Waiting is hard, wouldn't you agree? Especially in the times we are living in today, where any question can be answered at the touch of a button via the internet. I remember days, barely a decade ago, when I used to trudge to several libraries and spend hours researching for a paper. It's another matter that I thoroughly enjoyed those hours in the afore-mentioned, musty libraries, peering through various shelves looking for a particular tome, only to realise in frustration that a classmate of mine had probably borrowed it already!
Ah, the good old days . . . but I digress. Back to today - where we have instant coffee, instant meals, instant communication, and more! We aren't given the option of waiting, and I don't think we'd choose it anyway. We want everything to happen immediately. At least, I do. And that's probably why the good Lord tells us to wait.
I've had to learn to wait at different stages in my life. This is one of those life lessons that I have to relearn every few years. And each stage has been hard. Each time I've fought against the circumstances holding me captive. Each time I've argued with what I considered to be God's deplorable sense of timing.
And each time I've had to humble myself and acknowledge His sovereignty. Submitting myself, my will, my desires - and yes, my timing - to His plan has always been a hard lesson. I learned it while waiting at a crossroad in my life which involved a move out of my comfort zone. I learned it when I was waiting to meet the man I was to marry. And I'm still learning it today.
If any of you reading this are going through a season of waiting, I want to encourage you. (This is something I need to remind myself as well, so it has a twofold effect.) God has not abandoned you. Whatever situation you may be in right now, He is right there beside you. Your circumstances may scream otherwise, but don't base your actions on circumstantial evidence.
Everytime God puts me through a season of waiting I'm reminded of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. A couple of verses that I find inexplicable in the Bible are John 11:5,6 -
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.”
Jesus not only knew the gravity of the situation, He also truly cared for these people on a personal level. They were not strangers to him, but his close friends. Yet He delayed until He knew that Lazarus was dead. It always stumped me.
Why make the sisters wait? He needn't even have gone in person; He could have just said the words and Lazarus would have been healed. And I feel like that right now. Why this need to wait? The Lord knows my need – it isn't a selfish, I-want-a-bigger-bookcase sort of need either – and I believe He can provide. So, why the delay?
Imagine Mary and Martha's thoughts – their brother had died and was entombed. Four days had passed. There wasn't any hope left. Have you come to that point too – disappointment, upon disappointment, until all hope dies? My heart breaks every time I read Mary and Martha's identical cry, “Lord if You had been here my brother would not have died.” And I think it broke Jesus' heart too, because the Bible says that He groaned in His spirit, was troubled, and He wept.
And that lifts my spirits because Jesus understood how painful the wait was. He entered into the heartbreak and disappointment along with the sisters. Though He knew what the outcome would be, He still wept along with them. What a loving Saviour! It gives me hope that right now, while I wait for the Lord to make a way, He is not up there, watching stonily like a “master puppeteer” knowing that the wait is good for my ego.
Rather, He is right here beside me in the seemingly endless wait of uncertainty. When my heart breaks from disappointment, His heart breaks too. And His hand is there immediately to lift me up when I hit rock bottom. He gives me hope in the waiting by showing me what I have to look forward to – life!
We all know the dramatic turn of events when Lazarus came back to life. That very same God can turn my stagnant circumstances around. I sometimes think of Lazarus himself – who had to literally die. After his resurrection, John 12:10,11 says
“But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.”
His life and testimony after being raised from the dead had such an impact that the Pharisees planned to kill him along with Jesus. How amazing! And I think there is something for us to learn from that.
The wait may seem endless and painful. It may result in the death of all your hopes and dreams. But don't lose heart. For after death comes life, and that life is abundantly more than what you can ever ask or imagine.
Photo Credit: Magdalena via Flickr cc
Dear Ruth,
Thank you for writing this down and posting it. I am in such a situation and It comes on the apt time. Thank you!
Thankyou so much for this article.
God really spoke to me through this. 🙂
Dear Ruth, thank you so much for sharing your Spirit filled message. It was confirmation of what God has been speaking to me. May God Bless you!!!!