Most of us would agree that one of the hardest disciplines any of us grapple with is patience.
It’s actually during long moments of waiting that we think of all that has to be done. Sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, we remember half a dozen phone calls that have to be made. Parked in a long line of stop-and-go traffic, we think of all the things we need to pick up at the market on the way home and how little time there is left to do it.
Waiting is not an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, most of us associate waiting with phrases like “killing time.” We have a mental picture of leaning against a wall in a doctor’s office flipping through magazines and yawning until our name is called.
Active while waiting
But there is far more to waiting than tapping our fingers and occasionally looking at our watch.
In his Bible Portrait Series, George Matheson wrote insight fully about what to do while we wait: “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder– the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength. But I know of something that implies a strength greater still. It is the power to work under stress, to continue under hardship, to have anguish in your heart and still perform daily tasks. ..The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise patience, not in the sick bed, but in the street.”
Waiting is something more than killing time. It takes courage to live out our patience on the street, to wait and yet remain active. It takes trust to continue under hardship, to bear hurt in your heart and yet go on living. It takes godly confidence to endure when the temptation to quit is strong.
Leaning on God
And whether waiting in a busy check-out line or in a crowded emergency room, it means leaning on God.
David, the poet who wrote many of the Psalms, knew what it meant to wait with courage and confidence. In his early years, his life hung by a thread as Saul’s armies pursued him. He lost his best friend, Jonathan, in battle. A son died in infancy. During the last part of his life, his family and kingdom were plagued with incest, rebellion, murder and war. Here was a man who not only had problems, but who had to learn to wait “to see the goodness of the LORD.”
Who would have blamed David had he thrown his hands in the air, given up and left the kingdom (or in our day, left the ecclesia)? Who would have pointed an accusing finger if he had locked himself away and found solace in alcohol, or another vice? But David knew that waiting on the Lord required much more of him — it required courage.
When we read the prayers of the psalmist, we know that he intimately understood the secret of waiting on the Lord, the secret that we, too, need to learn. And when we read David’s words, we know that we aren’t alone in our struggles. Here is someone who understands the way we feel. It’s as though David was sitting with us on a rock in the field. We listen as he, with all of his poetic skill, pours out to God the aching of his waiting heart. In doing so, he pours out our aching as well: “For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me…Forsake me not, O LORD: 0 my God, be not far from me” ( Psa. 38:17,21).
David could wait
David is teaching us to wait on the Lord. In him, we see a man who went through what we go through. So when his hopelessness turns into assurance, we feel that ours can too: “LORD, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee” (Psa. 38:9).
His courage rises regardless of how much pain is poured on it: “For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, 0 LORD my God” (v.15).
If David could wait like that, can’t we? If the man who was an adulterer and murderer was able to trust confidently in God despite his sins, can’t we? Like a refreshing summer shower in the middle of a heat wave, his struggle turns to joy: “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry…He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (Psa. 40:1-2).
Seeing the change in David’s life makes us feel that we, too, can have strength to wait patiently for the Lord, that He will hear our cry and set our feet upon a rock. “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psa. 30:5).
What may seem impossible eventually will pass. Somehow, God uses those soothing psalms to turn tears of frustration into tears of release.
Express anxieties to God
“Wait on the LORD,” Psalm 27:14 tells us, “…be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart…” The times we have to wait for a crisis to pass may be perfect opportunities to train ourselves to wait on the Lord. Instead of anxiously fretting in a hospital waiting room, we could use such moments to pull Bible verses out of our memory. Instead of nervously tapping a pencil by a silent telephone, we could write down verses on a pad to remind us of His promises. We’re not talking about the mechanical repetition of words but actually weaving Biblical truth into the fabric of those long hours.
Wait on the Lord in prayer as you sit by the window on a stormy evening hoping your loved one will arrive safely. Wait on the Lord in prayer as you sit on the freeway. Share with Him your anxiety over the many jobs needing to be done in such a short amount of time. Watch your fears and frustrations melt into praise as you sing hymns and choruses while driving through a storm.
By exercising this kind or waiting -with confidence, courage and trust– we can say with the Psalmist: “I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope” (Psa. 130:5).
So:
If you’re single and waiting for marriage,
If you’re sick and waiting for the lab reports,
If you’re elderly and waiting for the social security check,
If you’re stuck in your job and waiting for a change,
If you’re a widow and waiting for the grief to pass,
If you’re married and waiting for your spouse to change,
make sure to keep living with trust and confidence while you’re waiting.
It takes courage to wait patiently and yet embrace life and to keep walking toward God’s kingdom. Wait on God, and courage and confidence will never be in short supply.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One