Wait on the Lord

Waiting isn't one of my favorite things to do. I doubt if anyone really enjoys waiting, do they? Yet, waiting is our "assignment" this week from our pastor--to be still and spend 30 minutes alone with God. It has been written, "To wait on the Lord is to stop all activity, quiet yourself, and focus your attention on Him."

Oh boy, stop all activity? Quiet myself? Focus on Him? For THIRTY MINUTES??
That is going to be a tough one!

I am always doing something. Productive or not, it's "something". I spend a lot of my day trying to figure out what to do next or how to multi-task better. Always trying to save time so I can have "free time" to do something fun with my kids or read a book, surf the net, whatever. (I was going to include "have an uninterrupted conversation with my husband", but it's football season so that's not a realistic goal at this time.) Then at the end of the day, I generally look back and say to myself, "Geez, I didn't get as much done today as I should have" or "What exactly did I accomplish today?" So this "stopping all activity" and "quieting myself" stuff is not exactly my forte`.

But God wants less of that and more of my attention. He didn't create people to just look at them and play with them like Barbie dolls. He wants a relationship with us; He gave us a free will so we wouldn't be robots, but that we would have the choice to relate back to Him. I keep telling my kids, "God hard-wired us to want to know Him better." And so I read my Bible, I read my devotions, I pray every morning--I am trying to get to know Him better.

There's one area I keep messing up on, though. The waiting. The "be still and know that I am God" part. The listening for His response. He gave us the Holy Spirit, and sometimes I don't really quiet myself enough to feel the Spirit nudging me. If you didn't know it by now, I am Type A and like to make the first move. (Just ask my husband how difficult it is to let him lead in a dance. Oh wait- we haven't danced in about 3 years. Never mind!)

So this week, somewhere, somehow--maybe even today--I am going to take 30 minutes and do nothing. I'm going to try waiting for the Lord. (Can I at least fold clothes while I'm waiting? Um, nope, better not.) You know how people run around and stress for days and days on end, then they end up getting sick? Well I kind of think that God built that into us too, that "refer to your Creator" mechanism. "Slow down and concentrate on Me once in a while," He says. "Now that I have your attention!" C.S. Lewis wrote "Pain is God's megaphone." And although I don't wish to convey that I think God WANTS us to be in pain or delights in striking down people every now and then, I do believe that He uses that pain to still us, to speak to us, and to wait for us to draw closer to Him once again.

Dear friends of ours are facing a diagnosis, a future of uncertainty and pain. The last thing they want to do, I'm sure, is wait. Wait for the muscles to deteriorate. Wait for the body to become dependent on others. Wait for who-knows-what-else. Yet God has been speaking to them and through them for several years, and they know that He is in control and that He will do a mighty work through them. And so they draw near to Him and to His people who love and follow Him.

And tonight - the conference showdown. The big game. My stomach has been curdling since yesterday! Ah, the waiting. What good does it do to wait and worry? God says, "Wait on Me. Focus on Me." Prayer is not the same thing as worry. So I must learn to fix on Him and what He wants to do. He's in charge, and that's a darn good thing!

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.--Psalm 27:14
--but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.--Isaiah 40:31