Waiting on the Lord

This is probably the hardest thing to do as a Christian because it is so foreign to our human nature to entrust all that we are and have to another being. Waiting on the Lord means to walk in accordance to His plans, according to His timetable, according to His purposes. That is hard for us isn’t it? Even harder for our generation: the millennials. We live in a day and age where everything we want can be accessed instantly, received within minutes. From education to food to clothing, we can get it quickly. There are apps for everything that is needed: relationships, clothing, food, transportation, housing, entertainment, you name it. And more and more companies are looking for ways to make us impatient always providing solutions that are instant.

Take for example the platform Netflix, when you get on the website to watch a movie, you have a queue of movies previews that start playing one after the other to give you enough to stir your interest and to get you to watch a movie. Once you start to watch a movie on that platform, as soon as the movie is over another one pops up, so you never have to wait. What is more, you are hooked and only get up when your body metabolism tells you it is time to stop (hunger, sleep, etc.). This instant gratification seems to have a sort of dopamine effect as stated by Ashley Stahl in this Forbes’ article, “Instant gratification creates addictive tendencies”. This must be based on the “Pleasure Principle” coined by Sigmund Freud who said that human beings are believed to act on that very principle which is to have pleasure and avoid pain as discussed in this other article by Courtney E. Ackerman. But our culture has gotten so deep into this instant gratification way of life with the help of technology that it seems we are incapable to function when we have to wait for a little as 5 mins! It sounds crazy but try to keep still for 5 mins and tell me if you were able to pull it off and how easy that was.

When we don’t get what we want now, the results are messy. So, it is not very surprising that the concept of waiting on the Lord is not very welcomed by Christians. However, we see this woven in the fabric of every biblical story. It is repeated several times throughout the bible, namely in the Psalms (20:22, 27:14, 37:14), Isaiah (40:31), Proverbs (20:22), James (5:7), Galatians (5:5) and Romans (8:25) to name a few. Moreover, many of the biblical figures we love, and study have all had to wait on the Lord one way or another. Waiting on the Lord implies relinquishing every bit of control we thought we had on our situation. Waiting on the Lord means surrendering to the Lord’s agenda for your life. Waiting on the Lord teaches us humility.

When I look at the lives of Joseph and David, I see this very clearly. Both Joseph and David had revelations from God about who they were going to be. Joseph had a dream and David was anointed king way before he actually became one (see 1 Samuel 16 and Genesis 37). The process to becoming a king for David was a long one, one that took years to materialize. In all that waiting period, what we see in David is remarkable, He waited upon the Lord. David did not take matters into his own hands even when he would appear to have been given victory over his enemy Saul who was always trying to kill him (1 Samuel 24 and 26). No, David, waited for God’s timing to receive what was already declared by Samuel, the prophet when he anointed him. It takes total surrendering to be able to act in such a manner especially when you know what has been promised to you by God. To be able to say like Jesus “not my will but yours be done” requires total abandonment. Unfortunately, I suspect in our Christian walk we often forget the reason we should wait on the Lord. We are so focused on satisfying our instant urges, wants, and needs that we overlook the benefit of delayed gratification which can be equated to an extent to waiting on the Lord because you delay pleasure now for a fuller and better reward later.

Why then should we wait on the Lord? Because those that put their hope in God are never put to shame. Because He (God) has said that vengeance is His. Because He holds the world in His hands, the earth is the Lord’s and its fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1). We should wait on the Lord because His promises are sure, He is faithful, and He is powerful. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). This is the same God that promised to never leave us nor forsake us, the same God that made a way for sinners like you and me to be part of His family, the same God that defeated evil, on whom death has no power. If this God, who knows everything, and is everything asks us to trust Him by waiting on Him and following His lead, then why should this be a challenge? Why should we resist? Let us, like Joseph, David, Hannah, Jesus and others begin to wait on the Lord, casting our entire hope and desires on Him because He cares, and He is capable.