Faith Waits - The Promise of Lent Devotional

Faith Waits

Read: Lamentations 3:25-30

It is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD.

Lamentations 3:26

FEW PEOPLE enjoy waiting. We want God’s blessings to unfold more quickly so we can enjoy them longer, direction to be given immediately so we can go ahead and make a decision, and conflict to be resolved so we can stop being uncomfortable about it. We’re in no hurry to get past the good things in life, but we want to get to them as soon as possible. And when we’re in need—when we have to wait for God to rescue us out of some predicament or solve some problem—the wait can be excruciating.

There are different kinds of waiting. Sometimes we wait because we have no choice; circumstances refuse to move as fast as we want them to, and we respond with anxiety, anger, or manipulation. At the other end of the spectrum, many of us decide there’s nothing we can do, and we try to put things out of our mind until they unfold—with no anticipation or participation on our part. To observers, these responses may look like patience, but they aren’t. We defer to God’s timeline because we have no control over it, though we would take control if we could.

Waiting in faith is different. It is active in anticipation and responsive to God’s leading, never pushy or anxious. To some it may look like patience, to others like passivity. But it’s really the perfect balance, expecting God to reveal his goodness and partnering with him by faith. Waiting on God is an exercise in trust.

This exercise may stretch us well beyond our comfort level, like when we need to make a decision and guidance is slow in coming, or when circumstances are critical yet God seems slow to intervene. We live much of our lives in the tension between our need and his provision for it. But that’s the point: Those who take matters into their own hands or give up do not trust God; those who wait for him do.

Jesus’ followers didn’t know they were waiting for a resurrection; they simply thought their hopes had ended tragically. But we’ve seen the empty tomb, and we know God does his best work when the world has done its worst. His intervention in our lives may seem slow, but it is coming. It comes most powerfully to those who live with anticipation of the morning’s new mercies, even in the darkest night.

PRAYER

Father, help me live with the kind of patience that expects your provision to come. I choose to anticipate your goodness, your miracles, and your touch. May my faith honor your willingness to give. Amen.

REFLECTION

How does waiting in anticipation of God’s goodness honor him? In what circumstances does it stretch our faith?