Waiting
requires patience
beyond my expectations
As stated in the previous post that introduced Waiting Isn't a Waste, I shared that during this season of Lent I have things I am waiting for in relation to my life, my health, my family, Emmaus City, and more. And when I am not responding well in the waiting, I can be tempted to react with anger, anxiety, or apathy (or all three).
In the midst of my desire to become a better man, husband, father, friend, neighbor, and pastor in relation to waiting, I am learning from people like Andrew Murray, Betsy Childs Howard, Eugene Peterson, and Mark Vroegop in his thoughtful little book, Waiting Isn't a Waste. For a teaser of more wisdom I have found inside Vroegop's words, here's an excerpt from Chapter 4: (Waiting) Patiently.
Waiting with Psalm 40
Psalm 40 is one of the most familiar Bible passages on waiting. Some of us heard it for the first time through song "40" by U2.
To understand this psalm and how it helps us with waiting, we need to start at the end. We don't know the circumstances pertaining to why Psalm 40 was written, but a survey of verses 12-17 reveals David expressing concern for:
+ overwhelming problems
+ personal failures
+ a deeply discouraged heart
+ being attacked
+ people delighting in his pain
+ being poor and needy
Yet, the finale of the last verse (17b) says, "You are my help and my Deliverer; do not delay, O my God." How did he get there?
Redefining Patience
Let's start by changing how we think about the word patience. The psalm begins by looking backward. The first verse is probably the most well-known of the entire psalm: "I waited patiently for the LORD" (Psalm 40:1). But in the Hebrew, the word patiently is missing. David merely repeated the word qavah ("wait") twice. This led Eugene Peterson to paraphrase Psalm 40:1 this way:
"I waited and waited
and waited for God."
(MSG)
Patience starts by
simply waiting more
than what I've wanted
or expected.
Waiting patiently
embraces the uncomfortable
addition of more time.
What if patience
simply means to not quit
or give in?
The most common Greek word
(makrothumia)
refers to "a state of
emotional calm in the face of
provocation or misfortune
and without complaint or
irritation."
The definition emphasizes
what is present
(emotional calm)
and what is absent
(complaint or irritation).
"Patience" is
"Patience" is
"to keep one's heart from jumping"
or
"to have a waiting heart."
"to have a waiting heart."
Patience is formed
by letting go of
what I thought was going to be true
about my life.
We can also look back to how the word patience was used five hundred years ago. If you are familiar with the King James Bible (1611), the old English word for patience was longsuffering. This word captures our experiences in hardships, and it gives us a more tangible goal. Longsuffering simply means to suffer longer. "Longer than what?" Longer than we expect. "I waited and waited and waited for the Lord."
Mapping God's Faithfulness
When we read Psalm 40, most of the verses reflect on the past. Even though the circumstances that led to its writing were intense and urgent, David emphasizes God's past help in waiting. He's not just remembering. He's memorializing God's previous deliverance.
Christian discipleship is a process
of paying more and more
attention to God's righteousness
and less and less attention
to our own;
finding the meaning of our lives
not by probing our moods
and motives and morals
but by believing in God's will
and purposes;
making a map of the
faithfulness of God,
not charting the rise and fall
of our enthusiasm.
It is out of such a reality
that we acquire perseverance.
+ Eugene Peterson
Mapping God's faithfulness
fuels waiting patiently.
The intensity of waiting tends to create forgetfulness. Fear, anxiety, and impatience cause us to act out of unbelief. Perhaps it would be helpful for you to pause right now and map God's faithfulness in your past. Think about a scenario where you waited longer than you expected, but where you also experienced God's provision and help.
Pray Imaginatively
It's not a violation of patience to pray with faith-filled imagination regarding what you desire God to do. Sometimes I confuse patience with resigned acceptance. But patient waiting is not fatalistic or pessimistic. It's the hopeful commitment to seek God's help creatively and faithfully while staying put.
and look for promises,
assurances, or
faith-filled statements.
Make them your own.
Talk to God about them
as true as they really are.
Bring the promises
into your life.
Imagine yourself years
in the future
with a hard season
behind you.
What do you hope
will be true of you?
Dream about
what kind of person
you'll be because
of the lessons learned.
It's easy to spend
a lot of time thinking
about what isn't happening.
But patient waiting embraces
what could happen in us
more than what's
happening to us.
Patient waiting
looks away from circumstances
to the hopeful possibility of
God's gracious intervention.
Instead of dreaming about what you could be doing instead of waiting, or how much better your life would be without this challenge, use your imagination to fuel your faith.
Name Your Expectations
Expectations can remain in the background while exerting significant emotional influence on us because they are often connected to hopes, desires, and dreams.
Naming your expectations is the practice of simply bringing to the surface what you are thinking and feeling, acknowledging the disappointment and specifically identifying the length of time originally anticipated. It takes something inherently emotional and provides a way of looking at it rationally.
Sometimes the length of time I've been waiting is unusually or surprisingly long. However, it's also true that my disappointment makes the waiting feel longer or more unusual than it should. Impatience and expectations tend to be unhelpful collaborators.
Embrace the Tension
When you begin to see the spiritual opportunity in the tension of waiting, this is where mapping God's historical faithfulness can be helpful. By memorializing the past, we can observe how seasons of waiting were used by God for our development and growth. No doubt these times were challenging, and they may have felt pointless in the moment, but with the benefit of time we can see what God's gracious intervention provided.
One of the key steps
One of the key steps
in cultivating patience is
embracing the tension
as something good and helpful
even though it's uncomfortable.
It seems to me that we often,
sulkily, reject the good
that God offers us because,
at the moment,
we expected some other good.
+ C.S. Lewis
Patience is created as
we value what God is doing
in our life through the tension.
Patience is formed
by embracing
the tension of waiting.
Consider praying the following: "Lord, remind me that You are working while I'm waiting. Jesus, I'm trusting that this tension is creating long-lasting fruit in my life. Father, I'm releasing my right to know when this is going to end. Holy Spirit, I'm believing that in waiting there's a promise of strength."
In Psalm 40, embracing the tension sounds like this: "I am poor and needy, but the LORD takes thought for me" (Psalm 40:17).
Practice Daily Waiting
Our private and public prayer
are our chief expression of
our relation to God:
it is in them chiefly
that our waiting upon God
must be exercised ...
Bow quietly before God,
just to remember and realize
who He is,
how near He is,
how certainly He can
and will help.
Just be still before Him
and allow His Holy Spirit
to waken and stir up in your soul
the child-like disposition
of absolute dependence
and confidence expectation.
Wait upon God as a Living Being,
as the Living God,
who notices you, and
is just longing to fill you
with His salvation.
+ Andrew Murray
Focus
+ Find a quiet place to pray
+ Light candle, remember God is near
+ Spend minutes in silent reflection
+ Focus my mind, slow my heart
+ Embrace this moment
Adore
+ Recite "Lord, You are" verses
+ Meditate on what is true
+ Praise God for who He is
Seek
+ Look for promises in Scripture
+ Allow the Spirit to speak
+ Review the day ahead
+ Anticipate waiting on the Lord
Trust
+ Affirm need for Lord's help
+ Express hopeful trust to God
+ Pray "You are going to help me"
This practice above could be brief and last just a few minutes. In God's presence, allow the assurance of His help to wash over you, calm your anxiety, and bring rest to your soul.
A prayer walk can also be helpful to shift your focus. By engaging your body, you may be able to slow down, focus your prayers, and intentionally meditate. Hurry and worry tend to go together. Look at your calendar and commit your activities to the Lord, praying about situations in which you'll need to wait on Him.
They who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up
with wings like eagles;
they shall run
and not be weary;
they shall walk
and not faint.
+ Isaiah 40:31
+ Isaiah 40:31
With waiting and hope,
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