The Weariness Of The Wait: Have Faith In The Wilderness Of Waiting

There is no change. The darkness deepens. The heavens seem shut tight as prison doors. Unanswered requests, no felt close communion – it is difficult to keep the waiting heart steady is it not? Yet steady it must remain. Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life. So we wait. But we do not wait without hope. Abraham waited twenty-five long years for his hope fulfilled in Isaac. Waiting is not a new or novel thing, Amen?    

Abraham was a waiting man with a waiting faith. And yet he waited in hope. His hope was not in mere hope itself, but in the God of all hope who longs to fill us with His joy and peace. We are all to be like that as well. Isn’t that what Scripture tells us? Paul writes in Romans 8:24-25 (NIV): “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” This is where our faith comes in. We have hope because we have faith in all His promises. And we have this hope as an anchor for our souls, firm and secure. As we rest secure in hope in Him, God can make rivers of life run through our wildernesses of waiting, increasing our faith, not diminishing it.  

When our hands are still empty and the womb’s of our desires remain unfilled and the sun refuses to shine, yet we will continue to hope in Him. We look up to God, we look back to His faithfulness and we look forward to all His promises yet unmet but sure to be fulfilled. He is the God of every good and perfect gift. He is the God Who created us and has a plan and purpose for our lives. And further, He does not withhold one good thing from those whose walk is blameless. These promises are all according to His Word. “Wait on the Lord”, King David says. “Be strong and take heart and wait on the Lord”.