Quietly Waiting
“I wait quietly before the Lord, for my victory comes from him.” We spend a lot of time waiting, don’t we? Nearly every day we wait in line, wait in traffic, wait for our turn at something. There are times when the wait is longer, the wait is harder, the wait is even necessary. And in a world that constantly pushes instant gratification and demands immediate results, the art of waiting quietly is all but lost. Ironically, the word “quietly” is the word that spoke loudest to me when I read Psalm 62:1 a few days ago. And I was convicted by how poorly I do at waiting quietly before God. Because even when I’m waiting on good news and favorable results, my heart is anything but quiet. I tend to be more like Israel, whom God rebuked saying, “In quietness and trust shall be your strength, but you would have none of it.” (Isaiah 30:15) Ouch. But it’s true. I get restless with anticipation, jittery with nervous energy, dancing eagerly on the inside. Even though I appear well-composed on the outside, my heart often does not find strength in quietness and trust.
Can you relate? People are living in a variety of waiting rooms: some are waiting for clear direction on a career path, while others are waiting to meet and fall in love with the future spouse God has chosen for them. Some are anxiously awaiting a positive pregnancy test, while others are desperately waiting for the cancer screening to be negative. Some are waiting for an organ donor to enhance and prolong their lives, while others are waiting to see how God will use them to live beyond themselves. Some are waiting to fulfill a God-given passion and others are waiting to know just what this abundant life looks like in the real world.
In what waiting room does God have you right now? More importantly, how’s your heart handling the wait? Are you finding quietness and trust to be your strength, or will you have none of it? No matter what chair of the waiting room you are currently occupying, I challenge you to wait QUIETLY before God, trusting Him fully with every exciting and every scary detail, confident that while you’re waiting, He is working – not only working in you, but also working to bring the victory that can only come from Him. Let’s return to the Lord, receive rest in Him, and gain strength and perspective and calm as we wait in quietness and trust. In the ridiculously fast pace of this world and the intense volume it creates in our lives, together let’s rediscover the art of waiting quietly before the Lord.
