Isaiah 40:31
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.
How do we wait for the Lord well?
Here are 6 truths to help us.
1. God is who he says he is.
He is faithful, he is steadfast in love, he is sovereign, he is present and omnipotent, and he has given us his living word to feed our souls and build us up.
2. Waiting is active
Waiting is not sitting around, doing nothing until God acts. God works in and through his people. Even as we wait for God to do, we relate to God as he is. We obey, we fulfill the responsibilities God has given us, we are part of God’s family. We live as children of God in such a way that we are being faithful and fruitful in the waiting.
3. Waiting is an environment of prayer
Look at how the Bible talks about waiting–seek him, take courage, my soul waits. Waiting is a workshop for faith–leaning into what we do know of God’s character and word to strengthen us in what we cannot see. So we draw near to him and speak with him.
4. God is working invisibly as we wait
We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that if God is not fulfilling our immediate desires then he is unfaithful. In so doing, we miss the immensity of God’s work–he is upholding the universe and caring for individuals. And he is working in ways we cannot see specifically to care for us, sometimes in ways we have asked for and often in ways that we would have asked for if we knew what he knows.
5. God is working in us as we wait.
Often the invisible works of God are in our very souls, and we don’t recognize them in the difficulty (agony) of waiting. But in time we find ourselves refined and strengthened and wiser. We find that we have learned new and better things about drawing near to God and trusting him and clinging to him.
6. God’s slowness is God’s patience.
The hardest part of waiting is waiting. It takes so long. But 2 Peter 3:8-9 reminds us how God handles time: But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. If God is not acting in our limited understanding of timeliness, it is because he is allowing time for more good to happen.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
