What does it mean to wait for the Lord? What does it really look like? And why do we have such a hard time doing it?
As a culture, we’re really not into waiting—for anything. And when we do it’s usually only because we have no other choice. And if we’re honest, even when we do try to wait for the Lord, we’re really not waiting for him but for a favorable outcome or a change in circumstance. Most of the time, our version of waiting for the Lord is just trying to use him to get what we want. He is not the end, but merely a means to our preferred end. And anytime we approach God not as the end, but as a means to an end, we’re not really approaching him at all. We’re only trying to get our way or further our agenda. And that’s not what waiting for the Lord is at all.
Waiting for the Lord is just that—waiting for the Lord. Waiting for the Lord is laying aside our plans and schemes and agendas. It is letting go of autonomy and control. It is surrendering our wants and needs. Waiting for the Lord is a refusal to try and manage, maneuver, or manipulate outcomes. It is standing before God totally empty and fully open, willing to do whatever he asks and to go wherever he leads. Waiting for the Lord is the determination not to charge ahead until we receive a word from him.
Waiting for the Lord is not just something we do until the Lord shows up. Waiting for the Lord is God showing up. It is through waiting for him that we are changed. We are not waiting for transformation; it is in the waiting that God is transforming us. We cannot do it ourselves.
Thus, waiting for the Lord involves a total dependence upon God. It involves the realization that we cannot do things on our own. For whenever we try to do it on our own, we cease to wait for the Lord. That’s why the psalm says: “For God alone my soul waits in silence.”
