But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. -- Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
I've long had an on-going debate in my head about the nature of this "waiting upon the Lord" business. On the one hand, when one considers that here you have the Lord, whose knowledge and timeline extend millions of light-years beyond my tiny blip on the scene, the contest to wait on Him seems incredibly one-sided. In the time it might take God to turn around my life could be over by hundreds of years. So, my imaginary skeptic says, "Sure, sure God would have you wait; wait until you're dead! Isn't it time to take control and just do it?" But, then taking control and working oneself to death trying to make a worthy life work brings inordinant tiredness and weariness to the point of fainting. I have had the experience of waiting for God to help, only to see the matters that stress me and for which I'm praying for God's help only creep progressively worse in the waiting. Is there not a limit to the amount of time one can wait?
A friend likes to throw in my face the "sage" advice of "Pray like everything depends on God, work like everything depends on you." Is working like everything depends on me the same as waiting on the Lord? I suppose there is too much of Maynard G. Krebs (the old Doby Gillis TV show) in me --"WORK??" What if the work is going in the wrong direction though? Well can not the Living God redeem whatever work you've done in the wrong direction and make it okay? Maybe, I think, sitting here waiting...
Prayer:
Lord, renew my strength for waiting and give me less subtle shoves to get where you want me to be. Amen.
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