How to Wait Upon the Lord
I hate waiting rooms, don’t you? Sometimes waiting, even waiting on God can be frustrating. Have you asked the question during hard times, “where is God in all of this?” I know I have. When your prayers fall inert at your feet, and the heavens seem as brass, we often ask such unanswerable questions. Then we seek out our friends and those around us for comfort, and they tell us, “wait upon the Lord…” As with many such platitudes, we assume we know what that means – to wait upon the Lord – or do we? Does waiting on the Lord imply passively sitting by expecting something to happen?
In Luke 17:20, Jesus said that the kingdom doesn’t come with observation. That word observation in this verse is a Greek word meaning “ocular evidence.” In other words – keep waiting on God until you see something happening. Is that what we are supposed to do when we are “waiting on the Lord?” Thomas did that, and he didn’t distinguish himself in so doing.
What does it mean then to “wait upon the Lord?” Isaiah speaking by the spirit of prophecy, gives us an idea:
Isaiah 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
According to the verse above, waiting on the Lord is something we do from a particular place called “the way of [God’s] judgments.” Let’s give an example. If you are sitting on your couch and someone asks what you are doing, they would think you were silly if you said, “I’m waiting on the bus…” No, you aren’t waiting on the bus; you are sitting on your couch. Are you a couch potato Christian? The only way to wait on the bus is to go to the bus stop or the bus station, yes?
The same is true about waiting on the Lord. If you are going to wait on the Lord, as Isaiah suggests in Isa. 26:8 you must go to the place called the “way of [God’s] judgments…” Where is that? It is called being spiritually located in Christ. The phrase “way of thy judgments” interprets as “the manner of thy verdicts…” How does that apply, or how can we align ourselves with that statement? The answer is crucial because you aren’t waiting on God unless you do so. You can sing all those cute little worship or praise songs about waiting on the Lord, but as in the case of waiting for the bus, if you aren’t in the right place at the right time, you aren’t doing anything helpful.
How then do you find that place Isaiah calls the “manner of God’s verdicts?” The answer is simple:
If you are sick – God’s verdict is you WERE healed (1 Peter. 2:24).
If you are bound – God’s verdict is you are free (2 Cor. 3:17).
If you are impoverished – God’s verdict is (2 Cor. 8:9).
If you are rejected – God’s verdict is you are accepted (Eph. 1:6).
Are you waiting on the Lord? Are you accepting and clinging to what God says about you and your situation, or are you accepting what the problem says about what is going on around you? You can answer that question by examining your emotional well being. If you are troubled, depressed, defeated, anguish, or anxious, then a change is needed. The emotions respond to what the mind is focused on. Change your focus. God gave us the word of His promise for just that reason – as a tool to come out of fear and get into faith. Then you are waiting on the Lord, and things will shift:
[Isa 40:31 KJV] 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.
Are you ready to renew your strength? Are you ready to mount up with wings as eagles? It doesn’t happen by passively sitting by “waiting on God to do His part…” He’s already done all He is ever going to do. It’s up to you to align your mind-share with what He has said in His Word, and out of that saturation of God’s word in your inner man, the answers and the deliverance you need will come forth.
