Psalm 40:1-2, New King James Version

“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.”

Sometimes life doesn't always go the way we planned or the way we had hoped it would. Sometimes, there's a wrench thrown into the mix of our expectations. Maybe at some point, we are even trying to make things happen in our own strength and in our own way. I believe it would be a good thing to consider taking a step back and considering a different approach. The Bible talks so much about waiting. Waiting... something that we, as people, hate to do. But read these scriptures and think about them... really think about them and about who God is.

Psalm 40:1-2 (NKJV), “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.”

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV), “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.”

These are two beautiful scriptures that say so much! Too often we get in our own way trying to make things work when we should be waiting on the Lord! When we are waiting, we aren't just sitting around and doing nothing... far from that. In the waiting we should be praying, we should be seeking, and we should be watching...  watching for the Lord! In the waiting, God is teaching. He is teaching us to be patient, He is deepening our faith, our trust, and our confidence in Him. Our relationship with God is growing in the waiting!  

In the first scripture, David waited patiently for the Lord, and God heard him! God delivered him! He set him on solid ground and established his steps! That is what God wants to do for us! When we pray, He hears us at that very moment that we pray! Perhaps an answer doesn't come right away. But that doesn't take away from the fact that God is working, He is doing something! If we put our confidence and our hope in God, we will see Him doing great and mighty things for us and through us! He will establish us on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, His Son! He is the perfect foundation! Why? Because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life! Nobody can go to the Father, except through Him! When we accept Christ as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Jesus came to show us the Father, to live out truth, so that we could follow in the truth...in love...to love God and to love people. In the second scripture, by waiting on the Lord, we gain new strength. That is something supernatural that we cannot produce on our own. This too comes from a trust and a confidence in God, because of the depth of the relationship between the Father and His children. So many beautiful things happen in the waiting!

There is a lady at my Bible study that shares little, tiny bits of what she learns in her time with the Lord with us. This was found in the commentary of her Bible, and I thought it was so beautifully put.

To wait on the LORD is to demonstrate confident expectation. Hebrew for "wait" is "hope," to hope in God is to wait for His timing and His action.

We find both of these to be true in Psalm 40:1-2 and in Isaiah 40:31. And, if we are patient and wait on the Lord, we too can find this to be true in our own lives! God is never late; He is always right on time! I know that each of us was created differently, perhaps some of us may feel a little anxious in the waiting because they feel the weight of responsibility and things that need to happen. Please know that God knows all of these things! And also know this, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7, NKJV) This is where our faith gets stretched. This is where we see the impossible become possible because we serve and love and know who our God is, and see at what length He goes for us! He held nothing back when He gave His One and only Son to die for us...Christ crucified, for our punishment, for our sin, so that we could be forgiven. We have the right to be called children of God! If He is willing to give His only Son for us so that we could be His children, we should trust that whatever we are waiting on the Lord for, He will make it come to pass. Maybe not the way we expect it...no, it will be better because God's ways are better than our ways!