"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
What are you waiting for? How are you waiting?
Waiting is often an uncomfortable process filled with deep anxiety and great uncertainty. Whether you're waiting for that spouse, that house, that job, even for that distant dream to start becoming anything close to the reality you have already imagined it to be, waiting calls on you to sit patiently and hold the tension of a desired but presently inaccessible reality.
The waiting we are often a part of tends to take rather than give. We labor and we stress and we find ourselves living under the heavy cloud of doubt and powerlessness that often define our limited lives.
Will it work out?
Here, the prophet Isaiah presents a type of waiting that is unlike any of the waiting we often find ourselves participating in. This new type of waiting renews, strengthens, rejuvenates; it gives life to those who have chosen to participate in it.
But, what is it that makes our waiting different from the one presented in this scripture?
I think the biggest difference is what we choose to fix our attention on as we wait, regardless of what it is we may be waiting for.
Once our focus shifts towards trusting in our preferred specific outcomes rather than the LORD himself, we become weary; weighed down by the possibility that our expectations and well-thought, even rational plans, will not be met. We become anxious that God has chosen a side that is not ours and is working in His great power against us.
But God is for us.
And He is also working all things out for our good.
Our lives are held in His, and because they are firmly held we can live in the confidence that our lives are intricately known, seen and loved. No small thing goes unnoticed.
We wait, therefore, trusting not in an outcome but in the LORD; the Master of the universe. And as we do, we realize that the anxiety that defined our waiting lives fades when we live in the confidence that we have always been held, and that we still are. That, even if it does not work out, we still will be held.
We begin to see that our lives have always been the center of His attention. And because they are, we can shift our focus to knowing Him and finding full satisfaction in Him because all that we seek has already been the firm focus of His attention.
This new type of waiting blossoms into a beautiful journey marked by a deep sense of security and trust in the person of Jesus.
Because God has spoken, and He asks:
"Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God?' Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable" Isaiah 40: 27- 28
He is everlasting and will not grow weary, and as we wait on Him we become like Him and resemble Him; strengthened, rejuvenated, patient. We become this way because we drink richly from the fountain of living water; quenching our thirsts with the abundant flow that never runs out.
What else can compare?
So, whatever you are waiting for, learn to wait well and keep your eyes fixed on Him. Rest in the confidence in His ability to work all things for you according to His will. And that His love for you runs wider than the vast ocean.
Be found waiting.
-Takunda
Comments