The Joy-and the Agony-of Waiting on the Lord
A friend of mine told me recently, "God is rarely early, but HE’S NEVER LATE!"
I thanked her for that remarkable reminder. The seasons of my life when I was waiting on the Lord to move and to work have been some of my darkest seasons… and, in hindsight, my brightest. There’s no doubt about it – waiting can be painful. It’s an art, a science, and a spiritual discipline. It’s a time when we feel like God is at the Potter’s wheel, crushing us, smoothing us out, and making something new out of us. But we don’t yet know what.
A friend of mine told me recently, "God is rarely early, but HE’S NEVER LATE!"
I thanked her for that remarkable reminder. The seasons of my life when I was waiting on the Lord to move and to work have been some of my darkest seasons… and, in hindsight, my brightest. There’s no doubt about it – waiting can be painful. It’s an art, a science, and a spiritual discipline. It’s a time when we feel like God is at the Potter’s wheel, crushing us, smoothing us out, and making something new out of us. But we don’t yet know what.
When we see God working in others’ lives, blessing them with a burgeoning ministry, a wonderful mate, gifted children, great success in their work, a promotion, a new home, and incredible talents and abilities – and it seems like they didn’t have to wait for those things from the hand of the Lord – we may feel slighted in comparison. While we are deeply entrenched in a season of waiting, we can’t see the light at the end of our tunnel. But I promise, it’s there!
In my recent seasons of waiting, the Lord has used several people in my life to remind me of this passage: "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). The preceding verse is one of my favorites in Scripture, reminding us of where to place our trust: "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (27:13).
Waiting forces us to depend wholly, desperately, upon the Lord. It causes a crisis of faith when we must fall before the Lord in prayer and decide with our minds and hearts to trust in His love and His goodness, even if our emotions are telling us that we’ve been forsaken. Psalm 138:8 reminds us: "The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands."
The Lord WILL ACCOMPLISH His good and loving plan for you. You can’t outwait God-His lovingkindness is EVERLASTING!!! He will be faithful to move in your life. He will not forsake you. And you’ll be blessed and transformed by the lessons you have learned through your seasons of waiting on Him.
3 Comments
Anonymous
This is all so true. There
This is all so true. There is no amount of advice or encouragement that can properly take away the feeling of the sick heart that has hope deferred. I do thank God for salvation in Jesus Christ and I know I have nothing without HIM, however I do not like this wait….wait….wait….wait…..wait……wait…….wait……..wait……and desiring the fruit I have been looking for so long a time.
May God bring FRUIT!!!
Anonymous
Love it
Great read
davem
re
I came across this webpage, as I like many have been in a long hard period of waiting,
I starte searching for iscussion son the Agony of waiting on God as that is truly what it feel slike, hope defered makes the heart sick, but long trials and delay is agonizing,,in any event, as I was searching for the topic, the Lord filed me with a thought that changed my spirt to joy,
Our trouble in the waiting is that we are looking at it wrong..we wait for our prayer to be answered, and focus on the delay, on the troubles, on the pain , but you know truly we are waiting for Gods answer.. what I mean is, remembrr back when you were a child and had to wait, for xmas, or bdays, the wait was frustarting but joyful and the reason they were joyful was because you weren't thinking about the wait, or focusing on the delays you were thinking about the wonderful gift that was ahead…
and it makes us impatient because we knew somthing good was ahead and we just couldn't wait to get it.
and it's the same as we wait on God, don't think about how long the wait is, how hard, the troubles and trials are an wrestle with doubt and dispair, instead focus on the end result, when God does answer (and he will) what will the answer be? thats what you focus on, the answer, and the restoring of your soul,
truly if we can give great gifts to our children, how much more will God , our father give us something that will just knock our socks off. wait in Joy in expectancy of what the answer is going to be and NOT focus on the agony of the wait..