Have you ever been waiting on an important phone call or an email? Anytime the phone rings or you get an alert your hopes go up a little thinking, “THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE ONE!” And when it’s not you get frustrated and want to tell everyone to keep the line clear, even though that isn’t really a thing anymore.
In our current circumstances we are impatient for the news that everything is fine again. We want someone, whose authority we trust, to say this is all over and society can work together to claw our way back to a world we recognize. Unfortunately, that news isn’t ready to break yet, and we are being asked to wait, to have patience.
Anytime we are asked to wait, even for something of far less importance, there is a small part of us that turns into a toddler. We want to throw our arms down at our sides and do that weird, pouty sway, and whine, “I dooonnn’t waaaaannnnna.” It can make us feel weak, especially when there is no way to influence how long we are required to wait. Some things just take as long as they take.
Thankfully we can be encouraged by these words from the Isaiah 40:29-31,
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
We know that we are going to face hard days from time to time—sometimes hard months or even hard years. It is in these times, when we are just waiting for it to be over, that we must lean in and let the Lord be our strength. It can take effort to recognize that we can’t do things all on our own. No one ever called you to white-knuckle your way through life.
You have a Heavenly Father that loves you. And when you reach those times when you can’t do the hard things by yourself anymore, have patience and wait upon the Lord. He wants to renew your strength. Even when it feels like it’s taking forever it’s only a matter of time before He will help you run again.
Strength will rise as we wait upon the lord.