To Love the Lord is to Wait on Him
“But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” ”
Paul presents a fresh look at Isaiah’s description of waiting on the Lord. He equates ‘waiting on’ the Lord as the same thing as ‘loving’ the Lord. How many of us, when asked how we can demonstrate that we ‘love’ the Lord, would immediately respond that we ‘wait’ for Him? It’s profoundly significant that the apostle Paul considered them one and the same. Obviously, he considered a lifestyle of contemplative attentive waiting on God as a supreme demonstration of our love toward God. So why is ‘waiting’ on the Lord such a critically important habit of the mature believer?
A mentor once said that “the will of God is often easier to understand, than His timing”. To get that, we must wait in His Presence. The synchronization of our internal clocks to eternity transpires as we wait. We become aware of the vast "nowness" of God. His graceful unflappable demeanor is imparted to us as we marinate in His peace and His imperturbable Sovereignty. The immediate clamor of external circumstance is jettisoned as their incessantly urgent demands for our attention gets silenced. Our ‘timetables’ expand into eternity's perspective. No longer are anxiety, fear, impatience or discontent able to dominate and invade all my waking thoughts. I become distracted by the disproportionally massive Presence of God. Waiting on God calibrates my environment regardless of the circumstances, into a place of tranquility, joy and patience.
So much of our impatience results from the inverse of waiting on God: waiting on the world, ourselves or even others. Transference of His Character and distribution of His gifts results from abiding in His Presence which requires disciplined focus on the Lord, His Word, and the Holy Spirit. It bears the attentiveness of a hunter awaiting his prey. It bears the passion of a lover anticipating the return of his lover. This is God's process. It's an initial step. It is an essential step. It is a step that must be frequently returned to in our lives for a healthy spiritual lifestyle. It becomes a spiritual habit and discipline we understand and from which we never depart.
When we don't wait on the Lord the heart allows pride, arrogance, impatience, haste, and temperamental fits. A general atmospheric hum of low voyage anxiety, and anger emanates around us in our private self. This hum is like a warning beacon to those around you like a flashing sign saying, "step back from the car". We become unapproachable, testy, and reactive. Our self-love then becomes thin as we move from God's acceptance of us, to a performance-based mentality. Waiting on the Lord is like oxygen to an air-deprived fire fighter; water to a desert refugee. When we access heaven’s gates by waiting on the Lord, relief floods our being. We are satisfied. Then an exquisite exchange takes places. My stuff or His. (Isaiah 40:31). My feeble strength for a strength that will not dissipate. One discovers newfound capabilities that are impossible otherwise to accomplish. Practicing active waiting on God is one of the advanced disciplines in spiritual sustainability.
“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him. ”
