Wait For It
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. Is 40:31
Well, my little fur ball of a dog
did it again. He taught me another lesson. I was cooking supper the other night
and he was watching me intently. I knew he would like the hamburger meat so I
had set a little aside for him. (Yes, I give my dog people food sometimes.) He
looked up at me and wagged his tail. I said, “Wait just a minute. It’s
hot.” He kept watching me hoping I might
either hurry up or drop something. He turned on what I call the “puppy eyes”.
He fixes his huge brown eyes on you and droops his ears and his head. It is
supposed to make you feel sorry for him and it usually does. The meat was still
hot, though, so I couldn’t give it to him.
Then he got tired of waiting and went rooting around in the trash. He
dug out dried bread crusts and a tiny bit of rind from a ham. He did enjoy the
hamburger meat with gusto but he had to wait until it was done.
It would be easy to say, “What a
silly dog. Couldn’t even wait a few minutes for something good.” You’d be
right, too. How good are we at waiting, though?
Let’s say you have asked God for something and you haven’t gotten it
yet. For a while we wait pretty well, wagging our spiritual tails. Then we
start to get impatient, and give God the spiritual equivalent of puppy eyes. We
might remind him of how faithful we have been and the things we have given up
for him. Maybe if we convince him that we are deserving he will hurry. We might
get mad at him for taking so long. Finally,
we get tired of waiting and go rooting around in life’s trash. Let’s look at
Abraham. God promised him a son. For a while he waited expectantly, and then
not so much. Don’t you think he reminded God of his promise? Then he decided to
look in life’s trashcan. “I guess God meant Eliezer my servant would be my
heir. I know. I’ll have a son with Sarah’s hand maiden. Maybe that’s what God
meant.” All the time God was preparing things for Isaac, and in a way that
there would be no question he was the one who had done it.
I am not going to pretend it is
easy. A few weeks ago we bought a car. I was so excited because I had waited so
long. Two weeks later after a funeral, I
told a friend to come look at my new car.
He said, “Oh, that’s nice.” I said, “Listen to how good it sounds.” And
turned the key. At this point it made terrible clunking and grinding noises and
died. The engine had jumped time and it
was one of the cars where that is a terrible occurrence and blows the engine.
After several more delays the dealer replaced it with one that is more what I
needed in the first place. Because God
knew how life is he left us instructions on waiting on Him. The one we are most
familiar with is Isaiah 40:31. 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. Psalms 37:7 says, Be still before the
LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in
his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
Boy is that
hard to do. Jeremiah 14:22 reminds us of
a time when the people were waiting for rain. He says , Are there any among the false gods of
the nations that can bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not
he, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for you do all these things.
God knows what we need. He knows how
to give it. Trust in the Lord with all of your hearts and lean not on your own
understanding. Prov 3:5
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