Waiting on the Lord

 

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!

Psalm 27:13-14 (ESV)

I have been thinking a lot lately about the call that comes to us from God in Scripture to "wait on the Lord." One can see why this has been on my mind lately when you consider our world's state. Most of the contexts in Scripture where we're called to "wait on the Lord" is in a context of danger or fear, where we are called to wait on the Lord to bring justice. Indeed, this is something we cry out for in our world today. We want God to make everything right. We weep and mourn over so much death...we weep and mourn over the unrest we have seen in so many cities in the past 6 months. 

Waiting is hard...because we're impatient. So much of our world is all about speed. We're always trying to get faster...faster internet...faster food delivery. We get annoyed when we have to wait more than 10 seconds for a browser window to load...or an app to open on our phone. But as much as waiting is hard...waiting is Biblical.

So, as I mentioned above, waiting on the Lord is usually used in the context of waiting on the Lord to bring justice. Still, I thought of another area of life that calls us to wait on the Lord, specifically in the context of fighting sin and battling idols. Allow me to explain...

When I'm tempted to sin, some idol tempts me to move my joy from being found in God to being located in a created thing. That created thing may give me the quick "hit" that I'm looking for...but it ultimately leaves me feeling empty and worse off than before. But when I instead wait on God...when I rest in Him and pursue Him...the joy is so much better. We can say that it is infinitely better. The end result of this relationship with God in Christ Jesus gives way to an eternity with God...filled with joy in presence for all eternity. Then the waiting will be over...the temptations to sin will be gone...and justice will reign.

I call this "waiting" on God instead of pursuing sin because when I pursue God, He doesn't often give me the quick "hit" of pleasure that I'm seeking. When I pursue Him, it is a steady and sustained joy. So, it is like "waiting." But this waiting on God in this context doesn't look like waiting as we think of it...it involves actively pursuing Him. It consists in seeking Him in His Word...praying...fellowshipping with other believers, etc. And, again, when I "wait" on Him in this way...the joy is so much better.

Now, I don't want to imply that there are never those high moments of joy when we're living for Christ...there certainly are. That moment where you're reading the Word and God brings a particular truth to life from Scripture...or you're singing songs of worship with the body, and you find yourself just filled with joy in God. These moments certainly happen, but most of Christian life is not like this. It's a steady feeling of contentment in your heart when you seek Him and pursue Him as the source of your joy.

So, brother or sister in Christ...wait on the Lord.