Waiting on God

The challenge of waiting upon the Lord is dealing with the stuff that goes on in the meantime. Without specifics, we generally set a time schedule for God to respond. Though strong in the beginning, the strength of our faith wavers as the hours of that schedule click off. After a while, we begin to doubt His faithfulness. Like the father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus and after the disciples couldn’t do anything he challenged Jesus with the words if you can do anything…Nothing’s happening so I question if anything can happen.

According to our expectations, if God worked on our time table rather than His, there would be little lapse between us asking God for intervention and His help. Like calling 911. We have an emergency, we call and help is on the way. In minutes somebody shows up.

But when we turn a matter over to God, he fits the answer into a larger picture that involve things other than just what we thought was the problem. His response is higher than our need.  His perspective is far more encompassing than our limited view.

First of all, we see one issue—say a diagnosis. God sees our limited faith. We want Him to fix the problem that’s been found. He may want to build our faith. He’s not being cruel, just more aware than we are of what’s really important.

We don’t do good at priority lists. We number things by what seems to be yelling the loudest. God sets things in order based upon what’s best.

It is never easy to wait upon the Lord when we’ve made God a list and then demanded His attention to our need. It is faith when we pray believing God is aware, hears our cry and will respond…in time and according to what’s best.

Faith is trusting Him as we wait, knowing He is good and will do what is best when it is the best time to do it.

Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD. (Psalm 27:14)