By: Steve Wilmot
There are few things I hate more than waiting. Whether it’s waiting in line, waiting at a railroad crossing, or waiting for the results of a medical test, I loathe waiting.
Perhaps God has you in a holding pattern right now, and you don’t think you can bear it any longer.
What you need to know is God is giving you opportunities to learn to wait because acquiring this ability will benefit you more than you can imagine.
While I was griping and moaning about a few things recently because God wasn’t acting fast enough — in my opinion — I read this verse from Isaiah: “God acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64.4).
That got my attention. God acts on behalf of those who wait for him. God acts while we wait. The implication is if we aren’t waiting on him, God sits on the sidelines tapping his foot and pausing his activity in our lives until we decide to slow down and turn it over to him.
Too often we short-circuit what God is trying to do by jumping in and doing something on our own. And we can always find something we think we can do to fix everything.
We don’t have to wait for the right mate. We can date around and find someone to marry on our own. We don’t have to wait for that item we want to buy. We can put it on our credit card.
But when we fail to wait on God, we prevent him from acting on our behalf. We don’t leave him time to move in our lives because we want results NOW!
Waiting for God isn’t putting on a mask to hide the inner turmoil you’re feeling. We all play that game — someone asks you how you are, and even though you’re going through hell you paint a fake smile on your face and say, “Fine. Good.”
During the Korean War, a few American soldiers rented a house and hired a Korean national to do their housekeeping. This Korean fellow had a great attitude, but the Americans played all kinds of tricks on him.
They’d nail his shoes to the floor. In the morning, he’d pull out the nails with the best attitude and slip them on and wear them throughout the day
They’d grease the stove handles, and he’d wipe them off, smile, and sing all day long.
They’d balance buckets of water on the door, and he’d come in and they would fall and drench him. But he’d wipe the floor and change into dry clothes and never fuss
After a while, the Americans became guilty and ashamed of themselves. They called him in one day and told him, “We want you to know that we’re never going to do that again. Your attitude has been outstanding.”
The Korean guy answered, “No more nail shoes to floor? No more sticky on stove handles? No more buckets of water on door?”
And to each question, the soldiers assured him they’d never do it again. To which the houseboy replied, “Then me no more spit in soup.”
It’s easy to do that, isn’t it? On the outside, it looks like you’re waiting patiently and trusting God, but inside you’re fretting and worrying, anxiously wondering why God is taking so long.
Isaiah also tells us that “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength” (Isaiah 40.31). The Hebrew word Isaiah used for “wait” can be translated with two other words.
One of those words is “hope.” “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” In biblical lingo, hope is a “confident expectation.” It’s something we don’t have yet, but we’re confident we will in time because God promises he will give it.
Isaiah again: “When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen” (Isaiah 60.22). Until the time is right — a time only God knows — we wait and hope in the Lord.
God knows what he’s doing, and the perfect time to make it happen. He sees the big picture we can’t. So, we wait in hope upon God.
Another translation for the “wait” is “trust.” “Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.”
That’s really the bottom line, isn’t it? Most of our relationship with God is about trust. For many of us, that’s hard to do.
We’ve been let down and disappointed by so many people in our lives. We’ve been deeply hurt, and we’ve made a silent vow, “I’ll never trust anyone again.”
But hear me: God will never let you down. He will never lead you down the wrong path. As Psalm 22.24 states, “He has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being kicked around. He has never wandered off to do his own thing; he has been right there, listening.”
You can trust God. Even when it seems foolish, you can trust God. Even when it runs counter to what you’re feeling, you can trust God.
And that includes those things you want God to do NOW. You can trust him that he has perfectly good reasons to make you wait. Someday you’ll be able to look back and see those reasons, but not now. Trust God anyway.
“God acts on behalf of those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64.4). Don’t hinder God’s work on your behalf for your benefit. Wait in hope. Wait in faith. Wait on the Lord.
———————–
Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
