Waiting on the Lord is not my strong suit. I know, it is nobody’s, but some people are better at it than others and I am not one of those. I find it particularly harder to wait when you know the end is near. We all wait on the Lord for different things and most of the time they are trivial when compared to what awaits us in eternity, yet they take up so much of our time here on earth. At the same time though, I have come to see the beauty and presence of God in our waiting. It is weird how something that is so hard can also be so fulfilling. Today, I want to encourage your weary heart (and mine), by giving you in no particular order joys that only come through waiting. Yes, you heard right I said joys. There is a process in the waiting, there is transformation and it is a good one. No wonder we are commanded to wait joyfully for the Lord! Even as I type these words, I have a smile on my face thinking about the ways of God! He is something else!
The first joy waiting provides is maturity. James tells us that “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4). This tells me that through perseverance, there is maturity and completeness that is attained. Why must maturity come from waiting faithfully? I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you that maturity is certainly a state you want to attain in life. A mature person is a seasoned person, it is someone whom we would refer to as full of wisdom. You are mature when you have attained that level of completeness about many things. It is definitely a desired state for all of us. God actually wants that for us; hence we go through periods of waiting which are usually characterized by us having to persevere. Jesus had to wait, and quite frankly he is still waiting for his bride to come. When he was on the earth, he waited for his time to come before beginning to reveal himself to the world. He was already fully God and fully man when he was twelve years old talking to the priests and scribes in the temple, yet he never revealed himself before his time. He waited and through his waiting he became more mature, more complete, he indeed lacked nothing as James would say. It also reminds me of the passage in Luke that says Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man (Luke 2:52). I don’t know but I believe waiting allowed him to get to that level of maturity.
The second joy of waiting is humility. One of the virtues of the Christian is humility. This is the commandment or rather the instruction Jesus gave his disciples who asked him how to be first in the kingdom of God. This kingdom is unlike any kingdom you have seen: first, it is a kingdom that belongs to those that are like children, second, it is a kingdom in which the first is last and the last is first and third it is a kingdom where you must serve if you want to be greater. When we wait, we are reminded that we are not in control of our lives, we are reminded that we are dependent on God for the thing we wait for. That in itself teaches us to be humble, to not take anything for granted and to savour what we have because we know that is not a given and it is not the product our hands have fashioned. Jesus himself was humbled in his waiting; he recognized that the Father had his best interests and that he was to submit to the plan of the Father. Even today, Jesus still submits to the Father and trusts Him for the future as he waits for the final judgement, his last coming. Jesus, who is the Judge, has to wait for his time to come and judge finally, once and for all. In addition to that, as Judge, Jesus does not know the day or the time when the judgement will happen, only the Father is privy to that knowledge (Matthew 24:36). Jesus is truly our example; he is the perfect man. I stand amazed at him!
The third joy of waiting is closeness to God. As we wait, our relationship with God becomes stronger and stronger. We get to see a God that we don’t see when things happen as we want or when there is no difficulty. Waiting makes us wait for the Lord like the watchman waits for the morning that means we wait for the Lord in eager anticipation. The watchman is anxious for the morning to come, he knows the morning will surely come so he waits with certainty, he waits with clarity. We are called to wait on the Lord irrespective of how long his promise seems to tarry. Moreover, we are promised that “those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, that they shall mount up with wings like eagles, that they shall run and not be weary, that they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). David is the best example of that because throughout his life he waited and just when you thought David would give up, his strength was renewed. Many of his Psalms show that pattern and it is beautiful to see. I have also seen that in my life and it causes me to worship God because I know if it were not for Him, I would have given up long ago. Personally, I love to hear stories or read stories of people that have waited for the Lord, they are always so wonderful and encouraging; the outcome is always beyond our imagination. Often times those people that have waited for the Lord end up saying like the Israelites in Psalms 126 “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy;” (Psalm 126:1-3). I pray that this be your portion as you wait patiently and joyfully for the Lord because He does not disappoint for His Name is at sake.
A Word Aptly Spoken 