Waiting

I believe that I shall look upon
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! 
—Psalm 27:13-14

Did I forget, again, the supreme Holiness of my Lord? My heart has not been reflective of my true identity, a daughter of the King of heaven and earth. No, I have worried, doubted, feared, and stressed in a complete lack of trust. Remind me, Jesus, of the joy of a friendship with You. Instruct me in the fear of the Lord, and above all bring me back to You, back to Love unedited. My desire is to follow You and fear You, to keep Your commandments, listen to Your voice, serve You, and cling to You (Deuteronomy 13:4). Without You, my Jesus, I have nothing, I am nothing. The moment you saved me I was reborn; now every facet of my existence is defined in relation to You. Oh, my Beloved, lead me in the truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation. For You I wait all the day long (Psalm 25:5). 

For You I wait all the day long. 

This is the hard part. Personally, I am quick to act, quick to overlook God’s commandment for restraint, trust, and patience in waiting. Moreover, I see it as a short-term concept—that I will see the beginning and end of my waiting this week, this year, this lifetime. However, when we look to the Scriptures, we often find waiting contextualized quite differently. Waiting is not as fixed as we believe it to be, for we are called to “wait continually for your God” (Hosea 12:6). When I first discovered this, I was painfully convicted of my own self-centeredness regarding trials, for rarely has this been my perspective: We are not so much waiting for results as we are waiting for Him. Ultimately, everything we do falls under this truth.

The modern world teaches waiting as something to be avoided; intentional waiting would be considered self-denial, so it’s typically discouraged. And then, in those situations we can’t control, the unplanned waiting drives us up the wall, doesn’t it? Time drags at every traffic light and crosswalk, Starbucks is in a permanent state of chaos, and I won’t even get started on the high-rise elevators before classes. For years, we’ve been subtly trained to avoid stillness and react emotionally to infringements on our predetermined timetables… which leaves little room to “wait for the Lord.” 
But what right do we have to claim we are too busy for Him? We have none. Our Creator deserves intentional, undivided time from us, and as we wait in that stillness, He is faithful to meet us.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 
—Lamentations 3:25

Despite our preconceptions, waiting is not synonymous with inaction! Waiting is active, and in the gray moments of uncertainty, seeking the Lord is such a beautiful calling. Now, this seeking can also be defined as inquiring of, calling upon, and diligently searching for God [1]. How we wait says so much about our understanding of Jesus. If our prayers begin and end with our own needs; for example, if God’s provision only evokes relief because of the situation’s improvement, then we have missed the revelation of His character! The provision doesn’t deserve worship, the Provider does! The healing does not deserve glory, the Healer does! Encountering Him in these ways should point us back to the hope that we’ll behold Him in His fullness one day. This very Healer and Provider, we will see face to face, and just as we will worship His holiness then, we can worship Him now. He’s the One we exalt, before and after we witness His miracles. Let us take care not to withhold glorifying the Lord until He has seen us through our trials. He is constantly worthy.

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 
—Romans 8:24-25

Patience and waiting are intricately woven together; without a strong hope in who He is, doubts will weaken and chip away at our faith. If we measure God by the big moments, the miracles, the resolutions, without standing on His future promises, we revert back to questioning His power to free us from bondage after all. Or to heal us from that sickness. Or to provide in a financial crisis. Do you see the problem with this thought process? It conditions God’s presence and power by a specific result—and if we don’t see that result, we question both His character and our identity.

“But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” 
–James 1:4

Who does the Lord say we are? Galatians 4:6 says, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is the hope in which we are saved, not hope that we will fulfill worldly ideals of “perfection.” No, we believe that every semblance of the word “perfection” is defined in Him. And moments where He asks us to wait? It’s the crucible of refinement that we may be transformed into His definition of perfect: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).

When waiting evokes uncertainty, fear, and discomfort, we’ve forgotten the perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3) at our door—if we would only be so bold as to trust Him.

“Even youths shall faint and be weary,
And young men shall fall exhausted,

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
—Isaiah 40:30-31

Beloved friends, it is so much easier to write these words than to live them out. But dwelling on the failures of your surrender to Christ without pondering the truth of His love for you will render deep emotional turmoil. Run to Him, I beg you. In whatever state you are, even if you’re not “feeling it,” take an earnest moment to seek Him in silence, for He will not abandon you in your weariness, but renew your strength. We are called to run with endurance the race set before us (Hebrews 12:1). If we are to run and not be weary, to walk and not faint, we must wait for the Lord! We must be like the watchman at the gate, awake and alert for his master’s return. We must be like the five wise bridesmaids, eagerly awaiting their beloved.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage. He is coming!

You have said, “Seek My face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” 
—Psalm 27:8

[1]  BibleHub, Strong’s Hebrew 1875. darash.