In the Wait
What do you do when you find yourself in the wait?
We have all been there … in the wait.
For me, living in “the wait” of life is one of the most difficult places to be.
Waiting for God to answer.
Waiting for mountains to move.
Waiting for provision.
Waiting for healing.
Waiting for breakthrough.
Waiting for the storm to pass.
Waiting for someone … anyone … to notice that you are in the wait.
Some people seem to get breakthrough so easily … for me it has not been like that. I have spent years in the wait.
Years waiting for God to answer.
God … are you listening? Do you hear me?
Years waiting for God to move.
God … you did it for Daniel … and for David … and for Esther … and for Paul … would you do it for me?
Years waiting for provision.
God … the Bible tells me that Your very name is Jehovah Jireh – my Provider! Will You provide today for me?
Years waiting for healing.
Lord … the Bible tells me that Your very name is Jehovah Rapha – my Healer! Will you heal me today? Will you heal the body of the one that I love so dearly?
Years waiting for breakthrough.
Lord … you broke through the Red Sea so that Your children could pass through! You caused the walls of Jericho to fall down flat! You caused a great earthquake so that the chains were broken and prison doors were open when Paul and Silas were in prison. They worshipped You, Father … and so am I! I praise your mighty Name before the breakthrough!
Years waiting for the storm to pass.
Who knew storms could last so long?!
Years waiting for someone to join me in the wait.
Who knew the wait was such a lonely place?
Years in the wait. Years.
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.” – Isaiah 41:28
Sometimes I wonder if staying in the wait is more a place of power and less a place of weakness than I perceive it to be.
The days … the years … the decades that I spend in the wait are the times that I find myself spending volumes of time on my knees and countless days on my face in His presence. This powerful position makes the wait bearable.
The days … years … the decades that I am in the wait are the times that I find myself spending more time in the Word. The Word comforts my weary heart while I am in the wait.
The days … years … the decades that I am in the wait are the times that I find myself spending more time in worship. Worship takes my eyes off of what I don’t have … and places them resolutely on all that He is! What power!!
It is in the wait that I discover I am not alone.
He is with me in the wait. There is nobody I would rather wait with than Him. There is no one I would rather hang out with than Him. There is no one. Just Him.
He never gets frustrated with me … or with the wait.
That humbles me. I want to be like Him. I don’t want to be frustrated in the wait … or with Him.
The time spent in the wait turns my attention away from stuff and things and toward Him.
I find it a far more powerful choice to simply wait with Him than to wait for His hand to move.
It’s in the wait that my life is joined to eternity’s focus, to heaven’s power and to His perpetual and unconditional love.
I become like Him and all that He is when I am with Him in the wait!
I am able to access all that He has for me when I spend time in the wait with Him!
It is in the wait that I am changed. Revolutionized. Transformed.
It is in the wait that I discover a strength I never before had. It is impossible to wait and remain weak when one waits with Him.
We all surely know that, if nothing else, one needs strength to wait. And the strength that is so desperately needed in the wait is found in the companionship of the One Who is strong.
If you wait alone … what frustration ensues!
If you wait alone … what weakness prevails!
If you wait alone … how slowly time passes.
But when you wait with Him … what miracles happen!
“He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power.” – Isaiah 41:29
Waiting is definitely not for wimps!
But then again … maybe waiting IS for wimps.
Perhaps it is in the wait that wimps become warriors.
Have you ever noticed that in the wait … temptation strikes with a ferocity unheard of in other places and in other situations?!
Have you ever noticed in the wait… that you are tempted to say things that you shouldn’t even think much less have the audacious bravado to say?!
Have you ever noticed that in the wait … the temptation to compromise beliefs and to forget about the promises of God is at a dangerously high level?!
That is why it is Who you wait with that makes all of the difference.
If you are forced to wait… wait with Him.
It is also … in the wait with Him … that I discover a tenacity that I never before possessed.
It is also … in the wait with Him … that I discover the purpose for which I have been born.
It is also … in the wait with Him … that vision is refined and that desires are purified.
I need the wait. I need to wait with Him. I need the work that happens in me during the wait.
“Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly …” – Isaiah 40:30
I think that I am only waiting … just hanging around until life happens … but He seesthe wait as the stuff of which life is made.
God made me for the wait and for the work that it accomplishes in me.
God designed the wait to be the place where treasure is discovered in my life.
The wait. It’s the place where I become the person He desires.
The wait. It’s the place where the pressure reveals the value.
The wait. Him and me. Me and Him. It’s my favorite place.
“Yet 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.” – Isaiah 40:31
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!