“Let all that I am
wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him.”
Psalm 62:5
So much of life is about waiting. Waiting to graduate,
waiting for that special someone, waiting for test results, waiting for the
dream job. We wait, twiddling our thumbs, heaving heavy sighs, and fretting
inwardly in frustration. We ask ourselves why we’ve got to live this way. Why
doesn’t God just come through already? Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers
in our timing and that isn’t always easy for us to understand. Luke 1 tells us of a man who experienced this
very situation. Zechariah, a priest whom the angel Gabriel appeared to, was given
the news that his wife Elizabeth was going to bear a son in her old age. Zechariah
had prayed to God for years asking Him for a child and because of this he
struggled with Gabriel’s message. Still, even with Zechariah’s doubting, God
answered his prayer in His perfect timing. God’s memory is perfect. He remembers
our prayers. He never forgets them and may move in response long after we first
bring our requests to Him. Sometimes His answer is “no”, but other times it is “wait”—and
His response is always given and measured with love. Zechariah learned this. He
prayed earnestly to God for a son and God gave him even more. His son John
would grow up to be the very prophet who would announce the arrival of the
Messiah, Jesus. Oh, dear friend! He is
doing so much more than you know! His plans are greater than our plans and His
desires for us are so much better, so much more fulfilling than anything we
could ever conjure up ourselves. Waiting is one of the best teachers. In it we
learn the virtue of patience and develop endurance. We learn to trust God’s
love and goodness for what it is, not some airy far off kind of love, but a
close and intimate love that sees us for who we are and yet calls us with arms
wide open, “Come to me and trust what I have in store.” Waiting doesn’t have to
be dreary and depressing. In the waiting we can rejoice, relying on His faithfulness
and knowing that His ways are higher than ours. Zechariah’s experience
demonstrates this truth and encourages us to pray. God’s timing is rarely in
line with our own, but it is always worth waiting for.
-Heather
