God Blesses Those Who Wait on Him

Sometimes we grow desperate. Our own humanity overwhelms us, and the Lord watches us in the struggle of the flesh between magnifying our own will and simply waiting for him to act so that the winds blow in our favor

. Jesus waited for the Father, even knowing beforehand that blood and suffering awaited him; he put his role as Redeemer of the world before the prospect of a cruel death. He waited for his disciples to mature and truly know him before ascending to the right hand of the Father; he waited for his own people to know him, but they despised and humiliated him; despite our rebellions, he waited patiently for you and me.

We Christians do not have hunches, but revelation. When you feel a sense of supernatural introspection, that is God trying to get your attention, wanting to speak to your soul and lead you into the spiritual realm. When he tells you to wait, wait, because in that waiting the best things for your life are still to come; trust him and seek the Lord’s voice in your heart to avoid bad decisions. Most of the setbacks Christians suffer happen because their impatience leads them to decide by human reasoning what God has already decided and wishes to reveal to them. There you have one of the benefits of—and reasons we need—to live in communion with God through a life of prayer.

David was a man after God’s own heart because of his complete communion with him. Apart from two terrible setbacks, the results of sorrowful decisions in his life, he knew how to delight in the Lord’s presence, even during the worst crises of his life. God was so deeply rooted in his soul (his mind, his will, and his decisions) that when David spoke to his soul, it seemed as though he were speaking to God himself. “Why are you in despair, my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Wait for God, for I shall praise him again. He is the salvation of my being, and my God!” (Ps 43:5) Underlining mine.

This is a powerful declaration by David. The salvation we have received from God moves us to praise him. Is waiting for him not a beautiful way to praise him? Then why be troubled and despair when we know full well that God is in control of our lives? Unless we have not enthroned him within our being…and here may lie our problem: in those “hidden” areas of our being that we have not yet surrendered to the Lord of Lords. But nothing remains hidden from our Creator.

There are many troubled and downcast Christians who do not know the blessing of waiting for the Lord and crash against the walls of despair and impatience. Impatience can become a spiritual labyrinth that, no matter how hard you try to find your way out, leads you to frustration and bitterness. God wants you to learn to wait for Him. In his constant dialogue with God, at times when human strength seemed to fail, David would say to his soul, “My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my hope comes from Him” (Ps 62:5—underlining mine). Confidence that God answers when we wait for Him should permeate our whole being until we praise him with all our heart. “For I wait for you, O Lord; you will answer, Lord my God.” (Ps 38:15)

What we have already heard from the pens of many applies here: believing in God or believing God. God blesses (answers) when we trust in his plans and set aside our own. The flesh, God’s enemy and the devil’s accomplice, tries to drag us into the whirlwind that despair produces. Despair often leads us to disobedience and to making gods of ourselves. But our Lord is a God of hope and desires to bless us: “And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13). God is telling you: Wait for me!

May God bless his Word!