Why Is Waiting on God So Important Yet So Difficult?
Focus on Who God Is
Waiting on God is important and it’s hard. Let’s start with why it’s hard. Waiting is just hard in general because it surfaces our lack of control. Whether it’s a delay or a lack of information or uncertainty, waiting puts us into a gap moment. And quite frankly, it reminds us that we’re human, that there are limitations. We’re not all-knowing. We’re not all-present. We’re not all-powerful.
So whenever we’re in a situation where we are required to wait, there’s a tension that’s a part of it. And here’s the thing: the Bible recognizes this tension. In Psalm 69 it says, “my eye grows dim while waiting for the Lord.” The Bible identifies that waiting is hard. It can be very difficult. And yet at the same time, there’s also a promise connected to waiting. There’s something really good in it. In fact, one of the words for “wait” is kavah, and the root of it means a chord that’s twisted and tense.
Waiting Isn't a Waste
Mark Vroegop
In Waiting Isn’t a Waste, author Mark Vroegop explores 6 characteristics of waiting, calling believers to lean on Christ when we are uncertain about our lives, but certain about God.
And so in the Bible, what’s interesting is that waiting, hope, and tension all go together. This idea that it’s hard is central to what waiting really is. That doesn’t mean that it’s bad; it just means that it’s an opportunity in that gap moment for God to fill that space.
So, why is it so important? It’s important because those hard moments are the moments when God can step in. There are promises about what it means to wait upon God. And what that means is when you don’t know what’s true about your life, you can focus on what you know is true about God. And that’s the moment that waiting presents—the opportunity to learn to live on what I know is true about God when I don’t know what’s true about my life.
There are a few examples of this in the Bible. Isaiah 40 is probably one of the most well-known passages as it relates to waiting upon the Lord. It says this, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” And then it says this, “Even youth shall faint and be weary. Young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.”
When you don’t know what’s true about your life, you can focus on what you know is true about God.
The idea is that because of who God is, when we don’t know what’s going on, we can reorient our hearts and minds, wait upon him, and be reminded what God is like.
So one of the ways that waiting can be transformed from something that’s just hard to something that’s hard and important is by shifting our focus from what I don’t know to what I do know about God. Waiting is commanded in the Bible. Listen to Psalm 27. The end of the psalm says this: “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.”
I love the idea of taking courage. The idea is receiving from the Lord what he wants to provide as we learn to trust in him, wait upon him, and rely on his goodness and grace. Now, this doesn’t mean that waiting is easy. I think waiting is always going to be hard because it’s a constant reminder that we are not as in control of our lives as we think we are. Waiting surfaces our inability to fully manage our lives. And yet that’s the whole point of the gospel in the first place—that God can intervene in our powerlessness. And so waiting is a reminder that we are in desperate need of God’s help throughout our entire lives.
Rather than jumping to other things that we might pursue to fill that canyon, like anger, anxiety, or apathy, the invitation from the Scriptures is to wait upon the Lord. Be reminded who he is. Fill the uncertainty with what you know to be true about God when you don’t know what’s true about your life.
Mark Vroegop is the author of Waiting Isn’t a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life.
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