Traffic… Wal-Mart lines… Countdowns… Waiting. Waiting to get somewhere or get something. Tapping your foot as the impatience wells inside you. Waiting is rarely a desirable task. Yet, it has a huge purpose for every one of us. Now more than ever, I am realizing how valuable waiting can be when we embrace it, as we should.
Have you ever heard the phrase “Wait on the Lord?” Have you ever read the verse Isaiah 40:31? It goes something like this: “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.” How about now? I imagine that many of us have crossed paths with this verse often.
For me, this verse was overdone. Many a friend or family member had quoted it to me through several circumstances in my life and the luster of the verse dimmed in my familiarity with the words. However, I currently brushed up against Isaiah 40:31 once more as I recently studied through this book of the Bible and what I realized caught me off guard in the most beautiful of ways.
I would like to redefine what Waiting means:
Waiting: To actively take you troubles in life before Christ and allow Him to wrap His strength around them.
May I say my entire world was altered as I reassessed what it looks like for me to be in a waiting phase of life. Waiting is ACTIVE. I have no excuse to sit around for the next thing that’s going to happen to me. It IS happening. What’s happening is that I have the chance to bring everything I am going through to Jesus and the ability to hand it over to Him. I have the privilege to watch as He comforts me through my uncertainty. I can observe Christ working miracles of peace in me. Peace surpassing.
I am currently waiting on the Lord… But that doesn’t mean sitting on my rump. It means I am learning to spend more time on my knees in prayer. A difficult, yet honorable assignment.
