God’s strength training: Wait on the Lord
You may have thought from my last post, On Being Still, that I mean we should become do-nothings—that we should stop in our tracks and not make a move, like people I’ve heard about who won’t get out of bed unless God tells them.
That is extreme and it may be hearsay; it is not what I mean. Being still is close to another activity in the Bible that will keep us balanced: Wait.
Wait occurs about 100 times in scripture, depending on your translation, but two particular passages catch my attention because they connect waiting with strength.
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. —Psalm 27: 14
“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength…”—Isaiah 40:31
Let’s look at these verses in two ways.
- The connection between waiting and strength;
- What the word wait conveys.
How resistance connects waiting with strength
We don’t like to wait, especially in this age of nanosecond responses. A traffic light turns green and the horns start. Customer service plays recordings to quell our impatience, “Your call is important…” A web page slogs and my fingers start to hammer the keyboard.
Waiting takes everything we have to resist road rage, hanging up, or spewing searing words. This resistance to doing what comes naturally is what builds strength. Strength trainers know this; they employ exercises that use resistance to build muscle.
The psalmist and Isaiah knew this, too. They understood that by waiting, we resist whatever keeps us from waiting—we push against impulses and temptations to forge ahead.
Resist and grow stronger: This principle undergirds our physical wellbeing. It also sustains our spiritual welfare: Wait and be strong in the Lord. When you insist on getting with Jesus and resist whatever hinders, you are waiting on the Lord.
This means that waiting, like being still, takes effort. Resist giving in; resist giving up. Hold fast, and not only the waiting, but the Lord Himself will strengthen you.
Rope unravels the mystery of waiting
David and Isaiah wrote “wait upon the Lord” years apart from each other, yet they used the same word. The Hebrew is picturesque, depicting action that binds together, such as twisting fibers into a rope. By itself, a strand is apt to break. Twisting it with others adds strength beyond its own.
When we wait on the Lord, David and Isaiah propose that we are binding ourselves to Him—wrapping ourselves in the Lord, as it were—and we acquire a strength that is not our own. His strength becomes ours.
This reinforces that waiting is work. We do not sit on our hands but use them, expecting what we bring together will be stronger than the original and useful in new ways.
Therefore, how differently we live when we are wrapped up in the Lord and not in ourselves.
How do we do this? Let’s watch four who waited, then see what they teach us.
She waited 10 years for God to visit
In the story of Ruth, Naomi waited twice, the first time for 10 years to hear good news from home. We meet her in a foreign country, driven from Israel by famine, and in her sojourn her husband and both sons die. Widowed and immersed in an ungodly culture, Naomi heads home upon hearing the “Lord had visited His people,” but the years and losses took their toll.
She rebuffed those who welcomed her, “Do not call me Naomi (pleasant). Call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20).
Her second wait was shorter, when she and Ruth, her daughter-in-law, prevailed upon Boaz to act as their redeemer. The years away from home and lack of children to support her had bankrupted Naomi, and she taught Ruth the intricacies of Israel’s law of redemption. When they had done all they could, the elder woman told the younger, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out…” (Ruth 3:18).
She endured an 18-year handicap
Luke tells about a woman Jesus met in a synagogue who stood out because she couldn’t stand up (Luke 13:10-17). A physician himself, Luke diagnosed her as having no strength to straighten, hence her severe stoop. She was afflicted 18 years and probably had abandoned hope for healing long ago.
Yet, we find her in God’s house, on God’s day, with God’s people, attending the service. How many Sabbaths had she come? How many times had she endured the slurs of the Accuser, “Why bother? What has God done for you? How long will you come here and subject yourself to the stares? You haven’t stood in years, and you never will. Give it up.”
She waited on the Lord, nonetheless, which put her there the day Jesus came.
Simeon waited and cradled the Messiah
The times in Israel were distressing.
The gods of Rome prevailed, as proven by the Roman soldiers who roamed the empire; the God of Israel was silent: He had sent no prophet in 400 years, since Malachi; their civil ruler, King Herod, was corrupt; their religious rulers were hypocritical.
In the midst of this, Simeon awaited the day God had foretold, the Consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25). Simeon knew he would live to see it (God promised this to him, 2:26), although he didn’t know when. Meanwhile, Luke does tell us how he spent his days.
Simeon was just, which means he was equitable, someone who practiced justice and treated others fairly. He was also devout, which goes beyond being deeply religious. The Greek indicates he was circumspect: He surveyed his world, weighed what he saw, and had a good handle on life.
He had been waiting a lifetime when Mary and Joseph came to the temple with their newborn, Jesus, and Simeon, prompted by the Holy Spirit, also appeared. Holding the baby, Simeon knew his wait was over. “My eyes have seen Your salvation” (2:30).
Jesus waited while He grew up
Finally, we could observe many times when Jesus waited, but one concerns a woman we have already considered (Luke 13). About the same time that weakness overran her body, Jesus was in the temple as a 12-year-old, astonishing the teachers with his questions and answers (Luke 2:41-49).
Even this young, Jesus was about His Father’s business, confirming what He said later, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17). Imagine, then, the desire of this 12-year-old to get on with His Father’s work of giving life, of healing, of proclaiming the gospel, of gathering His people who languished like scattered sheep.
Here was Jesus in Jerusalem doing God’s work, and elsewhere in Israel was a woman whom Satan was binding with infirmity (Luke 13:16). Jesus didn’t stop His adversary then; it wasn’t time. Rather, He returned home with His parents. He still needed to “increase in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (2:52).
The woman and Jesus waited 18 years.
4 lessons about waiting
So many others also waited, but these four can help us grasp what God has in mind when He tells us through David and Isaiah, “Wait on the Lord.”
Do the duties of daily life as you wait. Whether it was Naomi eking out a living in Moab for 10 years, the woman attending synagogue Sabbath after Sabbath for 18 years, Simeon lingering in Jerusalem, or Jesus growing up—these all fulfilled the demands of daily life. They didn’t lapse into languishing. Oswald Chambers says it well, “Do the next thing.”1
Waiting doesn’t mean wilting. This is like the first point but emphasizes it. None of these were idle; none retreated into the shadows. They remained engaged. Even when it seemed God was doing nothing, they did something. They went on living, strengthened even as the waiting lengthened.
The Apostle Paul encountered some in the Thessalonian church who withdrew from daily responsibility and reprimanded them. “Some walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies… We command and exhort that they work in quietness” (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12).
Wait, until. Waiting invariably begs the question, “How long?” and becomes the time when temptation presses hard, “Give it up!” We see this with Jesus in the wilderness when He waited on His Father to break His 40-day fast. Be aware of this scheme: Satan comes in our waiting, seeking to pry us from the God we wait upon.
How long to wait? Until. Naomi waited until news arrived of the return of God and food to Israel. Simeon waited until he beheld the Messiah, then said “now let your servant depart in peace” (2:29). Jesus worked at carpentry until the Spirit moved Him to the Jordan and the wilderness to begin His ministry. Do the next thing, until God directs otherwise.
Don’t give up on God. Naomi amazes me. The grind of life wore her to the point she changed her name from Pleasant One to Mara—Bitter—because the Almighty had treated her harshly. Yet, hear again the words of her daughter-in-law when Naomi left for Israel. Ruth said, “Don’t ask me to leave you!…Your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16).
Life had driven Naomi from home, had taken her husband and sons and everything pleasant. Despite her hardship, Naomi didn’t let her bitterness blind Ruth to God’s beauty. She retained a confidence in God that attracted her daughter-in-law, and Ruth came to esteem the God of Israel above her gods.
Wait upon God, He waits upon you
Waiting on the Lord may be the time when temptation and impulses to forsake Him slink nearby, but we learn from Naomi and the others, “Hold fast.” The Lord we wait upon has promised to strengthen us; He will not forsake us.
“Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.” —Micah 7:7
As you read this, others who have waited on the Lord, and other lessons, may have come to mind. Please leave a comment and tell us about it.
1. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, February 18.