Day 18: In the Waiting
Reading for Today
Lamentations 3:21-26
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Most if not all bible readers are familiar with this passage for verse 23, “great is thy (your) faithfulness and it’s accompanying hymn.
However, as with most verses, people have no idea of the context of the passage unless you are biblically nosey.
When I read this today, I got excited about what comes after His new mercies. Verse 24 says, “the Lord is my portion.” This reminded me of a verse in Psalms 16:5, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” We must make a perpetual decision to follow hard after God no matter what we are experiencing! We must make the choice to go His way, even when ours would seem easier.
The text goes on to say in verse 25 that, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.” Now this is a novel concept. We live in a society that preaches you have to go for what you want. No one but you can make it happen instead here, we see where God is teaching us quite the opposite. He says to us to wait on me. I will do it in my time. When you seek me, you will find me and I am faithful!
In the past few weeks, we have been giving our all going hard after God expecting him to move, and expecting him to show up. Which he really has but there are some answers we are still waiting on and those are the hard things. We have to remember that fasting is not a show pony trick. We don’t fast and automatically get all the things we want. Instead in our fast we experience something much greater, we experience the process of waiting on God.
In so many situations, we find it difficult to wait. I can be a very patient person in many ways, but in probably double the ways I can be impatient. This verse challenged me to take a step back and really think about what it means to wait. Wait is not a fixed verb, it's present, active, and continuing. When one is called by God to wait, it is not wait in the sense of idle action, but wait in the sense of doing something. More than anything in your wait you are expected to seek God in all His righteousness and understanding that by finding Him, you will inevitably find everything it is that you need.
In this season of waiting, I encourage you to seek God. Whatever "it" is that you need or are waiting on can only be truly fulfilling when it is gained through Christ. Remember that His will for you above all is what's best. What you're asking for, may not be for you in this season, and that's ok! That's the beauty of trusting God even his no or not yet is a blessing. A no right now, may in years become a resounding yes. No matter what it is, we must learn to trust His voice and heart above our own. We must know that His will for us is what's best for us even if it doesn't match what we think we want.
If you're waiting, you are not alone! Anybody who has ever desired anything from God has had to experience a waiting season! Trust Him and believe that He has your best interest at heart and it's working together in your favor!