Waiting on God –
Active or Passive?
But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Isaiah 40:31a (KJV)
G. Campbell Morgan in his book God's Methods with Man: In Time says “Waiting
for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God
is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under
command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the
ability to do nothing until the command is given.”
Isaiah here tells us something which none
of us like. Good things come to those who wait. We have all grown impatient
while waiting. One reason that waiting is so hard for most of us is because we
equate waiting with inactivity. But biblical waiting is not twiddling your thumbs,
and definitely not wasting time. In fact, quite the opposite is true. God uses
waiting to accomplish some significant work in our lives.
Isaiah was writing to a future generation
of Jews who would be taken captive to Babylon, Jews who would have doubts about
whether God ever would get them out of this time of captivity. Seventy years is
a long time to wait, so Isaiah had to remind the captives that God still cared for
them and was still in control, despite the fact they would have to wait for
their situation to change.
Waiting is not easy, especially when we
are eager for something to happen and expectant for our situation to change.
Even the most spiritual person can lose heart, even the strongest believer can
become despondent, and even a faithful follower can falter during extended
times of waiting.
One way God refines our character is by
allowing us to go through a season of waiting. A season of waiting often means
that God changes or stops some or all of our normal activities so that a more
profound work of refining our character can be accomplished. We are a work in progress
and in constant need of God’s purifying work. Refining is never a comfortable
process, but we must wait patiently on God as He works to make us more like
Christ.
Biblically, waiting on God is never
passive, but is always a process. God may make us wait before moving us on to something
else in life so that He can use certain people or circumstances to shape our
character.
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