115. Wala ka sa Lolo ko. As for him, we need to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

20 February 2021
Photo: unsplash/@melissaaskew

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Psalm 37:7

James 5
Patience in Suffering
8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 
11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

James 4
Boasting About Tomorrow
14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 
15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

It is said, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail.

What about when your plan failed?

Answer, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Let me equate that to one word, pray.

I had a personal lesson on having to wait. It was like waiting in eternity.

Recently, I shared the midlife crisis I went through with a former senior executive in my previous company, he was a colleague of my former boss; we got reconnected thru fb.

He did not know that I was given early retirement in 1997 at age 37, the same year he also went on early retirement at age 54, to go to the US.

He asked me why so early was my retirement, if I went to business, if door closed and windows opened, if blessing in disguise?

I told him, between 2000 and 2005 I had no money for my children for college, I was at my wit's end, by God's grace my 2 daughters attended Ateneo, and then I recovered late 2005.

How did you manage? That was his immediate question.


That midlife crisis was like waiting in eternity.

James 5:11 mentions specifically of Job's perseverance and the Lord's compassion and mercy. You may want to read the Book of Job.

Then, how would I say or describe, how I kept still before the Lord and waited patiently for Him, over 5 years?

Yesterday, when I was preparing for the blog, I was lost looking for a photo to serve as graphic, then for a related reading.

Up to this morning, I was lost looking for related reading.

The breakthrough was, as I have done one time, I spied on my wife Marlou, I looked at her Women's Devotional Bible.

Here's the reflection I came upon on Psalm 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him."

"No Secrets, Author: Judith Lechman, NIV Women's Devotional Bible Copyright 1995 Zondervan, page 602

We are trying to enter into a relationship with God, and as is true in any relationship, we must bring a vulnerable openness to it. We cannot partition off from him certain frustrations and disappointments, our happy plans for the evening or our schedule for the workweek ahead. We are our ideas and thoughts, hopes, ambitions, feelings and dreams. To begin a relationship and allow it to deepen, each of these aspects of our life must not be hidden, but be ready to be presented to God.

This open sense of sharing is another way of saying that we truly trust God. We are not afraid to rely upon him. We do so willingly with no hidden secrets. With such trust, we will till the soil of our soul for devotion."

Very well said. 


The graphic for the blog, the little girl in stillness, indeed a picture of childlike faith, and the sunrays showing up, the sign of hope, that's the patience in suffering and the Lord's compassion and mercy.

To "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him" is to have no hidden secrets from God. To enter into and stay in the relationship with God. To truly trust him.

My midlife crisis like waiting in eternity. 

Well, we enter into a relationship with God, and that should be for eternity.

Childlike faith. A child waits patiently upon his or her parents, a picture of us waiting patiently upon our Heavenly Father.

Let me close by sharing the prayer I had on my reflection 21 October 2017.

"Lord, help me "Devote myself to prayer, being watchful and thankful (Colossians 4:2). In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:3). I wait in hope for You, Lord; You are my help and my shield. (Psalm 33:20). I will 'Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; I will not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes' (Psalm 37:7). Lord, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God (Psalm 38:15). I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope (Psalm 130:5), this I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."


This my children's children will one day say: "Wala ka sa Lolo ko. As for him, we need to be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him."

May you be blessed with God's Word. Amen.

Maraming salamat.

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