We’ve prayed, made our requests known, and listed our most heartfelt needs…now what? Well, it’s not my favorite thing to do but now we get to wait. I guess we’ve always thought of waiting as an idle picture of us as we look to the heavens for our answer. Not so! Isaiah 40:31 says, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength”. One translation of the word wait means to serve the Lord. Another translation says that the waiting means to hope. In both translations, we are encouraged to take action. When I think about it, a person that waits tables is called a server. When we are busy “about our Father’s business”, it takes the focus from our pressing needs. Sometimes, we just need a different perspective. When I saw the film footage from Guatemala, I felt a little less needy. When I saw people that were dying from malnutrition and children scouring garbage dumps for food, I suddenly saw my issues paling in comparison.
Often, I can get overwhelmed with some of life’s challenges and difficulties but I never feel hopeless. My hope is in God and knowing that He has heard my every prayer. Even if I am not seeing the answer materialize, I wait…and I hope. My wise friend taught me a valuable lesson about waiting. She described how excited she was during her pregnancy. She couldn’t wait for the baby to arrive but knew she had to wait until the baby was due and fully developed. Had the baby arrived before its time, there would’ve been complications. I remember those very feelings and even though there’s excitement and breathless anticipation, I knew I had to wait – I didn’t have a choice! Through this analogy, I saw the lesson – we have to also wait on God and His timing which is always perfect. Jeremiah 29:11 comes to mind – “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen.” And Amen!
Lastly, we have to be confident. This scripture says it all! I John 5:14-15 (Amplified Translation) “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us. V15 – And since we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests we have made of Him.” And Amen again!
Now what? Now we know and I am encouraged! We wait, we serve, we hope, and we have confidence because He is and He holds our present and our future. We may have imperfect circumstances, imperfect finances, imperfect health, imperfect relationships, imperfect behavior, imperfect jobs, or imperfect people in our lives, but this I know… HE IS PERFECT!
