Grateful Waiting

Waiting is not something that people enjoy. In a fast-paced and demanding world, anxious thoughts assail quiet hearts. Yet the Lord tells us again and again in His Word to demonstrate our faith through grateful waiting. We can be grateful because we know that the Lord will respond to the heart that will patiently wait for Him. 

I was recently at a store to have tires put on our car. I walked around for a few minutes and then I decided to sit down on a bench and wait for the service to be completed. Less than a minute after I sat down, and before I could scroll through my phone, a man asked if he could sit next to me. He immediately began telling me his story. He had come from the VA that morning and seemed to be burdened. He began to share some of his struggles. A few Scriptures came to mind and I shared them with this lonely veteran. I told him that the Lord understood all about his affliction and pain. As I got up from the bench my new friend said that he needed to hear the encouragement that God had given me for him. If I had not been waiting for my automobile to be serviced, I would have missed an opportunity to share the love of God with a veteran in need. I was grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to wait.

The prophet Jeremiah demonstrated a greater patience in grateful waiting than most of us have ever known. His words from the book of Lamentations were born in great afflication. The prophet learned to hope in God when everything appeared hopeless. Even though his message was one of repentance and national restoration to the Lord, Jeremiah was persecuted by almost everyone to whom the Lord sent him. Those whom he prophesied to responded by beating him, putting him in stocks, and throwing him into a muddy cistern. As Katherine and I finished reading the book of Jeremiah together recently, it occurred to us that we have not been through anything for our faith compared to the trials of the weeping prophet. Jeremiah’s suffering was humiliating and yet his tears were for the restoration of those who persecuted him. 

Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586 BC. Even though Jeremiah’s nation did not turn back to the Lord in time, his message endured and God responded to his faith. The same prophet who pronounced judgment for Judah’s sin also declared God’s hope of restoration: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV). Jeremiah’s message brought hope to God’s people who were in captivity for the next 70 years after Jerusalem fell. Then the day finally came. The Lord moved miraculously and restored His people to their land.

How deeply the Lord must have worked in the weeping prophet’s heart! Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry was dedicated to bringing God’s hope to those who were rejecting and persecuting him. His ministry foreshadowed that of Jesus Christ, who suffered as no man ever has in history. He poured out His life even for those who persecuted, mocked, and crucified Him. We can be grateful that Jesus did not skip the suffering, but He waited patiently on His Father to act. He endured the agony to win a place in heaven for us. His Father did respond to His waiting Son, and the greatest miracle in history took place. The Father raised His Son from the dead! 

Through what Christ endured there is hope for every lonely heart, every suffering soul, and every afflicted Christian patiently waiting through a difficult season in life. As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, God is teaching Katherine and I the secret of grateful waiting.  A sign hangs over the door in our apartment, and it reminds us every day: A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles. 

Perhaps like Jeremiah you’ve been gratefully waiting and things are getting worse, rather than better. Maybe like the veteran I met no one seems to understand your affliction. Rest assured that waiting gratefully on the Lord is never in vain. He does His greatest work in us as we wait on Him. Miracles come after grateful waiting.  

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14 KJV).