Waiting on the Lord

When we are facing a trial we just want deliverance. Anything that potentially could delay that deliverance is something we avoid. As a result, the idea of waiting on the Lord may feel impractical because of the fear: What if God makes me wait to be delivered? Would waiting on the Lord cause me to be stuck in my situation longer than if I just took it upon myself to solve our problem? These kind of thoughts drive us to get ahead of God, take matters into our own hands, and inevitably create problems for ourselves that we otherwise would have never experienced had we simply rested in the promises of God and waited on the Lord.


Waiting on the Lord does not mean doing nothing. It means to wait for and look to the Lord with eager expectation. It is being fully confident that the Lord will provide for our need and deliver us.

Oswalt describes waiting on the Lord as, "A complete dependence on God and a willingness to allow Him to decide the terms." 

When God told Abraham and Sarah that he would bless them with a child (Genesis 15:4), despite them being well passed the age of child bearing, they believed God would give them a child, but they failed to wait on the Lord. Instead, Sarah got ahead of God and recommended Abraham get her handmaid, Hagar, pregnant so she could bear Abraham's promised heir. (Genesis 16:1-2) But this was not God's perfect plan for them. God would still be faithful to give Abraham an heir through Sarah, because when we are faithless, He remains faithful.

While God would bless Abraham and Sarah with a son in their old age, Abraham and Sarah would still have to live with the consequences of not waiting on God. Sarah's relationship with her maidservant. Hagar would forever be strained. (Genesis 16:1-5) There would be hostility between Abraham's son Ishmael, born through Hagar, and Abraham and Sarah's promised son, Issac (Genesis 16:11-12) But the conflict wouldn't end at these half-brothers. This hostility would extend between their lineages for generations to come.

The prophesied hostility still remains between the Jewish and the Arabic people even to this day, and all because Abraham and Sarah did not wait on the Lord.

 David Guzik notes, "Today’s battle between Jew and Arab is nothing new. Both Jews and Arabs are descended from Abram by two half-brothers: Ishmael and the son to come later from Abram and Sarai, to be named Isaac. The entire conflict can be traced back to Abram’s decision to “help God out” in the flesh, both when he agreed to inseminate Hagar, and when he went to Egypt to begin with. The effects of our sin may reach far beyond what we ever imagined."

While our consequences for not waiting on the Lord may not be far reaching as Abraham and Sarah's, their story shows just how far the consequences can be when we take matters into our own hands, instead of waiting on God.

Our wait for the Lord will never be in vain. God will always reward our obedience. Isaiah illustrates the blessings reserved for us when we are obedient to wait on the Lord, 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 40:31)

Waiting on the Lord will not be difficult when we remember the blessings of waiting on the Lord, and the consequences of getting ahead of Him. Spurgeon observes, “We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us.”



Copyright © 2010 Brooke Espinoza.

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Check out John Waller's music video "While I'm Waiting" from the hit movie, Fireproof.