Not long ago, a group of us were talking about how difficult it is to wait—especially in traffic. It’s annoying when some guy in front of you goes 20 mph under the speed limit, and there’s no passing lane for miles! But I learned a fun trick from my sister. Instead of saying snarky things to other drivers (even while alone in the car), God challenged her to sing about it. Sometimes she makes up a blessing song for the other drivers, and other times she just sings out her frustration, like:
Why are you going so slow, so SLOW?
I wish to heaven you’d go, you’d GO!
I hope real soon you’ll get out of my way;
And as I go by I’ll wish you a nice day.
So long; so long…
And so forth. You get the idea. She says it makes her laugh at herself and relieves the tension. I’ve tried it, and it really works! And before I know it, they turn off or I’m calm enough to relax and enjoy the journey.
But what do we do when we’re waiting on God for an answer we really need? Financial help, healing, direction. We need an answer. Preferably now! Those are tense times which no made-up song can dispel. We need the One who moves mountains to move one for us.
We know from scripture that God will answer us in one of three ways:
Yes
No, I have something better
or Not Yet.
The person who wrote the following psalm did not diversify his prayer investment. He put all his eggs in one basket; all his money in one bank; all his bets on one horse. And he waited with anticipation and expectancy. He waited with hope!
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Ps. 130:5-6, emphasis mine
A night watchman knows the sun will come up eventually, and his shift will end. He watches the darkness fade and finally the sunrise appears when the world comes to life. Relief! He knows someone will come to take his post and he can go home to rest.
That was how this God-follower hoped in God. Every fiber of his being was focused on God, and nothing else. But notice, he didn’t just sit and do nothing while he waited. He continued doing what he knew to do—he stayed alert; he watched over those under his care; and he kept trusting help would come.
Here are two more verses about waiting that prompt me to do the same:
Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.
My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
Isa. 26:8-9
While walking…we wait. We don’t sit down with our head in our hands and wait for the answer to fall in our lap. We keep moving. We take the next step, and the next. We do what we know is right until God’s answer comes. We keep looking to Him, yearning for God’s presence and His will. And we press on in hope.
I love this song by Lincoln Brewster, “While I Wait.” The music and lyrics are filled with the hope we need, while we wait for God to bring the answers we seek.