Waiting … it’s the bane of my existence.
It’s not that I can’t wait, just that it often seems as though I am often waiting for others.
I have learned, though, that there are two types of waiting that are not conditional on the one I am waiting for so much as conditional on me.
The first is waiting and doing nothing but tapping my toe, twiddling my fingers all the while volcanic activity is growing in my mind. This type of waiting is what heart attacks, ulcers and relational breakdown are all about.
The second … shall we say, the better way … is to find something to do while in the waiting. Grab a book, write a story, play with your pet, water your flowers. Just do something, while you wait.
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
This verse (above) is one of my favorite verses. It became personal to me while pregnant with our son. Pregnancies, for me, did not always have a happy ending. They were times of fear, times when hope was hard to hold on to, times of endless waiting.
It wasn’t until recently (while in a mood, twiddling my fingers, while waiting for someone else) that I really remembered that this verse begins talking about waiting for the Lord.
Numerous times in the Bible the phrase wait on the Lord is written. Of course, the passages may have different meanings for wait. It can be a passive wait (such as my moody twiddling fingers), or the active wait (do something in the waiting).
In this passage there is quite a bit of activity in the verse … renew, mount up, run, walk. This would lead me to think that, in this verse, we are to wait on or for the Lord (ie. wait for an answer to prayer, wait for peace to fill our hearts), but not just sit there … we need to still be doing things to contribute to the kingdom … in the waiting.
while we wait for his answers, his provisions, his return,
we are to pray, to love others, to feed the hungry, to do the work of healing and reconciliation.
Ellicott’s Commentary says that :
“The waiting implies, of course, the expectant attitude of faith.”
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says :
“But they that wait upon the Lord – The word rendered ‘wait upon’ here (from קוה qâvâh), denotes properly to wait, in the sense of expecting. The phrase, ‘to wait on Yahweh,’ means to wait for his help; that is, to trust in him, to put our hope or confidence in him.”
Then (my favorite commentary) Matthew Henry tells us :
Let us watch against unbelief, pride, and self-confidence. If we go forth in our own strength, we shall faint, and utterly fall; but having our hearts and our hopes in heaven, we shall be carried above all difficulties, and be enabled to lay hold of the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus.
As we all, wait on the Lord, may we keep doing the tasks God has given us, as our hope grows out of trust in him.
itsawonderfilledlife 