Hope

Acting on the Waiting

Most of the time we associate waiting with inactivity. It’s a passive thing that we do in between the bouts of the “real stuff” of life. When we want to go on a ride at Disneyland, we wait. When we are hungry, we wait for the food to be prepared. When we eager for an answer, we wait until we receive it.

Scripture, however, makes it clear that waiting on the Lord is something proactive. When we don’t know where to go, we wait for Him to tell us. This isn’t downtime – this is time to reexamine whether our full trust is in Him. This is the time where we cast our burdens – a very active event – because we know He will sustain us. We give Him our cares and we take on His yoke because we know He loves us and His yoke is light.  This is where our strength is renewed, and through His strength we rise up as on eagle’s wings.

The reason all of this is true is because during our time of waiting, God is still working. Isaiah 64:4 makes this clear when it states:

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you,

who acts for those who wait for Him. (emphasis added.)

We’re waiting – God’s doing the work. He’s arranging details, aligning plans, and making provisions to give His children exactly what they need. He’s working things out for His intended purpose – for our good and His glory – even when it seems like nothing is happening at all.

And no one can do greater things than our God. So while we wait, we also hope  for we know He is good, He is mighty, and He has a plan.

How have you seen God work while you wait?

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Purpose

Defining the Race

Some people I know like to make comparisons (and predictions) about the trajectory God has for them:

  • “My mom had her kids by 30, so will I.”
  • “By the time that person was my age, they were already a vice president.”
  • “25 is the perfect age to get married, because that’s when all my friends did.”

It’s an intriguing thought process because we tend to be rather limited in what we compare. We pick one specific area and think that is the defining thing that determines how our life should also look. We rarely also want to take on the other person’s pains, trials, and inconveniences that may have led them to the point that they are at. We just want the outcome. And we judge the “quality” of our life, by the milestones that they’ve achieved.

However, our God is creative, and the same God who designs an unique sunset for every day, has a unique design for each of His children’s life. The overarching desire may be the same – that people would come to know and serve Him  – but the path that He prepares for us is as different as the snowflakes that fall from the sky. What He designs, what He engineers for one’s person’s life, is rarely the same as what He has planned for another.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to us if we are a student of Scripture. After all, the way that God uses Moses, is very different from the way He used Joseph. The former He called away from prestige, the other He called to it. He called Hosea to marry a prostitute to demonstrate His love for His people; He called Isaiah to walk around naked to demonstrate the shame His people would experience for abandoning Him. Peter He called to the Jews, Paul to the Gentiles. Each was used by God, each in His own way.

So we have to ask ourselves, when we feel like we’re running behind – like other people have gotten ahead of us in life –  whose race are we running?

Are we trying to run their race or are we running the one that God has set out for us?

And what are we running towards?

The prize that they’ve achieved or the one that God has in store for us?

Because if we aren’t careful, we’ll find that we weren’t running after God at all, but just the good things that He provided, the things that He graciously gave to someone else.

And we’ll miss the race He’s marked for us.

 

Are you ever tempted to run somebody else’s race? What encourages you to keep running the race that God has designed for you?

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