Waiting can be difficult. For me, sometimes it seems impossible. We live in a society that demands things quickly with little to no time to wait. We have gone from sit down meals to fast food (although you can debate that phrase). We sometimes schedule more in a day than we can get accomplished, leaving little time for the important things in life. It is against our nature to wait for things. Think about your driving......I think I can boldly say that some of us have little patience for "slow" drivers and those are probably the ones going the speed limit. And too many times, we carry this impatience over to God. When facing problems or issues in life, we pray to God and we want an answer immediately. We try and put God on a timetable.
Actually, the verse quoted at the beginning of this devotion uses the word wait. The Hebrew word "wait" literally means "to bind together," perhaps by twisting something with a chord, if you can visualize that. It is by twisting ourselves around God's strong nature that we ourselves receive strength and confidence in Him. We don't possess these traits ourselves, but God makes them available to those who wait and hope in Him. God promises to "renew their strength". Some translations say "gain their strength" and the Hebrew word for gain means exchange. So in reality, when we wait on the Lord, he will exchange our weakness for His strength. It is taking all our weaknesses, when we want to quit, or our lack of faith in the middle of trials or our impatience and replacing these with his strength. When we place our weakness at His feet, He will exchange them for his strength. This reminds me of one of my favorite choruses:
His strength is perfect, when our strength is gone
He carries us when we can't carry on
Raised in His power, the weak become strong
His strength is perfect, his strength is perfect
The question is: can you wait on the Lord? or better, will you wait on the Lord?
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