Wait “With” the Lord

Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

This little passage of scripture is framed and has sat on my desk for probably twenty-five years or more. But I am here to tell you that I never understood it until this past week. I always considered the passage a faith statement, that IF I will wait for God, then He will give me strength. Somehow I needed to mustard up patience, and hold myself back, and then God would act on my behalf.

But what I am experiencing is something very different. Something that does not involve faith, self-discipline, or even “waiting” in the traditional sense.

Before seeing this new truth the “waiting” was just some divine, necessary delay between today and me getting what I want. It was there to keep me from being spoiled, like a parent may cause a child to delay their gratification. But that is not it at all. I think to truly understand it, we must first be stripped of the wanting all together. That life is not about our desires, pleasure, and fulfillment; but rather is about loving God and having our character shaped into His image. When we understand this, we begin to understand what the prophet meant when he said, “those who wait for the Lord…”

Reality is that perhaps even the modern translators have this scripture wrong. According to my minor research the Hebrew word for “wait” as used in this scripture means also to “bind together.” So “those (who are bound together) with the Lord will gain new strength…”

Practically speaking I am in a place in my life that I have been to many times. Staring into what seems to be a clear vision of a blessed future, and yet for the first time I am not trying to run ahead. I am not “staying busy” while I “wait” on God. I do not have to stir up patience. I am not here combating anxiousness. But rather I am so clearly bound together with God, and He has paused. Therefore WE wait. Can you see the difference? The wait is not because I don't see God moving, or that He is trying to "teach me a lesson." The wait is simply because He stopped. And because I so enjoy His company, I stopped too. 

Does this ring true with your experience, even if only the running and wanting to get done in spite of God’s pause?

I cannot describe the peace and contentment I feel knowing that I am with God, and that He is doing nothing with me at the moment. He has paused on the mountain top to look at the valleys and mountains of the future. I can try to run ahead, or just the opposite be overwhelmed by the task of crossing such a great distance. But no, I am bound together with God, and we will go together in His perfect timing… on the wings of eagles, without becoming tired or weary.