104. Never Ashamed
Isaiah 49:23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
There is a condition to this promise: if you wait for me, then you will not be ashamed. The promise is that you shall not be ashamed for trusting in the promises of God, that is, you will not be disappointed or let down, because the Lord will do what He says; He will keep His promises, and you can count on it and live your life according to every promise of God. When we come face to face with God we will have no shame since we have no sin. When we pray for a need we will not be ashamed for believing the Lord for an answer. We may have to wait for God’s timing, and we may have to admit that God’s ways are not our ways. So, to our small brain it may seem like disappointment, but the Word says it is not. So we wait in faith, or maybe we change our way and start looking for God’s answer instead of our answer.
The issue of waiting needs some understanding: it means waiting in faith, not in selfish desire. But sometimes we don’t wait in faith and then our hope and prayer simply wane, or we are disappointed in God. In other words, we are ashamed. God gives faith; faith does come from our own will or feeling. If God gave the faith then we can wait. When we believe long enough and are willing to learn God’s will in a matter, then the promise is true: we will not be disappointed. The waiting and everything else depends on faith. God grants the faith; if God did not grant the faith we must not try to manufacture it. This is what waiting means: trusting in God for His way and His timing.