Sometimes we feel like we need to wait on others, we need to wait on time, we need to wait on our education, a relationship, to begin a family, or to just grow up. Sometimes, we have to wait on a dream, or to wait on achieving a goal because of other obligations, conflicts, or commitments. It's hard to wait on something we want because our impatience does not want to wait on anything.
This song is all about waiting. It's my song for the year as it reflects the difficulty of the past two years where we've been forced to wait on a pandemic to end, wait on schools to reopen, and wait on the economy to return to pre-pandemic conditions. In addition to all the things we still wait on, I know we must also wait on God.
When we are going through troubling times, we can want to run through the problems and get to the other side where we hope we can find rest. Sometimes when we do this, we do not pause long enough to learn the lessons, and we end up running through the same problems over and over again. I believe this is why God answers prayers in 3 ways: Yes, No, and Wait. We want all our requests to be answered in the positive (yes), but sometimes those are not requests that would benefit us, so God says "No." It's only later that we breathe a sigh of relief for avoiding a bad decision, not stepping into a bad relationship, or making a large purchase that we didn't really need. But it's the hard prayers that make us wait. They are the cancer diagnosis that doesn't look hopeful. It's the mortgage payment that can't get paid. It's the high-risk pregnancy that seems to take forever, and it's the fears that drive our everyday struggles that never seem to end. The scriptures teach us we need to be patient, but when we pray, we need to pray as if the gift has already been given, the answer has been received, the petition has been granted, and even if the answer is "no" we can be grateful that we have a God who loves us and who we are eager to wait on.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6 (NIV)