waiting and trusting

Opening Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to learn what it means to wait patiently for you.  Give me the faith and the strength and the courage—as well as the trust—to do so.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 40:1-4

Journal: How and where is God asking you to trust him these days?  What does that look like?  How does that involve a willingness to wait?

Reflection: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:1-3)

There is a deep connection between waiting and trusting.  In fact, it is impossible to wait patiently for the Lord if we do not trust him—we will be far too busy managing and controlling and manipulating life to do so. 

And while it may seem that our inability to wait is a result of impatience, the truth is that it is more a result of a lack of trust, which makes it is more a matter of unwillingness than of inability.  We refuse to wait because we do not trust.    

Unless we truly believe that God's heart toward us is good and that he will take care of us and provide for us, then waiting, much less waiting patiently, becomes impossible because we will always be busy trying to arrange our lives and our circumstances.  All of which means that if we cannot, or will not, wait for the Lord, then we do not have a patience problem, we actually have a trust problem.

Pray

Closing Prayer: O God, help us to trust in you.  Cultivate in us, during this Advent season, a heart of waiting.  And help us to let go of our compulsive need to control and manipulate and manage.