Waiting requires living by what I know to be true about God
when I don’t know what’s true about my life.
Last week, I looked out my kitchen window and smiled at the patches of grass in my backyard. Not three days later, it looked like a winter wonderland again. We can all agree that this winter has been harder than most. While we wait for spring, it still seems far from reach.
I admit that I’m no good at waiting. I can be known to scowl in a grocery line, sigh when the drive-thru is moving slowly, or get agitated in a traffic jam. Waiting can seem like such a waste of time. It’s even harder when we are experiencing a season of waiting in our lives. Perhaps we’ve asked God to move for months or even years, yet we still find ourselves in the very same place.
We’ve all been told that God is working in the waiting. But is He? And if He is, then why don’t we always feel the fruits of His labour?
If ever there were a people who experienced the hard work of waiting, it was the Israelites. They waited to be brought out of Egypt after 400 years of enslavement. They waited forty years to enter Canaan while they wandered in the wilderness and the rebellious generation died off. As exiles in foreign lands, they waited for a deliverer.
In the midst of waiting, the words of the prophet Isaiah brought comfort to the people.
But they who wait for 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. Isaiah 40:31
Isaiah’s message was clear. Those who trusted in their own strength would surely fall short, but those who waited for the Lord to act on their behalf would uncover wells of strength and endurance. The Israelites may have believed that God had forgotten them because deliverance had not yet occurred. Isaiah reminded them that Yahweh was so beyond their comprehension, and He was still working as they waited and wondered. The hope of the Israelites was for a political saviour; eventually, God brought a Messiah who would rescue the world from sin.
Waiting on the Lord is a significant theme in Scripture, with the concept mentioned over 100 times. The misconception with waiting is that it’s always passive. When we understand the word “wait” used by Isaiah and others, we discover it means “look for,” “hope,” or “expect.” The word implies a type of action, not merely being idle. In these uncomfortable intervals, we can be prone to discontent and discouragement. Waiting in a way that glorifies God means remembering HIs character and promises, even when nothing changes or the future is uncertain. We can have confidence that God’s plan is good, even when life seems hard, because His deepest concern is the condition of our souls. He is faithful in filling our deepest need if we let Him.
Mark Vroegop writes: “Waiting requires living by what I know to be true about God when I don’t know what’s true about my life.”
God may answer our prayers. He may open doors. He may change things in a way we never thought possible. Yet even if our waiting never ends, we can still find sweet communion with the Lord as He fills those in-between seasons of our lives with more of Himself.
Perhaps this is the lesson in waiting. It’s not getting exactly what we want. It’s knowing Jesus more as we learn to trust, rest and abide.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD, be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Leave a Reply