Waiting on the Lord is a vital part of the life of faith.
We first experienced faith when we received the salvation of God by believing in Jesus Christ. As convicted sinners, we came to see Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the only Savior from sin and death. We put our trust in Him. We then continued to walk the Christian life by faith. This involves a lifetime of believing, trusting, depending, relying, abiding, hoping, and waiting upon the Lord.
The very nature of faith involves waiting for the culmination of our sanctification and glorification when Jesus Christ comes again. Living by faith involves daily waiting upon Christ for all the provisions that only He can provide. We do not wait by passively doing nothing as time drifts by. God commands us to be active in pursuing His commands. If He says to forgive, we don’t wait to forgive others. We respond immediately. Likewise, if God commands us to serve one another, we don’t delay obeying His word. We pursue obedience.
But, even in these immediate responses, we still wait upon God for His strength and power to follow Him. We wait for Him to convey His blessing on our obedient actions. We act, waiting upon God. Waiting upon God is seen most clearly when we pray. We observe a problem or a need, cry out to God in prayer – and then we wait. God commands us to be persistent in prayer, so we continually petition Him – and wait and wait upon Him for His answer. This waiting on God is a great challenge to our faith, but we press on in hope that He will provide.
In this way, our faith is pleasing to God. We don’t stop praying and look in another direction for the answer. We have a living God – so there is nowhere else to go. So, once again, we wait only upon Him.
When we open our Bibles we find that this is the same way the saints of old lived out their faith. King David encourages the children of Israel, “Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have hoped (“waited”) for Thee” (Psalm 33:20-22).
