I don't wait well. If I am in line at WalMart, I get really fidgety and bored, but take that back, iphones have helped a ton in the waiting process of lines and getting your oil changed. We are so much more productive, or at least waste time while waiting. But I rabbit trail.
Waiting is just hard. Hard when you are really anxious for what is coming and it just gets really exciting and hard to wait for what you are wanting. And then there are times when you are waiting for something not good, like the other shoe to drop, so anticipation of bad that might come. Or even waiting for the hard that has to come. That waiting can make you nervous, anxious, and at times down right sick. Then there is the waiting on something that you don't even know if it will happen. You want it to happen but it just might not happen. This might be... getting married, getting a promotion, or getting pregnant. You just don't know if it will ever happen, but the hope is there, the desire is there and yet there might be disappointment on the other side of the waiting and hoping.
And in that waiting and hoping we want to take control. Ok, I won't assume you are like me... I want to take control. I want to make something happen. Today I was reminded of a lot of truth that corrected my perspective...
First: The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?
Proverbs 20:24
I get so busy trying to figure out if something is going to happen or if I need to do something to make it happen that I forget who is really in control. And, oh surprise, it's not me! And of course the questions that I have to wrestle with here... "Do I really trust the Lord?"
Then I was reminded in Isaiah 30 of more truth. We often try, oh sorry... I often try to run out and get help from a lot of other places to help my "want" along. Now this is not always a bad thing. God does put people in our lives to help us and guide us in what He has for us. But when
Isaiah 30:15 says, This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength."
Quietness and confidence! I love that picture. When I rest before the Lord, confident of His love for me, I will have strength. And in the midst of waiting, how great is that!
And then verse 18 says, So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.
When waiting, what a beautiful picture... love and compassion when I come to Him. And He wants to help me. But more He wants me to trust Him!
And it comes around again in Jeremiah 17:7... But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
He is my hope and my confidence, and therefore I can have strength in waiting. What a great picture. And what a mighty, faithful, loving, powerful God I serve!
I also looked up a bunch of verses on waiting on the Lord and what it brings and I was caught by Jeremiah 14. God is holding rain back from the people because they are looking to other gods for their "life." The Lord will not share His people's affections with other gods and He wants them to realize they need Him. And then I was caught by verse 22: Can any of the worthless foreign gods send us rain? Does it fall from the sky by itself? No, you are the one, O Lord our God! Only you can do such things. So we will wait for you to help us.
A beautiful reminder of God is GOD and no person and no other thing is! He is the one that brings the rain. He is the one that brings the "things" into our lives that we need. So the waiting IS waiting on Him and waiting on Him is a place of rest. He will bring what is best to my life (and yours). He wants us to trust HIM!
So, whatever you might be waiting for, as I wait for what I want, let's trust the Lord... don't waaaait for it... trust HIM!
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