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(Presented by Lisa Bishop)
It’s easy to try to get our identity from all the wrong places rather than from the very of truth of God. Have you ever been in a season of waiting? Maybe you are in a time of waiting right now. Are you waiting to hear back on a job interview, a promotion, a letter of acceptance to school. Maybe you are waiting on a phone call from a long-lost friend or estranged family member, a call from the doctor for a diagnosis. Waiting is hard.
I was having dinner with a friend the other night and she was lamenting about prayers that are seeming to go unanswered. We talked about how difficult and often uncomfortable it can be when we experience what feels like long delays as we seek God for help, or answers to a problem we are facing. We confided to one another the pain and frustration we can feel in the waiting. Can you relate? Have your prayers ever sounded like a broken record as you wonder why God was waiting so long to answer?
Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us what wisdom looks like in the waiting. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Trust God not your own understanding. If we’re honest, disheartenment can take up residence in us when we rely on our limited knowledge and vision of a situation. We can be tempted to trust in what we know and forget that we serve an all-knowing, trustworthy God. We can be enticed to give into impatience rather than fully surrendering to the faithfulness of Jesus.
In Psalm 27, David expresses authentic faith and courageous trust in God as he cries out and waits in confident expectation that the Lord will rescue and save him in his time of trouble. In Verse 14 he declares he will, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
David is training his heart to trust and remember that the Lord hears him and he is faithful. In his perfect timing God will answer David and come to his rescue. In his perfect timing God will answer you and come to your rescue. Waiting for God to come through is a way that God builds your faith and character and grows your spiritual maturity.
Waiting can feel like wasted time but it isn’t. The waiting sanctifies you. The waiting humbles you. The waiting prunes you. The waiting strengthens your dependence on God.
What are you waiting for from God? Will you trust him? It really comes down to choice. Will you choose patience and faith, or will you give into fear, doubt, worry, and anxiety? Listen, God is for you. He is making a way for you. Cooperate with him so the time spent waiting will prove productive and fruitful. There is wisdom in the waiting.
