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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Courage in Waiting

Psalms 27:14
Wait on the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait thou on the Lord.

  “Be strong and of good courage.” – These words are often used to encourage hurting souls that are facing some great task or trial.  Is waiting on the Lord something so difficult to do, that we need to be reminded to be strong and to let our heart take courage? Absolutely!

When our soul eyes are open to the pain and suffering surrounding us, and we yearn to “do” something about it, yet God is calling us to wait, to sit at His feet in silence and simply wait. Really?!  That takes strength.  To rest in His presence and listen, while we are in the midst of suffering, injustice, or some trial.  Something within us just wants to take action and start fixing the problem or fight the injustice, or alleviate the pain.

And we also have the tendency to do this in our prayer life.  When we start to pray, we jump right in asking Him to fix this or take care of that.  It takes courage to be in the midst of the battle going around us and to wait on the Lord.  To be still, to listen, to wait. We can exhaust ourselves by feeling like we need to say all the right things, and ask Him to fix this situation and change this or that, and to not forget to pray for all the people on our mental list.  In going about prayer this way, we are relying on our own strength and our own thoughts.  Be still before Him, listen to what He wants You to pray for or about.

And we who are so unaccustomed to waiting in general as our culture is not one that likes to wait, are also unfamiliar with how to wait on the Lord.  We are tempted to fear that we are not doing it right, that our faith is too weak, or our desire is not strong enough.  We don’t feel like our prayers are making a difference.  Remember, we are not waiting on ourselves, how we feel, we are waiting on God.

So, be strong as you rest in Him, take courage as you sit at His feet in the midst of the chaos.  He is God, the One we wait on.

Chaos
Chaos all around
Assaulting all my senses.
This is not the way it’s supposed to be,
I don’t like it.
 
Hurting souls surround.
I hear their silent weeping.
Head tilts up to You, my questioning eyes plead,
I don’t like it.
 
Gentle whisper heard,
“There is healing in the waiting.”
Waiting, waiting, feels so useless waiting.
I don’t like it.
 
But trust in You, I shall.
Letting go the need for understanding.
Trusting while I wait in chaos, even though,
I don’t like it.

Father,
Give us Your strength.  May we take courage in the waiting.  May we rest in You.  And as we do so, draw us closer to You.  May we not rely on our own feelings, and our need to understand how and what to pray for, but may we simply and faithfully come to You each day.  Let us be still, let us listen. In Jesus Name, Amen
 
- Sue Parrott

1 comment:

  1. Sue - Thank you for this post. I said this prayer in my head at work. It brought me comfort! Thank you

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