Waiting

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. — Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

Tom Petty sang, “The waaaaaaaiting is the hardest part.”  When we pray, as David prayed in Psalm 5, we may find it difficult to wait upon the Lord to reveal His will or act upon our requests.  David was waiting for God to do something.  In verse 1 he wrote, “Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my sighing.”  In verse 2 he said, “Listen to my cry for help…”.  David had a problem.  He was sighing and crying to God to help him.  So David prayed.  He placed his requests at the feet of the Father and waited.

As Americans, we hate to wait.  For anything.  Yet we spend so much time waiting.  We wait in line at the bank.  We wait for test results.  We wait in long lines to ride roller coasters.  We wait in traffic.  We wait on hold with customer service.  We wait and wait and wait.  Then we wait some more.  It doesn’t make us any less impatient, though.  We are an impatient people.  We do not like to suffer as we wait.  I get frustrated when I have to add 30 seconds to the microwave to finish heating up my ravioli.  The problem is that our impatience is no less when waiting for God to answer prayer.

My prayer today is that God would help us wait upon Him.  That we would not give up on prayer because God, in our estimation, doesn’t seem to move fast enough.  That we would be patient and endure whatever trial we are going through.  May God give us the strength to endure it and the patience to wait.  May we wait in expectation, knowing that the God who loved us enough to send His Son, loves us enough to answer our prayers with our best interests in mind.

PRAYER: Father God, help me to be more patient as I wait upon You today. I don’t know what You’re up to, but I know it is for my best. Help me to trust You to do what is best and to work everything out for my good. Amen.