Wait for the LORD;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.
- Psalm 27:14
Psalm 27 is called 'A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God' and throughout it, David both pleads and affirms God's trustworthiness. Then, at the end of his prayer of trust, David says these words to himself - and us. Qavah, the Hebrew word translated 'wait', speaks to the crucial tie between waiting and hoping and stands for us as an important lesson in prayer.
We finite, weak, uni-present beings have a hard time grasping the magnitude and perfection of God's plan, so we often pray with urgency and trembling. When God's answers are slower in coming, we often become impatient and wonder if God understands our sense of urgency. While He does understand it, He doesn't share it. God has never panicked or worried that He wasn't going to get there in time or do the right thing. God's omniscience (see "Treasured Knowledge") allows Him to know the right thing to do and the right time to do it at all times.
Our prayers can be urgent, for we must be honest before God, but our waiting must never be impatient. God's perfect timing must become sufficient for us, so our waiting must be hopeful, and patient. After all, if we learned to sit and wait on God more, who knows what He would teach us in the waiting?
Lord, I find myself almost speechless at the moment, but I ask You - albeit a little nervously - to teach me patience and the fruit of waiting on You. Make me a hopeful waiter with regards to Your perfect answers. Amen.
More questions! Thank you for taking the time to answer them so far, I realize they are a bit off from what your blog may be trying to accomplish!
ReplyDeleteThe concept of "waiting" on God to answer prayers does make sense in the broadest terms--that because of his "perfect timing" he will know, not humans, when to answer a prayer. However, this concept of "hoping" gets to me--afterall, when one hopes, doesn't one lack the knowledge of what will happen in the future, of who will help, what evets will take place. If in parying, you are hoping, does this mean that you do not know that God will answer?
Or is it more that in your prayer, you are hoping that you are able to be patient and maintain your sense of urgency--"keep it in check" so to speak?
Anonymous - I wish I had seen and answered this question before my LONG hiatus, but I hope my answer is still useful to you. Hope, in the biblical sense, is not unsure but completely sure. The Greek word for hope is also used for a ship's anchor - a grounding or mooring. When I speak of biblical hope it is the assurance that God has promised to hear, promised to answer, promised to provide exactly what we need, and He never breaks a promise. Hope is, in this way, what allows us to wait, because it reminds us that the answer will always be worth the wait and beyond what we could ever guess. Hope reminds us that God is good, and just, and loving, and wise. Hope is our anchor in the sea of waiting.
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