“Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.”—Hosea 12:6.

Continuity is one of the essential elements of life. Interrupt it for a single hour in a man, and it is lost; he is dead. Continuity, unbroken and ceaseless, is essential to a healthy Christian life. God wants me to be, and God waits to make me; I want to be, and I wait on Him to make me, every moment, what He expects of me—what is well pleasing in His sight. If waiting on God is the essence of true faith, the maintenance of the spirit of entire dependence must be continuous. The call of God, “wait on thy God continually,” must be accepted and obeyed. Although there may be times of special waiting, the disposition and habit of soul must be there unchangeably and uninterrupted.

This continual waiting is indeed a necessity. To those who are content with a feeble Christian life, it appears to be a luxury beyond what is essential to be a good Christian. But, all who are praying the prayer, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made! Keep me as near to You as it is possible for me to be! Fill me as full of Your love as You are willing to do!” feel at once that it is something that must be had. They feel that there can be no unbroken fellowship with God, no full abiding in Christ, no maintaining of victory over sin and readiness for service, without waiting continually on the Lord.

The continual waiting is a possibility. Many think that with the duties of life it is out of the question. They cannot always be thinking of it. Even when they wish to, they forget.

They do not understand that it is a matter of the heart and that what the heart is full of, occupies it, even when the thoughts are otherwise engaged. A father’s heart may be continuously filled with intense love and longing for a sick wife or child at a distance, even though pressing business requires all his thoughts. When the heart has learned how entirely powerless it is for one moment to keep itself or bring forth any good, when it has learned how surely and truly God will keep it, when it has, in despair of itself, accepted God’s promise to do for it the impossible, it learns to rest in God. In the midst of occupations and temptations, it can wait continually.

This waiting is a promise. God’s commands are enablings. Gospel precepts are all promises, a revelation of what our God will do for us. When you first begin waiting on God, it is with frequent intermission and failure. But, do believe God is watching over you in love and secretly strengthening you in it. There are times when waiting appears like just losing time, but it is not so. Waiting, even in darkness, is unconscious advance, because it is God you have to do with, and He is working in you. God, who calls you to wait on Him, sees your feeble efforts and works it in you. Your spiritual life is in no respect your own work; as little as you begin it, can you continue it. It is God’s Spirit who has begun the work in you of waiting upon God. He will enable you to wait continually.

Waiting continually will be met and rewarded by God Himself working continually. We are coming to the end of our lessons. I hope that you and I might learn one thing: God must, God will work continually. He ever does work continually, but the experience of it is hindered by unbelief. But, He, who by His Spirit teaches you to wait continually, will bring you also to experience how, as the Everlasting One, His work is never ceasing. In the love and the life and the work of God, there can be no break, no interruption.

Do not limit God in this by your thoughts of what may be expected. Do fix your eyes upon this one truth: in His very nature, God, as the only Giver of life, cannot do anything other than work in His child every moment. Do not look only at the one side: “If I wait continually, God will work continually.” No, look at the other side. Place God first and say, “God works continually; every moment I may wait on Him continually.” Take time until the vision of your God working continually, without one moment’s intermission, fills your being. Your waiting continually will then come of itself. Full of trust and joy, the holy habit of the soul will be: “on thee do I wait all the day” (Ps. 25:5). The Holy Spirit will keep you ever waiting.

My soul, wait thou only upon God!

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation.”—Psalm 62:5-6.

It is possible to be waiting continually on God, but not only upon Him. There may be other secret confidences intervening and preventing the blessing that was expected. And so the word only must come to throw its light on the path to the fullness and certainty of blessing. “My soul, wait thou only upon God . . . He only is my rock.”

Yes, “my soul, wait thou only upon God.” There is but one God, but one source of life and happiness for the heart; “He only is my rock”; “My soul, wait thou only upon God.” You desire to be good; “There is none good but . . . God” (Matt. 19:17), and there is no possible goodness but what is received directly from Him. You have sought to be holy; “There is none holy as the LORD” (1 Sam. 2:2), and there is no holiness but what He by His Spirit of holiness every moment breathes in you. You would gladly live and work for God and His kingdom, for men and their salvation. Hear how He says: “The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary . . . He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength . . . They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength. (Isa. 40:28-39, 31). He only is God; He only is your Rock: “my soul, wait thou only upon God.”

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” You will not find many who can help you in this. There will be enough of your brothers to draw you to put trust in churches and doctrines, in schemes and plans and human appliances, in means of grace and divine appointments. But, “my soul, wait thou only upon God” Himself. His most sacred appointments become a snare when trusted in. The brazen serpent becomes Nehushtan (see 2 Kings 18:4); the ark and the temple a vain confidence. Let the living God alone, none and nothing but He, be your hope.

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Eyes and hands and feet, mind and thought, may have to be intently engaged in the duties of this life. “My soul, wait thou only upon God.” You are an immortal spirit, created not for this world but for eternity and for God. Oh, my soul, realize your destiny. Know your privilege, and “wait thou only upon God.” Let not the interest of spiritual thoughts and exercises deceive you; they very often take the place of waiting upon God. “My soul, wait thou,” your very self, your innermost being, with all its power, “wait thou only upon God.” God is for you; you are for God. Wait only upon Him.

Yes, “my soul, wait thou only upon God.” Beware of two great enemies: the world and self. Beware of allowing any earthly satisfaction or enjoyment, however innocent it appears, keep you back from saying, “I [will] go . . . unto God my exceeding joy” (Ps. 43:4). Remember and study what Jesus said about denying self: “Let [a man] deny himself” (Matt. 16:24). Tersteegen says: “The saints deny themselves in everything.” Pleasing self in little things may be strengthening it to assert itself in greater things.

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Let Him be all your salvation and all your desire. Say continually and with an undivided heart, “From him cometh my [expectation]. He only is my rock . . . I shall not be greatly moved” (Ps. 62:1-2). Whatever your spiritual or temporal needs are, whatever the desire or prayer of your heart, whatever your interest in connection with God’s work in the church or the world—in solitude or in the rush of the world, in public worship or other gatherings of the saints, “my soul, wait thou only upon God.” Let your expectations be from Him alone. “He only is my rock.”

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Never forget the two foundation truths on which this blessed waiting rests. If you are ever inclined to think this waiting only is too hard or too high, they will recall you at once. They are your absolute helplessness and the absolute sufficiency of your God. Oh, enter deeply into the entire sinfulness of all that is of self, and do not think of letting self have anything to say one single moment. Enter deeply into your utter and unceasing inability to ever change what is evil in you, or to bring forth anything that is spiritually good. Enter deeply into your relationship of dependence on God, to receive from Him every moment what He gives. Enter deeper still into His covenant of redemption, with His promise to restore more gloriously than ever what you have lost. And, by His Son and Spirit, He will unceasingly give you His actual divine presence and power. And thus, wait upon your God continually and only.

“My soul, wait thou only upon God.” No words can tell, no heart can conceive, the riches of the glory of this mystery of the Father and of Christ. Our God, in the infinite tenderness and omnipotence of His love, waits to be our life and joy. Oh, my soul, let it no longer be necessary that I repeat the words, “Wait upon God.” But, let all that is in me rise and sing, “Truly my soul waiteth upon God” (Ps. 62:1). “On thee do I wait all the day” (Ps. 25:5).

My soul, wait thou only upon God!

Moment by Moment 
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment—Isaiah 27:3

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoning mine; 
Living with Jesus, a new life divine; 
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, 
Moment by moment, 0 Lord, I am Thine.

Chorus: Moment by moment I’m kept in His love; 
Moment by moment I’ve life from above; 
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine; 
Moment by moment, 0 Lord, I am Thine.

Never a battle with wrong for the right, 
Never a contest that He doth not fight; 
Lifting above us His banner so white, 
Moment by moment, I’m kept in His sight.

Never a trial that He is not there, 
Never a burden that He doth not bear, 
Never a sorrow that He doth not share, 
Moment by moment, I’m under His care.

Never a heartache, and never a groan, 
Never a teardrop, and never a moan; 
Never a danger but there on the throne, 
Moment by moment, He thinks of His own.

Never a weakness that He doth not feel, 
Never a sickness that He cannot heal; 
Moment by moment, in woe or in weal, 
Jesus, my Saviour, abides with me still.