The Art of Waiting
Have you ever been waiting in traffic? Waiting for the baby? Or heard, “Hey, wait a second please.” It is a common word in today’s culture. What does the Bible say about waiting? Here are a few verses about waiting and that's why I coined that phrase, “the art of waiting.”
Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
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.”
This verse uses the word “but” which makes it a conditional promise doesn't it? It says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Sometimes we, unfortunately, get the cart in front of the horse. We're tempted to kick down doors and push forward into situations and circumstances trying to get solutions. It would bless us to wait on God to be the prime mover to help us and to show us what to do.
Think about some of the more famous records in the Bible showing us some folks who had to wait. Noah waited 120 years. Moses waited 40 years. David waited 15 years, Joseph waited 13 years, Abraham waited 25 years.
E. W. Bullinger, who we respect and is known for his work in the Bible, says that “waiting is not passive, but it's a profound, active, and patient endurance intertwining one's life with God, with an expectation of future good. Like when you take strands of a rope and you braid them together, they are twisted together. They make an inseparable connection.”
And so, waiting is not killing time. It's looking forward with hope and expectation, with trust in God's timing. It's grabbing a hold of the promise of God and trusting that God our Father, is working behind the scenes and that the ultimate solution will be the very, very best thing possible.
He is not distant. He's not untouchable and unapproachable. My thoughts and feelings do not determine how God treats me and helps me. They are not the standard. My mistakes are not my identity. The devil may try to make it like that, but it is a lie!
What is waiting? It's a restful trust in the goodness of God. It is a restful trust in God's wisdom, in God's love and a restful trust in God's care. God is working behind the scenes with the ultimate solution.
We must slow down, step back and make a conscious decision and say, “I'm not moving forward on this decision or on this particular aspect of my life until God is really showing me exactly the best thing for me to do.”
We can have confidence in God's love, God's care, God's faithfulness, God's goodness.
That’s the “art of waiting.”