Thoughts about Waiting on God

In America, the idea of waiting, (well - if we were honest), can be a 'painful' process if we even wait for the process to finish. We seem to always be in a rush and I notice this especially after coming home from missions trips to the Philippines or Africa... even in my visits to Europe people seem to have a better handle on balancing life and work - and seem to have learned how to enjoy as they wait (the trains in Europe are so amazing that waiting really isn't necessary - i'll chalk that up to good German punctuality and engineering).... ;)

We are surrounded by this "gotta have it now" culture, the "microwave society" (okay confess - how many of us have waited in front of the microwave waiting for something and hoping it would hurry up and finish? - or what about in a drive-thru window getting restless because it's just taking to long and thinking that don't they know I have somewhere to go? - not to mention driving in Chicago traffic or on the expressways) nuff said..

So how do we wait on God? How do we wait well? What does it mean to wait? Waiting usually means to sit idly, to be inactive, passive, bored, killing time until the next thing or whatever we are waiting for happens but waiting on God in Hebrew has a completely different meaning..

The Hebrew word for wait is "quvah" and it has the meaning of "to bind together, as by twisting strands together in a rope." One Hebrew scholar, Gesenius, defines waiting as "to be robust; to fix one's hope on Jehovah and expect His aid."

Waiting on God involves living, actively serving, looking where God is working and joining Him there, surrendering to Him in faith, in trust, fixing our eyes on Him and allowing ourselves to be weaved together with him. It is definitely not a passive process on our part and we can wait like David wrote in Psalms 130:5 - "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits for the Lord and in His Word do I hope." Elisabeth Elliot said it well in her book, Passion and Purity writing about her time of waiting for marrying Jim - she wrote 'Let not the longing cease you from living." ahhh, Elisabeth how true and how difficult sometimes.

God is a God who is not slow in keeping His promises, He is faithful and can be trusted completely and gives us the grace when we lack faith to continue to trust in Him. (I am reminding myself of this truth as I write it here). To have His perspective while we wait is crucial - we often fall prey to looking for immediate self-gratification and instead of asking how can I wait well so that there would be more of God-gratification in this? He sees the beginning from the end and takes us to our expected end, you know being Alpha and Omega and all that He is.

It's hard to wait that's for sure especially when it seems like 'nothing is happening' but could it be that nothing is happening according to us, to our own perspective apart from His? How can we let God teach us how to enjoy the delays, to live robustly, fully in Him, and to learn to continually put our hope in Him. He will come through with the promises He has given you and me, a prophetic word, a truth in Scripture, or something He has revealed to you by His Spirit. May we all learn again today how to wait well; how to see Him in the now and let Him continue to bind us together with Him so that when He does give us what He has promised, or do what we are waiting for Him to do - of course, all according to His goodness and His will, we can be assured that we have been walking with Him while we have been waiting. He is with us.

Throughout my journey, I have learned that waiting on God for 'something' has given me the blessing of learning how to wait with Him, how to be with Him, and how to grow in deeper intimacy as I wait... so then what i was so anxiously striving to make happen or grasp for has shifted into me walking with Him, grasping for His hand, enjoying His presence, and keeping my heart open to what He brings and how He wants to fulfill His promises.

Psalm 27:13-14 "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see 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!" (NASB)

Psalm 62:5 "Let all that I am wait quietly before God, because my hope is in Him." (NLT)

Isaiah 30:18 "Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are those who long (who wait) for Him." (NASB)