A "Waity" Matter

Psalm 27:14 – Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for the Lord! (RSV)

All of us, at some point in our lives, have wanted something so badly that, as the saying goes, we could taste it. Because of our fleshly nature, we have a built-in desire to obtain those things we want in a timely manner. Currently in my life, I want a new vehicle. We are expecting another child, and we need something a little more practical for family travels. I have even succumbed to the idea of purchasing a mini-van. But due to a course of events too lengthy to describe, the purchase of our new vehicle is taking quite a bit longer than I had hoped. I have tried to approach this decision and process in a Christian manner and have prayed over the decision. But that does not seem to have weakened my desire to have the vehicle now.

In my quiet time one morning, I asked God to give me a verse that would provide the inspiration or basis for a devotional. In doing so, I discovered that God definitely has a sense of humour. As I was doing my reading in the book of Psalms, I read verse after verse after verse, and nothing seemed to jump out or inspire me. I found myself getting a bit impatient as I awaited that "special" verse. Absolutely the last verse that I came to in my daily readings was the verse that spoke to me. It was the last verse of Psalm 27, verse 14, which says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yea, wait for the Lord!" (RSV)

This verse hit me like a ton of bricks. It is definitely a message that God is trying to get through to me, as we had the same topic in our Sunday School lesson this week. Patience, or waiting on the Lord, is something that I often struggle with. I know of the promises that God has made, and I know that God answers prayers. I also know that all of these things come in God's timing and not my own. But I still want what I want when I want it, and that is usually now, if not sooner.

In reading through the first several psalms, I noticed that the psalmists also had desires, and also made many requests of the Lord. In Psalm 27, the psalmist comes to the conclusion that he must indeed wait on the Lord. We often expect God to be our "waiter" and wait on us hand and foot, giving us all of the things we need and want. Waiting on God is indeed a difficult lesson to learn, but I know that if we can ever master this lesson, our lives will be much more full and peaceful. If we realize at the start that we may have to wait on something, we can then set that thing aside and concentrate our efforts elsewhere while we wait on God to move, rather than sulking in our impatience and trying to make things happen in our own timing. While we wait on God, we can be waiters for God and serve Him.

Prayer: Dear Father, we realize that You are a timeless yet timely God. Give us the patience to accept things in Your timing and not our own, that we might better serve You. Amen.