Waiting On The Lord

Waiting is never easy for me. I am impatient, get things done, and be quick about it, kind of person. But as I am getting older in my faith years, I am learning the valuable lesson to wait upon the Lord for things to happen. Like many children, when I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be in high school. When in high school, I couldn’t wait to graduate and get on my own. I got my first apartment about two months after graduating from high school and I thought I had it made! Reality set in soon after as I worked to pay the rent and phone. Food was optional at times! I moved back home for the last year before I got married. I was in college, and it was cheaper to live at home than in the dorm or in my apartment. I also worked full-time, and so I was a busy person.

After getting married, I couldn’t wait until he had an income. He wanted me to stop working and so I did for a time, but then we did need money to eat, pay insurance, and those adult things and so I went back to work. After a year or so, he painted houses and I got pregnant. I couldn’t wait to see our child; would it be a boy or a girl? Oh, how impatient I was. And then a cycle of “can’t wait” began as we moved many times, had more children, he joined the Army and went to Officer’s Candidate School. I was so thankful that we finally had all our bills paid when he said he was going to Medical School. More waiting, more debt, and more unknowns.

As I said, waiting has always been hard for me. I have always wanted to hurry to my future. After we adopted our son, I couldn’t wait to see what he would look like as an adult. He is handsome, by the way. But, sometime after the divorce and my future was not as bright as I had hoped, I stopped the “can’t wait” game and settled into waiting upon the Lord. It is much easier to live in the moment than trying to predict my future. I am much happier, more settled, and growing leaps and bounds in my faith journey as I learn to wait.

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14, (New International Version or NIV).

This passage that David wrote in Psalms has been a lifeline to me in the past eighteen years. I went through so many unknowns and didn’t know which way to turn at times. But I, like David, had confidence that God had good things planned for me, and I just needed to wait to see it. I am so thankful that I didn’t try to run ahead of God and mess things up. Waiting was hard, but so rewarding.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:28-31, (NIV).

Hope is such an important part of waiting. I always had hope that God was in control of my situations and that He would reveal to me when the time was right what I was to do next. Hope kept me going as I waited upon the Lord. I grew weary and I felt faint, but I knew that God would lift me up and I would soar into the heavens with ease and be refreshed. Hope was how I kept going in those difficult times.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:26-31, (NIV).

I think what encourages me most is to know that God is in control of everything. Everything! Every detail of my life has been given a plan and a path to follow and when I do follow the plan, I am at ease in my soul.  God made a way for you and me to come into His family as adopted children through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This is huge! Mind-blowing! And we must never take this gift of grace for granted. God worked all things for our good because we love Him and His Son. God continues to work all things for our good. In my own life, I can think of countless times that God has worked things for my good. The divorce could have been a financial pitfall, but God made certain that the judgment was fair, and I survived it. My health could have killed me by now, but God has healed me many times. When I am discouraged, He lifts me up to a higher plane! When I read the Bible, I am encouraged and lifted higher. When my son wanted to go to college and I had no money for it, God provided a scholarship to cover most of his expenses. God is so good to us, so good!

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, (NIV).

Aging means the breakdown of your body. Some of us age more gracefully than others, but in the end, we all age. Our earthly body is not meant to live forever, we will get that body at the resurrection and I, for one, hope that mine is trim and slim! That would be an improvement! But even though we are aging on the outside, as Christians, we are growing daily on the inside. We are studying to show ourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15), continuing to do good deeds (Galatians 6:9), loving God with our all (Matthew 22:37-38), and loving others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39-40). We are doing what we know is right to do (James 4:17). We wait with hope, doing what we can for others, and continuing to love one another as we wait upon the Lord to return for us. That is what we are waiting for.

Until next time…Katherine