Waiting. Ugh! It’s the worst isn’t it?  Time seems to stand still and God seems to be silent.  Whether it’s waiting for a job, waiting to sell a house, waiting to find “Mr. Right”, waiting to get pregnant, or waiting for a child to come back to the Lord, it’s rough. I love the words that David wrote in Psalm 38, “You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh.” (Psalm 38:9 NLV) So often in my life I have prayed a similar prayer, “Lord, you know what I am longing for, I know you understand my heart, please answer my prayers.” Honestly, God is always on time but He is never in a hurry in my life. He seems to value the waiting process as much as answering my prayers. I am guessing it is the same for you!  So, how do we wait well? How do we wait in hope and not despair?  Psalm 37 gives us four postures of waiting well.  I wrote about these postures in Finding Calm In LIfe’s Chaos, and I often return to them in my own life.

Bowing in trust when I feel like pacing. When I worry, I pace. When I feel anxious, my body needs to move!  I have learned that when I am pacing back and forth, waiting, I need to get on my needs and declare by faith, “Lord, this waiting feels like forever, but I bow before you and I choose by faith to trust you.” David writes in Psalm 37:3, “Trust in the Lord and do good.”

Raising my hands in praise when I feel like biting my nails. Praise unleashes more faith in me and calms my heart. When I am waiting and it feels like forever, I choose to turn on my praise music. I make a choice to praise God that He is in control even when my emotions are screaming something different. David writes in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Laying down my burdens when I feel like picking them up. I often write down what I feel burdened about and picture myself giving that burden to the Lord. Then when that burden comes back into my mind I remind myself that I have already given it to the Lord. This is the idea that David is getting at when He wrote, “Commit your way to the Lord.” (Psalm 37:5) The word commit carry’s the idea of rolling our burden onto the Lord.

Sitting still when I feel like taking action.When I am waiting for something, I find it difficult to not jump in and take action to sort of, “Help the Lord out.” What I have found is that God doesn’t need my help. Most often, He simply needs me to wait until He says the time is right. I can come up with every plan in the book to try and speed things up but usually to no avail. When He declares “it’s time” things start to move. The hardest posture of waiting is to “Be still before the Lord and wait.” (Psalm 37:7) To be still physically is one thing. To be still mentally is even more difficult.

What about you? What are you waiting for? What posture most speaks to you?  Leave a comment and your name will be entered to win a free copy of Finding Calm In Life’s Chaos!