WAIT FOR YAHWEH

Psalm 37:34-36
34 Wait for Yahweh, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. 35 I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. 36 But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found. (WEB)

In today's Bible passage, there is a wonderful promise... Wait for the Lord and keep His way and He will exalt you to inherit the land. But how long are we supposed to wait? I think the short answer is... As long as it takes. I don't know about you, but I have had times where I have felt like I was waiting for an eternity for things to come to pass. Now I know that this is a bit of an exaggeration, but my point is that waiting is not always easy.

The very act of waiting and the pressure it creates can almost make time slow down. For example, have you ever been at a red light waiting for it to turn green and it seems like it is taking forever to change? Each second of waiting can feel like a minute! Or have you ever listened to a speaker who likes to pause in between thoughts when they preach? If we are not comfortable with the silence that is created, these few second pauses can feel like they are lasting a long time!

My point is that while waiting for a red light can be difficult, how much more difficult is it for us to live our lives in a continual posture of waiting on the Lord? Yet it is in the very process of waiting that our faith is refined. My prayer for all of us today is that we would be able to find the peace that passes our understanding in the midst of our times of waiting.

No matter how long we have to wait, may we all be encouraged to know that our Father always keeps His promises! Those that wait on the Lord WILL inherit the land! Since God knows the end from the beginning, He knows how our life story is going to end... WE ALL WIN!

No matter how reassuring it is to know that we will eventually win, we still have to live with the tension of getting from today to the ultimate fulfillment of all His promises... and that is where the waiting comes in. May our Father give us the grace that we need and the peace to calm even the most anxious heart so that we can learn to embrace a lifestyle of waiting on Him.

Isaiah 40:30-31
30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; 31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint. (WEB)