“But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.” Micah 7:7-9
I listened to an early morning radio evangelist recently talk about the different seasons of life that he had lived through. Cold and hot, good and bad, challenging and smooth sailing. The Bible is clear that you’ll go through different seasons in life. One season that God talks about over and over is the season of waiting. How are you with the season of waiting? Sometimes it seems like that season lasts years…perhaps decades.
But over the years and decades, there is one thing that I have learned; you can trust that while you’re waiting, God is working. You probably won’t see it or hear it but there something inside of you that tells you that He is working. A season of waiting doesn’t mean that God has stopped working. And quite often, He’s taking you through that season because He’s using the time of waiting to work in your circumstances for your good. I’m 72 and I can tell you that you’re probably going to spend much of your life waiting. You need to get used to it and need to trust God while you’re waiting. IF you don’t, you’ll spend a lot of your life not trusting God.
There is waiting in Haiti today. Children waiting for a feeding program at their school. Parents waiting for the gang violence to end. They, like us, are probably asking; “When, Lord? When is it going to happen?” And God may be saying something like, “You can trust me with this.” Are you in a time of waiting? Are you frustrated with how slowly things are happening. We’ve all been there.
There is a promise in the Bible that not only tells you God is working but also how God is working. It’s found in Isaiah 60:22; “The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.” God sent Jesus into this world. The world waited thousands of years for Him to come the first time. And then He came at just the right moment. We’ve been waiting 2,000 years now for Jesus to come again. When will that happen? At just the right time; God’s time. That’s when he’s going to return. You can apply this same truth to your time of waiting. Remember that a delay is not a denial. When you think God is saying, “No,” he may just be saying, “Not yet. Will you keep trusting me through this?”
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay