Waiting is never easy. Life is filled with waiting.

We wait in lines, we wait in traffic, and we wait for the things we are hoping for to happen.

Waiting is such a tedious task that we term those servants who help us with meals in public places “waiters” or “waitresses.”

The job of a “waiter” is to wait for you to decide what you want to eat, to wait for you to eat while keeping you satisfied with water, coffee, or whatever you desire. The “waiter” waits again until you are finished and then cleans up after you. Based on how good a job the “waiter” does, you will appropriately reward them for being a good “waiter.”

Waiting is best applied to our relationship with God.

Almighty God is the sovereign Lord of the universe. He created everything we see and is in charge of it. One would think in the best business practice that God would clearly make His plan known to individuals with very specific instructions. God makes His plan known, but sometimes the specifics are lacking. That is where waiting comes in.

Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation did a lot of waiting. God promised Abraham and Sarah, his wife, a son. They waited for decades to see this promise fulfilled in Isaac.

King David was anointed to be king of Israel at an early age, but he, too, waited decades until God lifted him to the throne of Israel.

God’s whole creation is waiting for the final and great redemption. God created everything perfect, but allowed freedom of choice. In the beginning, God’s created beings, Adam and Eve, chose against God and fell from God’s favor. All mankind was subsequently born into the fallen condition of Adam and Eve. God had a redemption plan. At just the right time, God sent the Messiah, His only Son, Jesus Christ. The world waited centuries for God’s promised Messiah to appear. That Messiah did appear and fulfilled God’s purposes completely by vicariously dying on the cross for the sins of all mankind. Death could not hold Jesus; God raised Him from the dead and took Him back to Heaven with Him.

Jesus promised to come again to finalize God’s redemptive plan. In the meantime, we wait. That “waiting” is not sitting on a hillside with our eye to the sky. That “waiting” is filled with activity as we “wait” on the Lord by following the instructions He gave us when He left.

The process of waiting has a definite divine component. Divine, because a sacramental transforming work takes place in the life of the “waiter.” David said, in Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD.”

The prophet Isaiah echoed these words of David in Isaiah 40:31: “But those who wait on 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.”

Our plea should be, “Teach me, LORD, how to wait.”

 

Dan Puckett works with road team operations at Life Action Ministries in Buchanan, Michigan.