Waiting

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:17-20).

The other day I was listening to a song about "waiting on the Lord" with my friend. I began to think about what "waiting on the Lord" means.

When we have been praying over a dream--a job, a spouse, ministry opportunities--and we haven't received what we've asked for yet, we call that "waiting." And, honestly, most of us treat it the same way we treat waiting in the line at Wal-Mart. We feel like we're standing still, unable to move, our arms full of stuff, and our eyes full of the tempting shelves of lip gloss and candy bars that we shouldn't buy. We feel exasperated. We feel stuck.

But no one waits in a line without an end point, a line that goes nowhere. That would be crazy. We wait in lines because we are anticipating and expecting our needs to be met at the end. In fact, if we reached the DMV window and were suddenly told to turn around and go home, we would be more than a little angry.

The sad reality is that most of us trust our Wal-Mart cashier more than we trust God.

We are "heirs of the promise" of salvation in Jesus Christ. Yet we don't believe Him when He says He will meet our needs, or we don't trust Him to do so by the time we have appointed in our human thinking. We don't think He will do what we want or that we don't deserve it; so we beg or wager with Him. We feel like we're standing still, just like we stand in an earthly line, trying to entertain ourselves and growing steadily more resentful of our situation. We don't trust Him to deliver. We don't trust Him to "hold up His end of the deal."

But a relationship with the all-knowing Love Vortex of a Creator is not really a "deal." It's an eternal, steadfast hope...an "anchor of the soul," you might say. His ideas might disappoint your human preferences, but they will never disappoint your imagination or the longing for eternity inside you.

We often reduce the word "hope" to a wish..."Man, I hope it doesn't rain," or "I hope that works out for you," or, "We hope you're feeling better!" Using that word in our culture actually connotes that you believe the opposite of whatever you're saying is true. People say it with a shake of their heads or bitterness in their tones. Ironically, "hope," in our culture, is a word full of doubt.

But biblical hope is not a wish. It's an eager expectation. It's something you look forward to in anticipation because you know that it is coming.

My friends, we know that Jesus is good. We know that He loves us. We know our Father has plans for us. If we believe these things, we ought to expect Him to deliver.

And what he delivers is not warmed-over Asian food, a bag of socks, or a stick of gum. He delivers eternal love, security, and life.

I think I'd wait for that, wouldn't you?

But the best part is, we don't have to. He delivers those things every day, constantly, always--even as we're "waiting" for earthly blessings to come. When we are waiting for our dreams to come to pass, waiting for Him to "move," waiting for a word from Him that tells us to go or stop, we forget that we are not waiting for Him, but we are waiting with Him.

And with us is exactly where He wants to be. Even if we're in the check-out line at Wal-Mart, believe it or not.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).