait through boils.

He had to wait through the council of three friends whose counsel seemed to be anything but the council of friends. But the promise. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. There are times when each one of us will be asked by the Lord to simply wait. Wait. That there are seasons in our life where we’re asked to wait. I’d like to say something to mothers of young children. Do you remember before you were married, do you remember the time that you seemed to have to serve the Lord, to do all types of activities, hobbies, make those phone calls, send those notes out to friends. It seemed that there was nothing that you couldn’t do. And then you got married, and there was a slight change.

But when that first child came, you thought that it wasn’t fair that the baby would cry at night. Why, they’re only supposed to cry in the daytime. But then this baby continued to cry. And so what did you do? First you went and you rocked the baby. And then it continued to cry. And you put it down in its bed in the middle of the night. And you went back to your bed, and with passion, what did you do? You prayed, Lord, help this baby to go to sleep. But the baby continued to cry. And then the next day, you were worn out. The only thing you could think about was taking that nap, to getting caught up.

But then the second baby came and that time that you thought you were going to get caught up that afternoon, a good solid nap that’ll straighten it all out. Well, that afternoon the other baby cried, and it seemed that you were always playing catch up. In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read to everything. There is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck that which has been planted, a time to weep, a time to laugh. And it goes on. But there are a few things that Ecclesiastes left out. He left out that there is a time to wake in the middle of the night and to soothe a crying baby. That there is a time to comfort an ill child.

There is a time to sit down and to draw and to tell child stories to your son or daughter. There is a time to teach your children to tie their shoes. There is a time to teach them to comb their hair, to keep their room neat. There is a time. And fathers and mothers, as they approach that period in their life where there are children, especially young children, so often they feel worn out and tired. But the promise of God’s word, they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strengthen. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. There is a day coming when you will be able to run and not be weary, walk and not faint. To those who are willing to wait on the Lord. I think for many in our culture, waiting on the Lord has become more difficult.

And a simple reason is that we are living too hurried of a life. Misses Lettie Kauman’s in her book springs in the valley, talks about a trip that was taken in the jungles in Africa. And on the first day, the natives, who were the porters and carrying these heavy packs on their backs, they marched very rapidly and they were making tremendous time. As a matter of fact, they seemed to go two days distance in one day. On the second day, expecting the same pace, they found that the natives refused to move, and they stayed put all day, and no amount of cajoling would move them. The leader asked, why won’t they go? The response they had gone too far and too fast the first day, and they are now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.

We live, each one of us, overcommitted and over scheduled lives. We have more packed into one day than can ever be accomplished. Our schedules become something like Uncle Remus’s story of tar baby. Do you remember? He hits tar baby with his hand and suddenly his hand is stuck in the tar and so, hoping to free himself, he takes the free hand and strikes tar baby again, but can’t remove himself. And now with the free leg, thinking that surely this is the way to become free, he kicks and his foot is caught again in the tar. And now at the last foot, with great hope that will free him, he gives a mighty kick. And now he is engulfed in the tar baby. And in many ways, our schedules are like that.

We begin thinking that we will plan and schedule, and so we have the day worked out, and then we have the evening worked out, and then we have the weekend scheduled. Until finally our week is so filled with activity that it becomes very difficult for us to wait on the Lord to renew our strength. But someone will say, well, Jesus didn’t wait. He was always busy. Well, it’s true. We don’t see Jesus taking an evening off to play miniature golf. We don’t see him taking a four-week vacation. But as JB Phillips reminds us, the life that Jesus lived was in a different culture. For example, Phillips said there were long hours of quietness in the countryside as Jesus walked from town to town. It wasn’t for Jesus a frantic jetting around. Breakfast in Jerusalem, lunch in Damascus, supper in Antioch.

No, for Jesus, it was a life that was well controlled, that did not allow the schedule to get out of control. John Wesley said, though I am always in the in haste, I’m never in a hurry because I never undertake more work than I can go through. With calmness of spirit, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. But there are some of you who are waiting upon the Lord in very difficult circumstances. Some of you are waiting on the Lord to hear a diagnosis from a doctor. Some of you are waiting on the Lord for a job. Some of you are waiting on the Lord for a spouse.

Some of you are waiting on the Lord to see how this financial setback is going to work. Some of us are waiting in very difficult situations, waiting on the Lord for him to renew our strength. William Booth, who spent his lifetime feeding the poor with a love for people as he created the Salvation army at the age of 83. His son Bramwell was told by the doctor that the temporary blindness of William Booth was to be permanent because of a disease in Booth’s eyes. He told his father that he would be blind forever. William Booth said, you mean I am blind? You mean I will never again see your face? And his son said, I’m sorry, but you’ll probably never see my face again in this lifetime.

William Booth then took his hand and placed it upon the nose and the cheek of his son as he began to feel that which only weeks before he was able to see. And in the midst of waiting upon the Lord in the midst of a very difficult time Booth said, God must know best. I have done what I could for the people with my eyes. Now I shall do all that I can for God and for people without my eyes. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Perhaps one of the greatest ministers in our time is Evie Hill. According to Time magazine, several years ago he was selected as one of the ten greatest preachers in America.

Evie Hill has been a minister in California of a black congregation that has thousands in attendance that has impacted the city from block to block as they have established Bible studies. His greatest helper in all of that time was his wife who he simply called baby. And he tells affectionate stories about baby who was there when we started with nothing. How it was my baby who lit candles one day for a candlelight dinner at home because she didn’t want me to know that our electricity had been cut off. I’ve heard Ev. Hill speak on many occasions and there’s never a time that he does not talk about his beloved baby. This year, his baby died and Evie Hill stood before some 5000 Christians. And he said, I am not going to say to you that it doesn’t hurt. It hurts deeply.

I am not going to say to you that I am not weary in continuing preaching. I have not spoken for ten months since my baby has died. This is the first time that I have spoken publicly. I am not going to say to you that I am not tired because I am weary and I am tired. But I am also waiting. I am waiting on the Lord. And dont you think that ev. Hill has been knocked out. For I am waiting on the Lord who shall renew my strength. He will lift me on wings like eagles. And there is a day coming when I shall run and not be weary. I shall walk and not faint. But right now I am waiting on the Lord.

Each of us is asked by the Lord to have seasons and times where we are to wait upon him. When the baby cries in the middle of the night, wait on him when you’re waiting for that diagnosis. Wait on him when you’re waiting for the phone ring for that job, wait on him. For those who will wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. And there’s a new day coming. You will mount up on wings like eagles. You’ll run and not grow weary. You’ll walk and not faint. Learn to wait upon the Lord let us pray. Our God and our Father. It is hard for us to wait, for we look at the schedule book and there’s so much we must do.

Father, help us to make time for you, to make time for our families, to make time for those things which are most important. Help us to wait upon you and to know that we shall mount up on wings as eagles. For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you.