waiting11.jpgI wonder how much time we spend waiting in life.  We wait for lots of things, don’t we?  We wait at the check-out line.  We wait in the elevator.  We wait when we’re stuck in traffic.  We even wait in the “waiting room” for our name to be called.  No one likes this kind of waiting.  It is often a passive, inactive, and even worrisome type of waiting.  But we also wait in a different way, don’t we?  We wait for that special package in the mail.  We wait for our good friends to come over.  We wait for the weekend.  We wait for our spouse to get back home.  And we wait for the day we’ll finally meet our baby.  This kind of waiting is different, isn’t it?  It’s the kind of waiting that requires patience, but patience mixed with hope.  It’s the kind of waiting that’s not passive but active.  It’s the kind of waiting that requires a trusting heart — the kind of waiting that’s filled with expectancy.  This kind of waiting is the waiting that God asks of us all throughout Scripture.  For example:

Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” 

Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.”

The amazing thing is that God promises good things to those who wait for Him.  For example:

Isa. 40:31 says, “But they that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint.”

Lam. 3:25 says, “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”

I admit, it’s hard for me to wait on God.  I want to take things into my own hands.  I want to somehow manuever myself to make sure things happen the way I think they should.  I lack patience.  I lack trust.  And I miss out on the joy of waiting on God.  The joy that comes from seeking Him and expecting great things from Him as I call out to him in prayer.  The joy that comes from meditating on the many promises of Scripture like, “God is for me and not against me” and “He who did not spare his own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not, along with him, graciously give us all things” (Rom. 8:31-32).

When it comes down to it, waiting is really hoping in God.  Hoping in a God who will do what He said He will do, in his own time, for his own pleasure and for our own good.  So Lord, help us wait on you.