I can wait

In this fast paced world, we become impatient if we're asked to wait. We want things now. We judge good service by how fast they are. We hate having to wait and extra minute at the drive thru. We wait impatiently for thirty seconds as the computer ramps up or as we wait for pictures to upload. And that most anxious of waits, as we give the cashier our credit or debit cards and wait for he 'approval.' There were many times in my youth that I would say a hundred silent prayers while waiting for the answer from the cash register. LOL Good 'ole college days. They seem so far away. It seems like an insult to us to be kept waiting.

The Bible is different. The word wait is more an attitude than an activity. To wait on the Lord is to trust the Lord. The Biblical concept has more to do with trust and faith. Sometimes God has a reason for making you wait. He took the Israelites through the desert for over forty years and made them wait to enter the promise land. He made Paul wait in a prison in Rome. The lesson seems to be that if we truly trust in God, then we can wait patiently for His timing.

There are times we want God to hurry up and answer our questions and solve our problems already. It seems like our prayers go like this: please do this and this for me. Oh and by the way, can you do it by next Monday because I really need it before the weekend. It's like we are putting God on OUR timeline. Our church has been waiting for over a year to have our building renovated. We have faced one delay after another. Our loan was disapproved. Then it was approved. Our blueprints were approved, then they had to be readjusted. We are becoming more and more impatient. Sometimes we wonder if there's ever going to be a new building.

When I get discouraged from waiting on plans to materialize, I go back to Isaiah's words. He said that those that wait on the Lord will be blessed. We will have our strength renewed. We will run and not be weary. We just need to trust that God has our best interest at heart. It takes a lot of faith to wait. It's human nature to want things now. It's the person of faith that can say, I can wait.