Wait upon the Lord
“But 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.”
Isaiah 40:31
The above verse reminds me of a lesson on patience my grandmother once taught me.
One Christmas Eve, when I was a young child, my grandmother tucked me into bed. Sleep, of course, was the least of my concerns that evening. My mind raced with thoughts of the wrapped gifts under the tree in all their splendor.
I simply couldn’t contain my excitement as I said, “I just can’t wait for tomorrow morning to get here!”
With a loving smile, my grandmother looked down at me and said, “Well, guess what?” My face beamed with joy until she said, “You have to.”
She turned out the light and left me to go to sleep. That night I learned a valuable lesson of patience.
Sometimes, no matter how badly we want or think we need something, it simply isn’t meant for us to have it when we deem we should.
In those times, as my grandmother said, we simply have to wait.
The waiting is hard enough when life is good and we are simply waiting for something to turn “good” into “better.”
What about those times when life is “bad” and we are waiting for something that would just make life “good” again? Even more so when life is “bad” and goes to “worse” as we wait and nothing seems to improve. Patience begins to falter and desperation sets in.
This feeling of hopelessness is best exemplified in John, Chapter 11. Martha’s brother Lazarus lies sick and dying as she calls for Jesus to come heal him.
Christ does indeed come to Martha, days after Lazarus died and was buried.
According to Martha, this was days too late, as she laments that had Christ come sooner, Lazarus wouldn’t have died.
Yet, in the face of a seemingly hopeless “from bad to worse,” Christ managed to turn “worse” into “great” by raising Lazarus from the dead.
In this life, we are often called upon to wait. The waiting is often the most-difficult work we will ever be called to do.
And that’s even more when our waiting seems to be rewarded only with more heartache.
During these times, we are blessed by the promise that those who wait upon the Lord will always be blessed.
Jason Shockley is an evangelist and teacher. Facebook @simplemessagelife. Email: jrshockley25@gmail.com