Waiting

We get everything we want the way that we want it so quickly anymore. This leads even Christian people to be impatient. We speed. We tap our desk while the next internet page is loading. We get aggravated in line. We hang up if we have to wait for the computerized options for a business we are trying to contact.

Perhaps our impatience in everyday matters leads to our impatience in spiritual ones. But there is a big difference in being too long in a drive-thru and asking God to take away our pain. One is trivial, and the other dwells at the very center of our lives. We may feel like the psalmist, who lamented, "I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God" (Psalm 69:3)

Many of us are in a position of waiting. We are waiting to hear from the doctor about recent tests. We are waiting for our teenagers to obey the gospel. We are waiting for someone we have hurt to forgive us. We are waiting for God to help us overcome heartache and loss. We are waiting for direction. We are waiting for death to usher our feeble bodies home. We are waiting for the return of our Savior.

We are waiting...

So let us consider what God has said about waiting:

Psalm 25:5 - "Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day."

Psalm 27:14 - "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Psalm 52:9 - "I will praise You forever, because You have done it; And in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good."

Psalm 130:5 - "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope."

Isaiah 40:31 - "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Micah 7:7 - "Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation;My God will hear me."

Romans 8:25 - "But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."

Galatians 5:5 - "For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith."

The golden thread that passes through every circumstance of our waiting is hope. Our consolation is in a God who will do things in the perfect way and in the perfect time, according to His own will. Waiting develops faith and character. It allows us to hope against hope. It draws us nearer to God, until in time we will perfectly trust Him to bring it to pass. Waiting is a blessing. God knows that in our waiting we shall be proven, and that in being proven we shall be free.

" The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." ~ Lamentations 3:25-26