Stress Reliever #4: Understand What It Means to “Wait on the Lord”

5 Ways to Make Time Your Friend (Jesus's Way)

March 7, 2019

Do you ever tap your fingers and stare hard at God while waiting for Him to work His plan for your life?

We know He has a plan for us. The scriptures tell us that. We know He is already preparing our future. (See the previous post about that.)

But it’s so SLOW in coming! What do we do in the meantime?

The Bible is full of counsel to “wait on the Lord.” In fact, it’s among the most-repeated counsel in all of the scriptures. Like this:

“Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land” (Psalm 37:34, ESV)

This verse helps us focus on three things:

Wait for the Lord, because the timing of events in our lives belongs to Him.
Keep his way, which is the opposite of just tapping our fingers and doing nothing.
Know that He will do the good things He has promised throughout the scriptures.

(For more great Bible verses about waiting on the Lord, check out this page, which has dozens of them!)

But What Do I Do Right Now?

Tapping our fingers and staring down God impatiently doesn’t equal “keeping his way.”

While we wait for His plan to unfold, the key to “keeping his way” is right here:

A Christian friend once shared this verse of scripture with me many years ago and I never forgot it. Jesus didn’t explicitly teach this that we know of, but he certainly exemplified it.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Co lossians 3:23-24, NIV).

I’ve loved this scripture ever since and it has helped me focus on what I can do NOW and do it with ALL MY HEART.

I was in my 20’s at the time and full of uncertainty. This verse seemed to cut through the squishiness and speak to me: “God wants me to just take my best shot at making wise decisions and then go for it with gusto, while He takes care of the big picture. Jump in with both feet. Both hands. God respects my best efforts based on what I know today.”

Of course, there’s another beautiful message in that scripture, namely doing everything “as working for the Lord.” Jesus knew that everything He did was in service to God. So even that job at McDonald’s or other humble situations can be done as if we are working for the Lord.

Smiling McDonald's employee — Photo courtesy McDonald’s Blog (Top Five Things McDonald’s Employees Do)

The Bottom Line

How does focusing on the right things while waiting on the Lord make time my friend?

Tapping our fingers and wondering what to do yield nothing but anxiety and doubt. Some “wondering” and figuring things out is necessary, but too much of it turns into wandering, wasted time, and regrets.

Doing something NOW with our whole heart puts us in step with God’s plan instead of resisting His pace.

Doing something NOW results in greater peace of mind.

Doing something NOW results in growth, endurance, patience, and experience. (See James 1:2-3, AMP.) Even a good-faith investment of effort that results in failure is a blessing of experience. And then we get up and dust ourselves off and try again. Remember Peter who sank like a rock when he walked on water? He tried and learned!

P.S. See this article for more great thoughts on “waiting on the Lord.”