Are you currently waiting on God for something? Do you find yourself pacing back and forth wondering when and how? You are not alone in that pace. Many await answers to current circumstances. The days are long and sometimes, the nights even longer.
Know that God sees you, that anxious tight-lip, and those hidden thoughts you wrestle with. Scripture speaks to this chronic heart condition we often wrestle with, “Hope delayed makes the heart sick.” (Proverbs 13:12) Yes, waiting can be gut-wrenching.
I remember when Charlie and I walked through an intense season of waiting for our prodigal daughter to return home. Our stomachs were in knots, our emotions a roller coaster and life was suddenly set in slow motion. Family pain is the deepest pain. We were uncertain when or how things would work out, but we grasped more tightly the hope that is confident in God, alone.
Hope is active
And it’s in these long intermissions that believers learn to live out the charge to pursue a confident hope until the very end (Hebrews 6:11). As this scripture reveals, hope is active. It isn’t a sit back, kick up your feet, and tap out of reality, just hoping things will work out. No, it engages life passionately. We make every effort to tighten our grip on the hope we have in Christ.
And this isn’t a grip on the wishy-washy hope placed in fickle people and things that change on a dime. No, the believer’s hope is founded on the finished work of the cross. It is the guaranteed promise of great things now and still to come. (Isaiah 51:11, Revelation 21:4) This is the hope that gives way to a patient, confident wait.
Hope focuses on the unseen
As our grips tighten, this hope will take our eyes past the immediate seen disappointment or dilemma, and move them to the unseen. Trusting that all that we go through is not without purpose. It is all working to prepare us for something far greater, “For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
We can anticipate the end of the story will be glorious. This active hope provides peace and strength when our hearts are weary from waiting. We are pilgrims moving towards a future glory with Christ that is worth so much more than every pain and heartache now.
And it was trusting in this truth, that gave Charlie and I wisdom to chart a course for us to run as we waited three very long years for our daughter to come home.
Hope remembers
And as we focused on the unseen promises of God, our hearts remembered how great and awesome our God is. As the classic hymn says, “we are prone to wander and prone to forget the God we love.” No believer sets out to drift away from the Lord, but it happens when our minds are consumed by something other than God. A season of waiting can do that. Your mind becomes consumed with the current circumstance, and you forget who you belong to and who your God is.
Instead, we can do as the psalmist, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” (Psalm 77:11) Remember, recall and celebrate the good things the Lord has done in your life, starting with salvation. If we place our hope anywhere else, our lives will reveal it quickly. We will be hopeless and frustrated.
So what are you currently waiting on? Pursue hope by actively focusing on the unseen and remembering who your God is. In doing so, that anxious tight-lip will relax into a woman smiling at the future. (Proverbs 31:30).
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