Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me (Micah 7:7).
During our pastor’s sermon last night, my wife and I shared a laugh as Pastor Ramsey talked about his own impatience. What we found funny was not that my pastor was talking about his impatience, but he actually described my impatience perfectly! As he began his sermon, he mentioned waiting at busy intersections, waiting in line at Walmart, and other common situations where we are forced to abandon our own self-imposed time lines and just wait. One of the most difficult things to do is just to wait; it can be made even more difficult when we are faced with a situation where we see no visible way out!
Yesterday’s services, from Sunday school to the evening service, were filled with references and reminders that at times, it is important for us to wait and to do so in a spirit of thankfulness and continued prayer. Through the prophet Isaiah, God reminds both Jew and Christian alike that 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 (Isaiah 40:31). When we wait and accept what God has planned for us we will be rewarded by an overjoyed heart and will not be filled with dread or fear, but instead will excel in what God has put before us. Have you ever have a job or project that you enjoyed doing so much that it didn’t seem like work? Did you ever get excited the more you became involved in it? Did you notice that even when things didn’t go exactly as planned that they were never as bad as they could have been? Then you totally understand what Isaiah is speaking about in this verse.
Our adult Sunday school class teacher, Eddy Owens, shared with our class how in his life that there are times he has felt that God has shut all the doors and windows and left him in a hallway to just wait. What an accurate description of what God will do to get our attention; the prophet Isaiah must have also felt the same way when he wrote And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him (Isaiah 30:18). David, whom God called a man after his own heart, wrote He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake (Psalms 23:2-3). There’s an important lesson we can apply here – there will come times in our lives where God puts us in a situation where all we can do is to wait upon him and we are to rest ourselves – spiritually, physically, and mentally – while we wait.
There are times in our lives that we simply do need the opportunity for rest. The psalmist and king, David, understood this quite well when he wrote Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass(Psalms 37:7). Right now, my wife and I am in the middle of one of these “rest, wait, and fret not…” times in our lives. There are times where it’s easy, at least for me, to take my eyes off the Lord and begin to worry about everything else that’s going on around me. Bills, finances, car repairs, and a whole host of things begin to preoccupy my mind. Instead, what God wants for us is not to worry but to use the time waiting to rest. There are times when we look back at things that have happened in our lives and we have what I refer to as a “Job moment,” For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest (Job 3:13). Too many times when we should have rested, we worry instead. We find ourselves spiritually tired to the point that it can delay or keep us from enjoying God’s rich blessings that he has planned for us.
Additionally, while we are waiting on God’s direction we should not be ashamed. David, a man that found himself waiting a lot for God’s timing, wrote O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause (Psalms 25:2-3). We are not to be ashamed for our faith in God nor are we to be ashamed when we are placed in a position when all we can do is wait upon God’s timing. It is amazing how when Christians find themselves in situations where waiting is the only thing we can do Satan begins to taunt us with the ever so effective “so where is your God now?” It is important that we remember what God gently reminds us through the writing of the psalmist, David: Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth (Psalms 46:10). I have learned that there are blessings for obedience. When God tells us to wait on him, and we do, not only do we demonstrate our faith in him, but we also exercise and strengthen our faith in him.
