Wait

Why do you say..."My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my just claim is passed over by my God"?

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

neither faints nor is weary.

There is no searching of His understanding.

Isaiah 40:27-28, NKJV

 

Ever wonder if God really knows where you are, if He even cares about your need?  Even those of greatest faith reach places of despair and doubt sometimes.  Job at the height of his troubles.  Moses in the wilderness with wayward rebels.  Elijah on the run from Jezebel.  Jonah in the whale.  John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul in prison.  They all questioned, "God, are you even there?!?  Can't you do something about my situation?"

 

I'm no giant of the faith, but I've served God faithfully for forty years, and there have been a few times, some even recently, where I have turned a heavy heart toward heaven and wondered, "Does God really care about me?"

 

During a heartbreaking season in my life, I sat in the dark, surrounded by a crowd and feeling absolutely alone.  My world was being turned upside down, my life was never going to be the same, and I believed there was no one to stand by my side.  That very night, God brought a brother into my life and has never left me alone.

 

During a time of desperate need, I cried out to God and asked, "Will you really provide my daily bread?"  Prompted by the Lord down the sidewalk to my mailbox and expecting a check that would solve all of my financial problems, I found a ham and cheese sandwich made just the way I like it, wrapped in a sandwich bag and flattened like it had been in the bottom of an angel's backpack.  But that day God showed me that He really would provide, and every time I start to worry about money, I simply remember the sandwich, and all the other things God has blessed me with.

 

During a period of change, I made a life-altering decision that resulted in a major reversal of what I thought was the plan of God.  Turns out THAT decision and THAT reversal were the keys to receiving everything I had been praying for, and I could almost hear God laughing in pleasure at my surprise.  I wish I had trusted Him enough to make that same decision twelve months earlier the first time He put it in front of me.

 

And now here we are.  A life with many needs and few resources.  Unprecedented (for us) challenges in child-rearing.  The daily burden of arduous labor in the fields of the Lord.  Sheep who aren't always easy to lead.  A world that is spinning increasingly toward catastrophe.  Threats of war, economic disaster, political upheaval, cultural chaos.  And some days I find myself on the edge of fear, wondering, "Am I hidden from God's sight?  Is He even hearing my prayers?"

 

But I am reassured by His Word and the presence of His Spirit in my life.  The everlasting almighty Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints nor grows weary, and I don't have to question His understanding.  He has brought me this far and never let me down; He will not start today.  I just need to wait and keep on walking.

 

He gives power to the weak,

and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

and the young men shall utterly fall,

but those who wait on 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 40:29-31, NKJV