Psalm 27 is fast becoming my favorite psalm.  Today I was thinking about what my greatest struggle is personally, and I have to say it is impatience.  Psalm 27 ends with instruction to wait on the Lord – “¹³I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! ¹⁴ Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!”

Again in Psalm 130 we are exhorted to wait on the Lord – “⁵I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;”

Isaiah 40:30-31 – “³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; ³¹but 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.”

Lamentations 3:25-26 “²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. ²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

Jude 1:21 – “²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

What is helpful aside from the abundance of scripture exhorting me to wait on God, are the many pictures of God’s faithfulness and goodness I see in the Word.  To Abraham, in his unbelief that God would bring him a son through his wife (who was well past child-bearing age) sought to take matters into his own hands, and slept with one of his household servants.  After that, God waited 13 years before fulfilling His promise to Abraham.  God gave him a son through his wife, Sarah.  God promise the people of Israel that He would rescue them from slavery in  Egypt after 400 years – God was faithful to do that very thing.  God promised the people of Israel a land of their own, and after 40 years wandering in the desert, God did that very thing.  Lastly God promised salvation, through Himself, and that was accomplished on the cross by Jesus – God absorbed the wrath due all our sin.

Some might say, well why couldn’t he have done all those things immediately!  Of course, these who go out and buy the newest and best electronics for 4x their normal price so they can brag that they are “cutting edge” to their friends. (for about 5 minutes until the next thing comes along).  God wants us to wait, because He loves us.  God’s greatest desire is that our faith be rooted in Him.  Situations where we wait on the Lord is primarily how He accomplishes this.

How does one get into good shape?  By working out consistently.  Can your desire to be in good shape make you that way overnight?  No, there is a process that you go through of eating right, and working out, even on the days you don’t feel like it.  Likewise God wants us to grow, which requires us to stretch our faithfulness and trust in the Lord.  Some of us look back on a life of sin and ask – “how could I be any different now”?  The answer of course is that Christ has made you into a new creation, that loves God, and trusts Him in all things.  What a blessing it would be to our assurance, if we could look back on periods in our life where we waited on God, only to see God’s faithfulness and goodness manifest itself (in God’s timing not our own).  So if God has you in a season where you are waiting on Him for something – pray earnestly and expectantly that God will show up, because He IS faithful, and He IS good, and you have a whole old and new testament of history to encourage yourself with.    Stay encouraged, surround yourself with Christian brothers and sisters, God is always with you.

Grace and Peace,
Adam