SITTING AND WAITING

By Bill Brandstatter       We spend a great deal of time sitting and waiting. In the past few months this has happened to me at the doctor’s office, at a car dealership, and at a tire store. I also have been put on hold while using the phone. There was music playing but I had to wait. In our age of instant and quick, it is hard to wait.     Often in our spiritual lives, we want instant solutions to complicated problems. In marriages we want instant solutions. Sometimes we may have to wait. Isaiah wrote that “He who waits on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Is. 40:31)     We need to let God do His part. So often in our fast-paced, instant society, we try to rush God. Abraham and Sarah tried this. When God told Abraham that through him all nations of the earth would be blessed, neither he nor Sarah could understand how that could be. Both were near or at 100 years of age. Sarah could not have children; so, they thought God meant some other way. So, Abraham had a child by Sarah's handmaid, Hagar. (Gn. 16:1-4) Later, God enabled Sarah to have a child. (Gen. 21:1-3) If only they had waited.     We should wait on the Lord with patience. David wrote: “I waited patiently for the LORD: and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.” (Ps. 40:1) Patience is hard for many people. I am reminded of the preacher who prayed, “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me right now.” Sometimes that is how we react to our requests to God.     We should wait on the Lord with courage. David must have known about waiting. He wrote about it again in the 27th Psalm. There he states, “Wait on the LORD, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen you heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD.” (Ps. 27:14) Let us wait for the Lord to give us courage. We can be strengthened through the Word of the Lord and prayer. This will help us to be “strong in the Lord and the power of His might.” (Eph. 6:10-18)     We should wait on the Lord with great hope. In Ps. 130:5, we read: “I wait for the LORD my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.” Without the Word of God, we would not know the hope of salvation, the hope of a good life here, and the hope of a home in heaven. Thank God we have His Word to provide the hope we need in troubled times. Let us be better at waiting on God. We will be blessed and God will be pleased.

- Bill Brandstatter preaches for the Marion Church of Christ in Marion, IL. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://marionchurchofchrist.com/