Isaiah 49:23b (CWR) “I am the Lord and that those who put their hope in Me and wait for My help will not be disappointed."
Waiting is difficult for us. We live in such a fast, immediate culture which works against waiting. We don’t even like waiting in line at a grocery store. I notice sometimes that the cashiers are often moving at light speed because the atmosphere in the store is one of hurry up and get out of here. Heaven forbid we get a slow cashier because then you’ll hear sighs, complaints and fidgeting, which bring an added dimension to the atmosphere.
However, in Scripture we find that waiting is just a part of God’s economy or His culture. Countless people waited for the Lord, 13, 17, 30, 40 years. Think about it. People like Joseph, David, Moses, Joshua and Caleb, Abraham, Moses, Sarah, Hannah, and Jesus (to name only a few) waited and waited for God to come through with His promises to them.
I think we gloss over those years because they appear to us as merely part of the stories but when you think about warriors like Joshua and Caleb waiting 40 years and having good attitudes at the end of that time, it had to be a miracle. I do realize that they were putting their abilities to good use during that time by training the next generation in combat and all the organizing it took to mobilize hundreds of thousands of fighting men. Maybe 40 years wasn’t even enough. But still, as warriors, it is no small feat to keep them from being who they were made to be…for 40 years!
The same could be said about Jesus. Knowing who He was and the self control it took to keep that hidden for 30 years until his release by the Holy Spirit, is nothing short of phenomenal.
David was crowned king in his teens and spent the next 13 to 15 years running from the old king he was to replace. It could make one wonder…did God make a mistake? Well David had his struggles because we read about them in Psalms but he also had a resolve, well actually many resolves. One of those is that those who hope in the Lord will never be put to shame. Psalm 25:3. We should never be ashamed to hope in the Lord. He will accomplish ALL that concerns us. He is faithful even when we aren’t and knows the plans He has for us even when we don’t. Sometimes it’s a matter of getting in line with what HE is planning and other times it’s a matter of waiting until the ‘fullness of time.’
We’re all waiting for something and waiting doesn’t seem to be a problem for Him. I sometimes say to Jesus, “I know Father doesn’t live in time. (He’s outside of the time He created which is crazy to think about.) So, since You lived in time and space for 33 years could you let Him know how difficult it is to wait?’ I was marveling the other day while reading Acts 1. Jesus tells them “in a few days” they would be visited by the Holy Spirit. It was actually 40 days. I sort of think of a few days as 2 or 3.
Well, God’s View of time is eternity and since time as we know it will end and eternity IS and will forever BE, I guess waiting isn’t so bad. Like David and countless others, I will wait for the Lord because I know I will never be disappointed both now and in the eternal future!
Waiting is difficult for us. We live in such a fast, immediate culture which works against waiting. We don’t even like waiting in line at a grocery store. I notice sometimes that the cashiers are often moving at light speed because the atmosphere in the store is one of hurry up and get out of here. Heaven forbid we get a slow cashier because then you’ll hear sighs, complaints and fidgeting, which bring an added dimension to the atmosphere.
However, in Scripture we find that waiting is just a part of God’s economy or His culture. Countless people waited for the Lord, 13, 17, 30, 40 years. Think about it. People like Joseph, David, Moses, Joshua and Caleb, Abraham, Moses, Sarah, Hannah, and Jesus (to name only a few) waited and waited for God to come through with His promises to them.
I think we gloss over those years because they appear to us as merely part of the stories but when you think about warriors like Joshua and Caleb waiting 40 years and having good attitudes at the end of that time, it had to be a miracle. I do realize that they were putting their abilities to good use during that time by training the next generation in combat and all the organizing it took to mobilize hundreds of thousands of fighting men. Maybe 40 years wasn’t even enough. But still, as warriors, it is no small feat to keep them from being who they were made to be…for 40 years!
The same could be said about Jesus. Knowing who He was and the self control it took to keep that hidden for 30 years until his release by the Holy Spirit, is nothing short of phenomenal.
David was crowned king in his teens and spent the next 13 to 15 years running from the old king he was to replace. It could make one wonder…did God make a mistake? Well David had his struggles because we read about them in Psalms but he also had a resolve, well actually many resolves. One of those is that those who hope in the Lord will never be put to shame. Psalm 25:3. We should never be ashamed to hope in the Lord. He will accomplish ALL that concerns us. He is faithful even when we aren’t and knows the plans He has for us even when we don’t. Sometimes it’s a matter of getting in line with what HE is planning and other times it’s a matter of waiting until the ‘fullness of time.’
We’re all waiting for something and waiting doesn’t seem to be a problem for Him. I sometimes say to Jesus, “I know Father doesn’t live in time. (He’s outside of the time He created which is crazy to think about.) So, since You lived in time and space for 33 years could you let Him know how difficult it is to wait?’ I was marveling the other day while reading Acts 1. Jesus tells them “in a few days” they would be visited by the Holy Spirit. It was actually 40 days. I sort of think of a few days as 2 or 3.
Well, God’s View of time is eternity and since time as we know it will end and eternity IS and will forever BE, I guess waiting isn’t so bad. Like David and countless others, I will wait for the Lord because I know I will never be disappointed both now and in the eternal future!
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