Are You Waiting?

What are you waiting for? Something to begin or something to end?

 In our instant society, we like things done fast. We often consider waiting inconvenient because it tests our patience. We wait for:

 •           The right relationship

 •           A new job to begin or retirement to come

•            Test results

 •           Babies to be born and prodigal children to return

 •           Hardship to end

 Yet throughout the Old and New Testaments, we’re told to wait in expectation for God to act on our behalf. Psalm 27:14 tells us, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.”

“To wait” as used in the original Hebrew, means to hope, look eagerly for, expect. Waiting is especially difficult during a season of hardship, but it gives us the opportunity to “exercise” our faith muscles. Waiting also helps us develop a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. We can do some beneficial things while we wait:

•            Cry out to God. Choose to believe He will hear and answer. Then trust Him.

•            Anticipate and expect that God will bring a good result.

•            Read the Bible. Meditate on God’s promises.

•            Hold tight to the hope that God’s timing is perfect. God is not in a hurry to produce a perfect result.

 •           Praise God for His work in the past. Tell others about the good things He has done.

 •           Be peaceful; do not fret. Lamentations 3:25 tells us, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.”

Do you believe He’s good? Author and Bible teacher Charles Stanley writes, “You can trust that if He asks you to wait, He has something more wonderful in mind than you could ever provide for yourself.” Now, that is good. While we wait, let’s be encouraged with words from Isaiah 40:31: Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. SHINE ON!

From, “Shining Through the Psalms,” by Deborah Presnell, 2018 available on Amazon.