Psalm 40:1 says “I waited patiently for the Lord.” Six simple words, but how hard to do! Especially when we desire great changes to take place in our personal lives or in the world.
I don’t know anyone who likes to wait, but it seems that nearly everyone is waiting for something. And when we are forced to wait, we often do so impatiently, tapping our fingers and sighing. What would it take for you to “wait patiently”?
It’s common to say, “I don’t have the gift of patience,” even though patience is never defined in the Bible as a spiritual gift. Over and over again, the Bible uses command language to call us ALL to wait patiently. But the last three words of Psalm 40:1 are the most important: “I waited patiently for the Lord.” Often, when we finally decide to try to wait patiently for something, we are still waiting to get our own way, instead of waiting “for the Lord.”
I spent three years waiting for a ministry job, and God used that time to do some Potter’s molding in my life. I resisted waiting, feeling that I was already “behind” my seminary peers because I had spent years doing ministry part time while raising small children. But God was not anxious. God the Potter was removing the impurity of comparing myself to others.
In my waiting, I was very impatient at times, and yet through it all, God the Potter was smoothing and calming my spirit. I was waiting for my own dreams to be fulfilled, and yet God the Potter was teaching me to envision his own dreams for my future. I cannot say yet that I love to wait. But God worked on my willingness to wait, on my patience in waiting, and on my focus of waiting – to be on the Lord.
What are you waiting for? And what has waiting taught you?
