Wait.....for.....it......

Waiting!  Songs have been written about it, lives have been ruined by it, character has been built by it and I can't stand it!  Are you waiting on something?  Me too; it seems I'm always waiting.  Waiting in line, waiting for a table, (one of my least favorite things to do, by the way) waiting for test results, waiting on a phone call, waiting in traffic, waiting for the mail to run, waiting to see how it all turns out, waiting on a check, waiting on the water to boil...and the list goes on.

It feels like we spend most of our lives waiting.  Tom Petty says that "The waiting is the hardest part. You take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part". One of my favorite oldies songs is "You can't hurry love, you just have to wait.  Love don't come easy, it's a game of give and take...".  Or how about John Mayer's "Waiting On the World to Change"? "We just keeping waiting...waiting on the world to change." All great songs about the one thing EVERYONE has in common...waiting.

Waiting takes patience and my patience wears out after a while.  When I say, "honey will you take the garbage out?' and he says, sure. Then 5 minutes later it's still there...I just go ahead and do it myself.  Therein lies the problem.  When I'm tired of waiting on something, I tend to take matters in to my own hands and "help" the situation get resolved.  Now, this ain't a bad thing if your waiting on your husband to take the garbage out, although it has caused a few riffs around here, but it can be a very bad thing when you're waiting on God to resolve a situation, only to help Him out and ruin His plan.

The Bible says a lot about waiting, to find this out I typed the words "wait on the Lord" in the search box on biblegateway.com and, wow! You should see all the results I got! But I think my most favorite verse has always been Isaiah 40:31 "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." According to this verse, waiting can bring about a renewal of strength, and a determination to keep on without growing weary or fainting? Umm... that still doesn't make me want to sign up for the "waiting group" at church.  I think I'd rather be in the "march around 7 times and shout for victory group".  But...my preference to be a doer rather than a waiter, is not going to get me anywhere when it comes to waiting on things to come to pass that I have no control over.  James 1:4 says to let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 

My prayer this week is that I find rest in the "waiting areas" of my life.  I want to experience the kind of peace that only comes when your faith in God is so strong that no amount of waiting will cause you to doubt that God is working things out for your good. A non-wearying, non-fainting, strength-renewing, patience-perfecting, kind of faith. Lord, teach me how to wait...