What are you waiting for?
Some of the things we wait for are certain to pass. We wait for spring to come around again. We wait for our children to be potty trained. These waits are based on life seasons or temporary situations, and although the waiting may stretch us, an end does come.
But there are other waitings in our lives. We wait for prodigal children to return to the Lord. We wait for special relationships. We wait for justice. We wait for answers from God. And these waitings go on, ignoring the personal deadlines we’ve set, passing again and again the limits of our endurance.
What if waiting is less about filling up the space of time until we get what we want and more about hope?
Psalm 130:1-8
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
The place of waiting is often full of desperation. The Psalmist, crying from the depths, is desperate, but he is not uncertain. He is full of hope. He puts his heart on guard. The watchmen knows the arrival of morning is sure. The Psalmist knows, even more so, that waiting on the Lord will result in forgiveness, unfailing love, and redemption.
Place yourself in this Psalm. Can you say, “My soul waits for the Lord”? Can you say with resolution, “In his word I put my hope”? Can you say and believe, “He himself will redeem me from all my sin”? How can we not hope when we consider the things that are ours through redemption?
What are you waiting for? It’s time to hope.