Waiting

 October 20, 2024

Awhile back, I was reading an old devotional that belonged to my mother. It’s underlined, marked, and filled with comments in the margins. It has become one of my most valued possessions, giving me insights into her heart that I hadn’t known when she was still with us. Here’s a sample.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” —Psalm 27:14

I’ve often read about how we need to wait on the Lord. Isaiah 40:31 is perhaps the most quoted Scripture in this regard:

“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.”

Notice the difference between these two verses. The psalm encourages us to wait FOR the Lord, while Isaiah speaks about waiting ON the Lord. I believe this is significant. We wait on the Lord because we aren’t ready for what he is doing. So we go to him in prayer, watching and waiting till we are ready for the work he is calling us to do. When we wait for the Lord, it’s because he isn’t ready. 

I remember when I first came to Christ, I was impatient to get busy serving him. I didn’t want to wait for college, but had I not waited, I never would have met Linda. God knew I would need her, so he made me wait…on him, and for him. 

There are often circumstances he needs to get in place before he is ready to proceed. We get impatient, wanting to move before we’re ready, or eager to move before God is ready. Either way, waiting can be hard, but it’s important that we learn the lessons of patience, and that we don’t get ourselves ahead of him.