Just wait.
“My greatest challenge in following Jesus Christ for over thirty years has been waiting on God when things are confusing. I prefer control. I understand why Abraham, after waiting eleven years for God’s promise of a son to come true, took matters into his own hands and had a baby the ‘natural way.’ Birthing Ishmaels is common in both our churches and personal lives. ‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him’ (Psalm 37:7) remains one of the most radical commands of our day. It requires enormous humility.”
From Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero
I all too easily identify with those words. This year I’ve realized over and over again that I’m terrible at waiting and I’m terrible at stillness.
It feels like my body just wasn’t wired for it…but I know that it’s my sinful flesh in me that keeps me from it because the Lord quite obviously desires us to wait for Him and be still in Him. My mind and body often revolt to the waiting…but when I push through and discipline myself to do it, something beautiful often happens.
Lord, i want to be one who waits for You. i want to be still and content and i want to learn to wait…wait until You tell me to move, wait until You tell me to speak, wait long enough in the silence to feel Your Presence.
i want to wait for You and i want to wait with You.
“I am still 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
i’ve centered my life around running around being busy and what i deem to be “effective”. in my mind i have almost made waiting synonymous with inconvenient. forgive me, Lord… my ways are not even close to Your ways and what my flesh desires is often so far from what You desire of me.
…but i know there is beauty in the wait. there is revelation in the wait…if i’ll allow it.
Your voice is not in the wind, it’s not in the earthquake and it’s not in the fire…Your voice is in the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:11-13). more than anything i desire to hear Your whisper but i’m all too often not still enough or quiet enough to hear it.
You always have something for me in the time of stillness—that if i just quiet my heart, be still and wait, i would hear You more clearly. if i could learn to wait as You commanded me to, i would have my eyes opened more fully to Your Presence.
“Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
He rises to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who wait for him!”
Isaiah 30:18
Lord, increase my trust in the waiting. instill in me the spirit of Mary, a spirit who simply wants to sit at Your feet and listen to you.
“We wait in hope for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon us,
O Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.”
Psalm 33:20-22
i will trust you in the waiting.
i will sit still and enjoy.
i will be quiet long enough to hear your whisper and
i will be still long enough to feel your Presence.
i will sit at your feet and simply wait.
Lord, bind my wandering heart in the stillness. draw me ever closer to you in the wait.
“I will wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.”
Psalm 130:5-6
“Just wait.”
Yes, Lord, i will wait.
i’ll share one of my favorites from the last few months…enjoy.
Mumford and Sons “I will wait.”
