FAITHFUL WAITING

"Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near."  (James 5:7–8 NIV)

In a world of instant results and endless urgency, James draws us into the quiet strength of a farmer waiting for the rains. No crop matures overnight. No growth unfolds without trust in what’s unseen.

This is the rhythm of faith -- not passive resignation, but faithful anticipation. Patience and perseverance are not weak, but deeply courageous. We wait with hope. We endure with resolve. Because we know the harvest is promised by a God who never forgets His Word. 

-- SOUND BITES Ministry™

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SOMETHING IS ON THE HORIZON

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NIV)

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance.

So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon. 

-- Jan L. Richardson in “Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas”

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INTERTWINED WITH GOD

“But those who wait 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.”  (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)

The Hebrew language has almost 20 words for “wait” in the Old Testament (NASB). Often we think in terms of trust, hope, look for, expect. Another one of those meanings is to be intertwined. Think in terms of a three-legged race. You pair up with your partner, then tie one of your legs with one of your partner’s. Once you are intertwined, then you have to get in sync with one another to run the race.

I like that image. When you partner with God you are intertwined. When He pauses, you pause. When He walks, you walk. When He runs, you run. And it’s those who wait, who intertwine, who tie their life with God’s, who renew their strength.  

Another way to think of it is the image Jesus used in Matthew 11:28-30 – a yoke. Jesus’ invitation to take His yoke was an invitation to experience the grace of God. It was an invitation to participate in the rest Jesus would bring us. Jesus invites those who are burdened by the yoke of the law, other religions, or the challenges of life to come to Him, and He would give them rest. And then He tells us that when we take up His yoke, become intertwined with Him, we will find rest for our souls. 

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry

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WAITING WITH THE WORD

“But those who wait 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.”  (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)

Our waiting is always shaped by alertness to the Word.  It is waiting in the knowledge that someone wants to address us.  The question is, Are we home?  Are we at our address, ready to respond to the doorbell?  We need to wait together, to keep each other at home spiritually, so that when the Word comes it can become flesh in us.  That is why the Book of God is always in the midst of those who gather.  We read the Word so that the Word can become flesh and have a whole new life in us. 

-- Henri Nouwen in “Weavings”, January 1987, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

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SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

“If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country -- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."  (Hebrews 11:15-16 NIV)

After the children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, after they had been chased by Pharaoh's army, and after they'd escaped through the Red Sea, they grumbled. They wished they were back home again, even if home to them was altogether incompatible with the plan and purpose God had claimed on their lives. They'd rather go back than go forward, or rather go forward, than just sit. The worst place of all, they believed, was being stuck there in between.

The comfort zone of home life can often be just as damaging to our spiritual growth as the enticing attraction of future ambition. That's why sometimes, in order to get us adequately prepared for the moments to come, God may not allow us to return to the way things used to be, the place where we could easily become lulled into complacency. When God needs us bold and fervent and clear of mind -- when He wants our faith primed and pregnant for the fire to fall -- He'll often call us to an in-between place. Not quite where we're going to be, but not all the way back to where we were. Life in the middle can be unsettling, but don't be discouraged. Stay put. Trust God, and in due time He'll move you on. 

– Adapted from Priscilla Shirer in “Elijah: Faith and Fire”

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FOCUSING ON THE LORD’S PRESENCE

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”  (Revelation 1:8)

Wait patiently with Me while I bless you. Don’t rush into My Presence with time-consciousness gnawing at our mind. I dwell in timelessness: I am, I was, I will be always. For you, time is a protection; you’re a frail creature who can handle only twenty-four-hour segments of life. Time can be a tyrant, ticking away relentlessly in your mind. Learn to master time, or it will master you.

Though you are a time-bound creature, seek to meet Me in timelessness. As you focus on My Presence, the demands of time and tasks will diminish. I will bless you and keep you, making My face shine upon you graciously, giving you Peace. (Numbers 6:24-26) 

-- Adapted from “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence” by Sarah Young 

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ACTIVE WAITING

“But those who wait 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.”  (Isaiah 40:31 NKJV)

Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing. That's the secret.

The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed has been planted, that something has begun.

Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it. A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment, who believes that this moment is the moment. 

-- Henri J. M. Nouwen in “The Weavings Reader” published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

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A TIME OF WAITING

“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 40:31)

I'm an impatient, restless person. Slowing down and waiting seem like a waste of time. Yet waiting seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition.

Henri Nouwen said, "Waiting is a period of learning. The longer we wait, the more we hear about Him for whom we are waiting."

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 8:22-25 resonates with Nouwen: "Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting" (The Message).

During a time of waiting, God is vibrantly at work within us. 

-- Luci Shaw in “Nouwen Then”

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ADVENT HOPE – ALERT EXPECTATION

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.”  (Hebrews 10:23)

Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying.

And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion or fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident, alert expectation that God will do what He said He will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it His way and in His time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling Him both how and when to do it. That is not hoping in God but bullying God. "I pray to GOD… waiting for what He'll say and do. My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.”

-- Eugene H. Peterson in “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society”

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ADVENT HOPE – FAITHFUL EXPECTATION

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”  (Psalm 130:5)

In modern language, hope has become little more than a strong wish or a way of stating our preference. Hope, however, is a holy word, a powerful and exciting word. The word hope really means "faithful expectation." We hope, that is we faithfully expect that God is acting on our behalf to create, to save, and to sustain us. We claim an expectation for the future, even when the present does not provide proof that the future will be good; and we do so faithfully, within the relationship we claim with God in Jesus Christ. When we as faithful people say "hope," we should use the word with our feet firmly planted, our head held high, and our life relying on the God who will not let us go. We need to say "hope" as a prayer, as an affirmation of faith, and as a doxology to the living God. 

-- Randy Cross in “Born to Save: An Advent Study Based on the Revised Common Lectionary” 

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PATIENT TRUST

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.”  (Psalm 40:1) 

What does it look like to wait with patient trust?

Henri Nouwen gave us a picture of patient trust not long before he died in 1996. Writing about some trapeze artists who became good friends of his, he explained that there is a very special relationship between the flyer and catcher…

As the flyer is swinging high above the crowd, the moment comes when he lets go of the trapeze, when he arcs out into the air. For that moment, which must feel like an eternity, the flyer is suspended in nothingness. It is too late to reach back for the trapeze. There is no going back now. However, it is too soon to be grasped by the one who will catch him. He cannot accelerate the catch. In that moment, his job is to be as still and motionless as he can.

"The flyer must never try to catch the catcher," the trapeze artist told Nouwen. "He must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him. But he must wait. His job is not to flail about in anxiety. In fact, if he does, it could kill him. His job is to be still. To wait. And to wait is the hardest work of all."

You may be in that very vulnerable moment right now -- you have let go of what God has called you to let go of, but can't feel God's other hand catching you yet. Will you wait in absolute trust? Will you be patient? Waiting requires patient trust. 

-- John Ortberg in “If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat”

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WAIT FOR THE LORD

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  (Psalm 27:14)

Waiting may be one of the ultimate tests of our faith. It certainly is one of the hardest spiritual disciplines to learn.

Isaiah wisely encouraged those who are waiting on God to consider others who have waited on Him. He pointed out in Isaiah 64:4, “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.”

Scripture says if we wait on God we will be blessed. If we grow impatient while waiting and take matters into our own hands, we’ll be in trouble.

Are you waiting on God for something? Then take heart. Don’t run ahead. Be strong enough to wait. Wait. And again I say, wait for the Lord. 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

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SLOWLY BUT SURELY

“Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD.”  (Psalm 27:14 NLT)

The things that matter most take time, effort, patience, sacrifice, discipline, and deep commitment. Too much, too soon, too easily… is the perfect formula for frustration, heartache, and mediocrity. When we GET too easily and REACH too quickly, we tend to APPRECIATE too lightly. To be sure, some things you can get immediately by pushing buttons or paying money down or by pulling out a plastic card. But great things, the real values, do not come that way; they have to be grown and cultivated. You can get a sports car or a [smart] TV with a quick down payment, but character, morality, integrity, maturity, spiritual strength -- these you have to wait for, work for, want intensely, commit to, and cultivate and grow slowly but surely.

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”

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WAIT ON THE LORD

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."  (Isaiah 40:31)

God doesn't tell us how He'll answer our prayers, or even when, but He does promise those who wait on Him one thing -- strength. Tony Evans points out that the word "wait" comes from a Hebrew word used in the making of rope. Every rope starts as a thread, and every thread added just increases its strength. Getting the idea? Every time you wait on the Lord you add another thread to the rope; you get a little stronger, a little more able to cope. Feel like you're just hanging on by a thread? Wait in God's presence and let Him turn it into a rope.

But waiting is not always passive, sometimes it's active; like waiting on a customer, seeing that his or her needs are met. Waiting is not so much a position, as it is a focus. Isaiah says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed [focused] on Thee" (Isa 26:3). Whether it's sitting prayerfully in God's presence, or actively carrying out His will, you've got His assurance that your strength will be renewed. Listen to these promises:
      (1) "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14 NKJV).
      (2) "Wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5 NKJV).
      (3) "As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters... so our eyes look to  the Lord our God" (Ps 123:2 NKJV).

Need more strength? Wait on God more!

-- Source Unknown, from a subscriber in Pennsylvania

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