May 22

While We Wait

 

A psalm of David:

I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  ––Psalm 27:13-14

 

Wait. Just writing the word makes me squirm a little. I hate waiting, and I assume you do too. Waiting at the coffee place. Waiting at the DMV (when you forgot to make an appointment but your license expires tomorrow). Waiting at the doctor’s office. (Twice. First in the main waiting area, and then in the “little room.”)

It’s interesting, then, how often the Word tells us to wait. In one of the last directives Jesus gives before His arrest in Gethsemane, He tells James, John, and Peter to keep watch and wait while He prays a short distance away. (They fail, by the way, and fall asleep.) After His resurrection He tells the disciples that He will be leaving soon, but that God is sending the Helper, and they are to wait for Him in Jerusalem. After Jesus’ ascension, Paul encourages the Church to be patient as they await His return: “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Corinthians 1:7).

As much as we may hate waiting, it’s a major part of life. Much of the waiting we do in this life is not enjoyable, but some is (an upcoming vacation, birthday, anniversary, etc.). In Christ, however, waiting is part of the growing. We wait on Him and His timing, and we grow. We rush and try to go our own way, and we typically struggle. Right?

Waiting is a main ingredient in God’s recipe to forge in you a fully formed man who is on point with his calling and on task with the Father’s will. There’s no way around it, as Paul tells us:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  ––Romans 8:22-25

Paul points out the crucial fact that waiting on God is inextricably linked to our faith and our hope. If we received all our spiritual riches benefits at once, what need would there be for hope, or faith for that matter? He forges us in the waiting. Reorient your view of what it means to wait: To be perfected in Christ in His due time.

Father, help me reframe my idea of waiting. Grow deeper levels and patience and perseverance within me, knowing that as I wait on you, You will more greatly reveal Yourself to me.