Waiting on the Lord

Throughout Scripture we are told that those who wait for the Lord are blessed. To wait on the Lord is to put our trust in God’s nature and work in Christ. Rather than be anxious, and rather than work like crazy to produce the outcome we want, waiting on the Lord is a quiet, restful soul that is confident in God’s character. If we are waiting on the Lord, we are not just sitting idly by. Waiting is an active trust in God’s goodness, sovereignty, and wisdom at work in our lives. We are commanded to wait.  

Here is a sampling of those verses.

Psalm 27:14  “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (ESV)

Lamentations 3:25  “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” (ESV)

Isaiah 30:18  “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (ESV)

Psalm 37:37  “Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.” (ESV)

There are many times throughout a week where we have to wait for something. Maybe we picture a line at Costco. If we “wait” for 10 minutes we think it’s been a long time. Maybe our wait is for our spouse or child to finish getting ready so we can leave the house. Maybe we are waiting for cookies to come out of the oven and then to cool down enough to eat. Each of these “waits” is a common occurrence, but are relatively short. 

God often calls us to a longer wait. It may be months, years, or decades that we are called to wait for the Lord to see a circumstance change or an outcome that we desire. We may never experience our desired outcome and spend our entire life waiting on the Lord in faithful confidence of His plan. 

Often, we are counseling people who are impatient with their situation and are looking for a sign, an open door, or an action they can take to make something happen in their lives. I have counseled many young women who said they needed to “put themselves out there” to find a husband. This meant that it was their responsibility to be on dating sites or going out to places where they might meet men. In a sense, they thought they needed to “help” God bring about the orchestration of marriage. Is this true? Another example might be pursuing a certain line of work. I counseled a wife whose husband was desperately trying to make a huge career change. Was it okay to take different jobs trying to set himself up to be ready for the career he strongly desired? When is it right to pursue steps that lead to a desired change in life? Is this different from waiting on the Lord? Does waiting preclude us from making changes in our life?

This can be a tricky counseling situation. After all, there are things we are responsible to do in this life that shape and guide our future. We cannot expect to get a job if we are not filling out applications. We will not be admitted into college unless we have applied before the deadline. We should be working hard and maybe even pursuing promotions.  

So how do we know if we are overstepping the command to “wait for the Lord”? 

Sarai, from Genesis 16, is a picture of overstepping the command to wait for the Lord. Abram and Sarai had been promised an heir. Actually they had been promised heirs as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach. But God’s timing seems slow to them. As the years go by and they are aging, Sarai becomes impatient. Sarai decides she needs to “help” God keep His promise. She arranges for Hagar, her servant, to be Abram’s second wife so that an heir can be conceived through her. We know that Sarai’s plan leads to conflict and sad consequences. This is a picture of not trusting God and His character. Sarai was not willing to trust that God could bring about his promise of an heir because of her age. She saw God as limited in ability or maybe forgetful in His character. Her quick action is a sobering example of what happens when we don’t wait on the Lord.

We see a beautiful picture of this “waiting” in the life of David. In 1 Samuel 24 David has been fleeing King Saul because Saul is seeking to kill him. Several times already, David has inquired of the Lord and been told to flee his position (1 Samuel 23: 10-11, 1 Samuel 22:15). God is sovereignly protecting and preserving David as the anointed king. In chapter 24, David and his men are hiding in a cave when Saul comes in to relieve himself. David’s men encourage him to take advantage of this opportunity. They suggest that, surely, God has given David this time to kill Saul and ascend the throne. After all, David has been promised, by God, that he will be king. The kingdom does belong to David. Why not right now?

But David does not attack Saul. David doesn’t want to do things his way, in his own timing. This is rooted in his heart being “after God’s heart”. David’s motive is not to achieve the outcome through pragmatic means. David wants to honor God as His plan unfolds. David’s eyes are on the Lord and His plan. David replies to these men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul” (1 Samuel 24:6-7a). David knew that trusting God, waiting on God, means that he doesn’t take matters into his own hands and try to force God’s plan ahead of time. David is waiting for God to act in God’s way, in God’s timing. 

Jesus also faced the temptation to do things in His own timing. When Satan is tempting Jesus in Matthew 4, Satan has Jesus look at all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  He says, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). The kingdoms rightfully belong to Jesus. God has promised that He will rule. 

But Jesus doesn’t fall for this temptation. Jesus knows that the kingdoms are rightfully His. And, even though He knows that suffering is in His future before ruling over all the kingdoms in the world, Jesus doesn’t act pragmatically. It would be easier to achieve the kingdoms this way and that would be a pragmatic way to bring about the same result but through “easier” means of not suffering, is the temptation. But waiting on the Lord is God’s call for His Son and for us. Jesus truly had the heart of God (as God Himself) and always sought to do the will of His Father. Jesus resists the temptation with God’s own Word. “Thus Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). Jesus waits for the Lord and His timing.

We learn from David and Jesus that the heart’s motive is key. We cease to “wait for the Lord” when our motive is trying to orchestrate our desired outcome, in our timing. Yes, we need to counsel our counselees to be responsible and do actions that are helpful. But, they need to assess their heart. We do not have the promises that David and Jesus received. There is much about our futures on earth that are not known to us. So waiting for the Lord involves not knowing what we are waiting for. We are not promised marriage. We are not promised children or believing children. We are not promised a specific job or relationships that are peaceful. We must choose to trust that whatever God brings, He is working His good plan for us.

As you are counseling, are your counselees taking action thinking they are the decisive factor in achieving the outcome? Do they see their action as almost a manipulation of getting God to work things out the way they want? Do they think God needs help to achieve the outcome? Or, are they seeing God’s sovereignty and trusting His plan and His timing? Are they submitted to God’s plan and willing to trust that the outcome may not be quick? Are they willing to wait, in the unknown, to trust God’s plan? Corrie ten Boom famously said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God”. Ten Boom knew that God’s character as revealed in scripture is the basis of our trust.

Waiting on the Lord is a position of the heart. It is an active choice to surrender your will to God’s will. As Jesus prayed in the garden the night he was arrested, “Not My will but Your will be done”, we must surrender our desired outcome to God’s wise plan for our lives. Waiting on the Lord is a decision to live out our trust in God’s goodness. We can take action while waiting on the Lord if our hearts are focused on trusting God and not the pragmatic outcome of our work. We must do the work God calls us to, being responsible to fulfill reasonable duties, while leaving the outcome up to God. Waiting on the Lord brings blessing because God is pleased by faith in Him (Heb 11:6). God promises to reward those who seek Him and waiting with confidence for His plan to unfold is seeking Him and having faith in Him. Waiting on the Lord is faith in action.