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Last Updated: Dec 12, 2008 - 4:54:39 PM |
I write this article while inside a Starbucks. I’m drinking a Caramel Latte and waiting for my wife who is shopping. In reality, life is all about waiting. However, waiting has become a lost art in our microwave, text-messaging, lightning-speed-internet-connection-world. Who wants to wait for anything any more? To begin with, we are extremely ‘time’ conscience. We no longer measure our driving distance in ‘miles’, but in ‘minutes’ and ‘hours.’ We get frustrated if a stoplight lasts a little too long for our comfort. The same holds true for our relationship with God. We are tempted to treat God as someone who must beckon to our every perceived need, and do so on our time schedule. If he doesn’t, then frustration sets in. We say a prayer and we want it answered ‘right now’ and in ‘our way.’
However, the prophet Isaiah declares that “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” The fact is: God does not work on our time schedules. For him, “one day is . . . as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Thus, waiting is simply a ‘given’ for us.
God made a promise to the first humans after they rebelled in paradise. His promise was to rescue them from their sin and from the devil’s grasp. God’s first promise of this is in Genesis 3:15. His rescue would come through a descendent of the woman. Yet, it took God a long time - by our standards - to bring this about in the birth of Jesus. However, the Apostle Paul says, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” God knew exactly what he was doing in waiting to send Jesus many years after that first Genesis promise.
Now, the Christian Church waits for Jesus to come again. Two thousand years may seem as a long time, but the Apostle Peter says: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In other words, God is taking his time in sending Jesus back because he desires all people turn to Jesus in faith and receive forgiveness through him.
Trace the word ‘wait’ through the pages of the Bible and you will find that it is used frequently. It carries with it the idea of ‘hope.’ Now, hope in the Bible is not wishful thinking, but rather waiting with certainty for something God has promised will take place.
Waiting for the LORD to accomplish his purposes can be frustrating if we think in terms of ‘our own’ time schedules. On the other hand, it can be a time for us to learn to rest in God’s promises, and grow stronger in him. He has proven his faithfulness in dealing with our needs. The greatest proof of this faithfulness is in his sending Jesus as the promised Savior to rescue us. Yet, he did this in his timing, not in ours.
Amazing . . . my wife is here, just as I finish this article. I can rework it later. My wait has been productive and well worth the time. So can be our waiting on the Lord.
Pastor Douglas Morton is pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Marengo. His email is pastor@forgiveninchrist.com.
© Copyright 2008 by The East Iowa Herald
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