Our waiting is key to entering into the promises of God. In waiting, God cultivates our trust and dependence on Him—something fractured by sin but restored by Jesus. Jesus came to bring us back from self-reliance to dependence on Him, and waiting is the way to receive full salvation.
Jesus told His disciples to wait on His promises, specifically the coming of the Holy Spirit. Their role as disciples was to actively wait for the promise Jesus had spoken about. Without surrendering ourselves fully to God, we can’t truly wait on Him.
Surrendering means giving God complete control over our hearts and souls. When we try to fix our own problems and overcome sin on our own, we often make things worse. We need a Helper. In surrender, as we wait on God, the Holy Spirit reconstructs old pathways in our hearts and souls to free us from sin. It is the power of Jesus’ blood that sets us free, not our own efforts. Our freedom comes from Jesus’ death on the cross, not from our own works. What was once dead in us comes to life only through the Holy Spirit as we learn to depend on God. When we fall, He reestablishes the state of our souls—not by our many words and prayers, but by His grace.
David says in the Psalms, “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” He says, “I wake up in the morning to ask God for restoration and wait on Him to restore me.” David didn’t try to deny his own struggles; he understood that he was powerless to restore his soul on his own. In Psalm 51, he asks, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” He recognized that he couldn’t restore the joy of salvation or return to intimacy with God by himself; only God had the power to restore him. David’s waiting on God brought joy and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
When David says, “Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,” he’s pointing to his calling to help others worship and serve God. David’s life shows us what it means to be a person after God’s own heart, fully surrendered to fulfilling God’s desires.