Waiting On God
“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
Waiting Is Hard
When my family moved back to Kankakee in 2022 from our haitus to Ohio, it seemed like all we were doing was waiting. We had reasons to move back, but we moved on what was basically blind faith. God had given us a runway of about two months to have a place to stay, an exciting opportunity, and a few amazing friends, but otherwise, we had no idea what would come next.
Waiting is hard, but it’s even harder when the odds start to stack up against you. It gets challenging to hold onto the promises of God when the realities of life seem to be getting in the way of what you need most.
Yet God knows the difficulty and complexity of every challenging situation we face. Waiting is only an invitation from God becasue life consists of starts and stops, wins and losses, progress and setbacks. Lamentations 3:25 is a comforting verse about trusting God, but it’s tucked in the middle of prayers of lament. Worry, frustration, and uncertainty surround the promise to wait on the Lord.
The same is true of other passages about waiting on God. Psalm 37 is one of my favorite psalms because of all the amazing promises of God’s faithfulness tucked within, but the premise of the psalm is: “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!” (Psalm 37:1).
At first, it might seem discouraging that so many of the sweetest promises in God’s word are really cries of blind faith amid difficult circumstances. Do we have to suffer in order to understand hope?
In some ways, the answer is yes. God forms his character in us through suffering—both in understanding the love and heart of Jesus and in refining the sinfulness within us. That’s one of the main reasons that James tells us to be joyful when we face trials (James 1:2-4). But I think something else is on display in these lament/hope companion passages.
A Clear Invitation
God doesn’t deny the reality of trouble. He doesn’t leave out the fact that humans can’t see into the future, struggle to give up control, and worry all the time. Instead, the word of God gives space for the honest place of human hearts. And in that uncertainty comes the clear invitation to wait on the Lord.
One of the most well-known verses about waiting is Isaiah 40:31 (ESV), which says: “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.” Have you ever experienced that?
Isaiah is showing us that waiting is not just about pausing. It’s about resetting the source of our hope and strength. That’s why Lamentations says, “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” It’s not that God is only good to people who seek him, but that when we wait and seek the Lord, we discover and step into God’s goodness.
As much as I hate the waiting, I can hardly think of a place where I’ve experienced more of God’s divine strength and goodness. Maybe you have had the same experience. Maybe you are at a point in your life where you can either keep pressing on in your own strength or you can stop and rest in God. You’re invited today to receive the goodness and strength of God simply by waiting on him and putting your trust in his presence and plans for your life.
Reflect
What keeps you from waiting on the Lord? How could you flip that barrier into an opportunity for God’s grace?
What areas of your life do you need God to move in? Get specific and bring those things to God. Spend a moment waiting on him, then go through your day looking for his strength and trusting him with the outcomes.
