Wait on the Lord

Psalm 27: 13 &14 

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord 

in the land of the living. 

Wait for the Lord; 

be strong, and let your heart take courage; 

wait for the Lord! 

Waiting for God’s goodness doesn’t always feel like helpful advice. When we are experiencing challenging life moments, such as loss. When a loved one is in the midst of a major medical crisis, we want action, not to be told to wait. When we look at the news and feel weighted down by all the negatives that are happening, it feels way too passive to wait. Hearing God’s time is not our time brings more frustration than hope because we want something to happen right now! This is how I sometimes have felt when like is really hard. Have you ever felt that way? 

Perhaps I feel this way because waiting and patience are not one of my strong character traits. I want to do something, anything, to make things better. I want God to fix things right now. I equate waiting with doing nothing. 

But waiting for the Lord is not a passive activity. Waiting doesn’t mean that we get to sit around and do nothing until God fixes the mess that we are in. Waiting for the Lord is an active and often challenging response to life. 

It is anticipating that God is already acting in this situation. It is celebrating every place we see the goodness of the Lord breaking forth. And, it is a reminder that we need to ask what can we do. Waiting is a call to work with God however we can in our particular situation, knowing God will give us the strength and courage we need. 

Sometimes this is a renewed call to prayer and surrender, trusting in God, because there is nothing more we can do. But most of the time it is a call to vision a new and better place and ask what can I do, with God’s help to lean into that vision. 

I think of the young person I knew who was struggling with cancer in the bone in his leg. Chemotherapy and radiation slowed the progression but finally there came the time when the doctor had to tell him and his family that the only option left was to remove his leg just below the knee. It was devastating news but as he waited for healing to take place, he was not passive. He loved to snow ski and he was determined to be on the slopes again. His grandmother told me how he researched how to make that happen. He reached out to others who had gone through similar health crises. He lived believing life was good, that God would give him the strength to go forward. The last I heard, he was again skiing. 

So, life can be better than it is right now. God is at work and we need to anticipate the good God is doing. We are also asked to be a part of that work open to God’s leading. 

Prayer:

Loving God, give us strength to actively wait on You. You are always working at making a new and good thing happen as we will just join our hearts and lives with yours. AMEN. 

This devotional was written by Bill Green and read by Joey Smith.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life. 

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org. 

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.