Wait Upon The Lord

Alright, girls. If you’re walking through the book of Esther with me this summer in Bible Study, I confess that I’m about to completely ruin the ending of the Session 5 video. I’m sorry! But I just finished it and it brought me to tears and cries of joy. I can’t hold back! In fact, I didn’t even hit “stop” on my DVD player, I just walked out of the den with my workbook and Bible and came straight to the computer to journal while it is fresh.

So Beth’s been teaching (in the Beth Moore study in Esther, for those of you who don’t know what I’m studying) this week on the importance of timing. And she closes the session with the verse Isaiah 40:31. Here’s the New American Standard Version…

Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will (B)mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.

It’s that “Wait upon the Lord” part that’s so stinking incredible to me. To paraphrase what Beth said, she made the exasperated statement “What’s more exhausting than waiting?!” Oh, how I know that! I’ve been waiting on finding a job, getting an interview, going to the interview (how stressful is the day of the interview? Those hours before are just excruciating!), waiting to hear back from the interview… did I get the job? (that’s the place I’m at right now!). It’s all so exhausting.

Bronce gets home from work in the evening and he’ll ask me what I’ve done all day and I don’t quite know how to tell him that the WAITING has been so hard! It’s making me tired! Like, seriously, mid-way through the day I’m just so TIRED and need a nap or something! This morning I woke up at 9:30. Now, part of that is just laziness, but it’s certainly even weirder when you consider I was in bed by 11pm last night. I’m just so tired from the waiting!

You know, I have friends in so many different “places” figuratively right now. I have friends who are pregnant and waiting on baby-related stuff… like finding out the sex of the baby or waiting for the kid to just get BORN already! I also have friends who are desperately trying to get pregnant and waiting monthly to find out if they’ve had success. I have other friends who are waiting for different test results and things to come back. I have friends who are waiting to be married – who are either in relationships or not, but just hanging on for the day that will happen for them. So I feel like in many ways I’m surrounded by others who are also waiting for something to happen.

So when I read a verse like Isaiah 40:31 and it talks about waiting… and having STRENGTH, I want to look around and see who those people are who feel strong. Because I sure don’t! I’m tired! And most of these friends who are waiting would certainly be able to say “I’m tired of waiting for…” or that they’re also just physically exhausted from the wait. But how does that sync with the verse that says we’ll actually build up our strength?

The more we wait, the weaker we feel. But here’s why, girls! When we’re waiting on the THING, we’ll be exhausted. Look back at the verse… it says “When we wait on the LORD” we will have strength! That’s the difference!

Right now I’m waiting to hear back about a job interview from Monday – my DREAM job teaching Math in one of the best high schools in the whole blasted county. And I can sit around, waiting to hear back about the THING – the job. Or I can rest, trusting on the LORD and knowing that if it’s not this, it will be something else!

Another point from the video that gives me encouragement is that “God is never inactive.” Meaning, when He calls on us to wait, there’s a flurry of activity going on in Heaven. The longer He waits, the more He’s working! Yes, Lord, may it be so!

Habakkuk 2:3 says (in the NIV) “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.” (italics mine)

And that last part, that crucial ending of the verse, when read in The Message, says “If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.” How cool is that! “It will come right on time.” I love that! I think I want that tattooed on my forehead… or maybe on my hand so I can see it easier. But still, how awesome is that verse?

So what am I really waiting on? It’s a hard thing, but I really want to trust and lean on the Lord right now and know that HE is working something out. Otherwise, if I don’t get the job this week, I’ll be devastated and even MORE exhausted. But if I’m waiting on the Lord, then bad news won’t tear out the ground underneath me, but I’ll have spent those days living out the rest of Isaiah 40:31… I’ll “gain new strength” and “run and not get tired” and “not become weary.”

Praise you, Lord, for this encouragement right when I need it! Let me trust in You, let me wait for YOU, let me know that You are in control and You have the best plans laid. Let me trust that You and Your angels are working out something mighty in the heavens, and let me trust that if this job doesn’t go as I want it to, it’s only because You’ve got something better in store.

As I posted on my Facebook recently, if I only trust God when life is easy, I am living in conditional faith. Do I trust Him when life is hard and I’m faced with something fearful? “Perfect love casts out fear” 1 John 4:18 – Thanks be to God!