Sunday Thoughts: Waiting on the Lord

I think we can all agree that waiting isn’t fun. I remember a teacher in high school saying that she thought one feature of Hell was waiting in line for eternity. Tom Petty said that “the waiting is the hardest part,” and I’m inclined to agree.

But did you know that God calls believers to wait on Him? King David wrote in Psalm 27:13-14, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!”

In this psalm, David wrote about contending with “evildoers,” “adversaries,” “foes,” and “enemies,” but he also expressed his trust in the Lord to take care of him:

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

Psalm 27:4-5 (ESV)

Waiting on the Lord is an expression of our hope that He will come through for us when we need Him to. But we don’t blindly hope as we wait; we believe with confidence that God is on our side and will take care of us.

“This psalm of David speaks with confidence — David is certain that he will find God’s goodness in life,” writes Lucy Kemp. “Sometimes it takes waiting on God and being expectant in that waiting, but no matter what His goodness is there. He is our Father and our friend and our Savior.”

Related: Sunday Thoughts: Abiding in the Vine

“Waiting on the Lord involves the confident expectation of a positive result in which we place a great hope,” GotQuestions explains. “This expectation is based on knowledge of and trust in God. Those who do not know the Lord will not wait on Him; neither will those who fail to trust Him. We must be confident of who God is and what He is capable of doing. Those who wait on the Lord do not lose heart in their prayers.”

Our waiting isn’t passive, either. As we wait on the Lord, we’re actively trusting, praying, seeking His will, and reading His Word. The Bible tells us that God rewards those who wait on Him.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:1-3 (ESV)

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for 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.

Isaiah 40:28-31 (ESV)

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

Isaiah 64:4 (ESV)

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

1 John 5:14-15 (ESV)

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:1-5 (ESV)

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:4-8 (ESV)

I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know that chances are there’s some area in your life in which you’re waiting on the Lord. As you wait, continue to trust in Him, seek Him, and exercise patience. That waiting will pay off one day.