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Waiting. For many of us it’s a great challenge. We live in a fast-food, fast-paced, high-speed Internet society. We’ve come to expect immediate information and gratification. Yet the ways and will of God are often worked out in our lives through times of waiting. This can be a challenge. We set out to obey and follow God, but often give up and take matters into our own hands. We may even doubt God’s love and goodness in our waiting.
Our spiritual heritage is full of men and women who waited to receive God’s promises. Joseph spent many years in slavery and prison before rising to his God-foretold place of rulership. Abraham and Sarah waited twenty-five years before receiving the promised son. Chosen as a boy, David waited many years before becoming King of Israel. God commends them to us as an example:
“We do not want you to become lazy, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised” (Hebrews 6:12).
Our patience is evidence that we believe and trust God. Faith is “…being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).
While God could act in an instant, delays come because He has something to teach us through the waiting. He wants us to learn how to stand firm on His promises. As we come to Him, He solidifies and strengthens our faith. Like King David, we can practice the discipline of soul talk. This is using the Word of God, specifically His promises, to remind and persuade your heart and mind of God’s sovereign and loving timing. Recorded in Psalms 42 and 43, David repeated this phrase three times:
“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
As you wait on God, consider speaking the following promise to your soul:
“Those who wait for the Lord — who expect, look for and hope in Him — shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not be faint.”
Isaiah 40:31
