WAITING with CONFIDENCE

 

November 8, 2024

Psalm 37:13-14

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

Throughout the Bible, there's a recurring theme of waiting, waiting for God's promises to unfold. The Old Testament people of God suffered through a lengthy slavery in Egypt before they esperienced freedom. Their journey continued as they roamed the desert for over four decades before reaching the Promised Land. They anticipated the Messiah's arrival for four hundred years. And after Jesus' ascension, he left them with the promise of his return, a promise that remains unfulfilled.

Many of us, after a long wait, start to question whether the promises made by God will ever become reality. It's natural to wonder if perhaps they've been forgotten, or deliberately left unfulfilled. Doubting God's role as the "Promise Keeper" is a rather normal, human reaction to uncertainty and delay.

When we look at the waiting periods in the Bible closely, we will see a different story. What we witness is God asking his people to wait, but he didn’t forget about them or revoke his promises at all. Waiting was and is an invitation to trust in God’s Faithfulness in our waiting.

In Exodus 13:21-22 we read “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.”

During this time, God's people had just left Egypt, experiencing the Exodus, and now have begun their wandering through the wilderness. In their waiting we read that God led them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, so they always knew where to go and when.

This is a useful picture for our waiting process, I believe. Think about waiting times in this way: God may lead us away from a place He doesn't want us to stay, guiding us through the wilderness instead. In these moments, doubt may creep in about hearing God's voice or His plans for leading us to a better place. Yet, if we gaze intently at the sky, during the 'daytime' when the path is clear, or the 'nighttime' when the path is obscured, we can discern the truth: even amidst life's confusion and chaos, the Lord is continuously guiding us.

This is where walking by faith comes in. We won’t always see the road ahead. Sometimes, our lives are just too dark and uncertain to see the plan God is unfolding for us. However, even when we can’t see it, God is faithful, and he is guiding us and slowly walking us toward the abundant life he has planned for us.

Wandering is never a simple path. When we are called to journey the uncertainties of the wilderness, questions arise. How long shall we roam? To what destination are we bound? And how shall we discern the moment thar we arrive at our destination?

Unless the Old Testament people were alot different than most of us, they probably asked these questions, too. One of the things we see in their story is that this experience didn’t last forever. God was faithful, and God still was their guide. When their wandering concluded God still led them to the Promised Land, despite the offenses along the way, and all the questions and doubts they had. God was a promise keeper!

Think abourt some of the decisions the people made in the wilderness. First, they worshipped a golden calf when God was right up the mountain near them, talking to their leader, Moses. Then, they complained about the food God prepared for them. Then, they directly disobeyed the God’s plans for them, and the consequences of this was that they would wander for a much longer as a result. Even after all of this, God still did not remove their Covental blessings from them, nor the future he prepared for them of a land of promise. Instead, he rebuked and corrected them. Like a loving father, he showed them the correct path so they could “grow up” to be the people he wanted them to be.

What this story tells us, I believe is that we don’t need to worry or fret. Just as the God was faithful to in the wilderness long ago, he will be faithful to us as well. Understand this that God will not, no never, forsake us or strip his promises from us. What God will do is strengthen us, and even straighten our path so we can come out of our waiting period as a stronger, and more godly person. During this time, he’ll guide you with your own pillar of cloud or fire. Our wilderness response is trust in the Lord and look to him for guidance, and be faithful and we will never lose our way as we wait on the promises that God has given us..

Here is a song that I have found especially helpful in my wilderness journey, when the doubts set in. May it speak to you as well.