By Jennifer Rainford
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Waiting is a simple enough task to hear about, but it is a mighty hard thing to do. From one generation to another, waiting has been challenging. Schedules and agenda have been an enemy to waiting. Activity filled schedules become a perpetual hindrance to waiting. Waiting before God takes patience. It takes stick-to-it-iveness. It takes a desire to move away from one’s own mind and let that part go silent and take a break.
Waiting is not a task without effort. Waiting takes effort. Waiting causes you to disengage from yourself and your own agenda. Waiting takes stillness. They walk hand in hand. To wait and to be still are close partners. To be still means not to move. However, our bodies can be still but our minds can be moving at a mile per minute. Waiting on the other hand speaks primarily to the stilling of the mind, yet being engaged in absolute trust in God for His set time on a matter to manifest. So to be still is to quiet one’s mind and to wait is to be still in anticipation of.
To wait on God means that all aspects of our inner man must be still. Step away from the confusion that can run rampant in the mind, while the body is still. Get the body and mind under the same control. Does one really have to stop moving to wait, to be still? Physically; not necessarily. Spiritually and mentally; most definitely. The movement has to stop as trust sets in. The essence of waiting and stillness takes place in the spirit. It should be noted that even Jesus stepped aside from the crowd. He had a place where he would go and wait on his Father. He even went below on the ship and rested. It was a time of stillness, both in mind and body.
Everyone, especially the Christian, should inculcate the habit of being still, and of waiting. Living in a world of constant movement makes this a daunting task. The Christian needs to answer the question of how far he/she really wants to go with the Lord; how high, how deep? Great value comes with stillness and waiting. A man who stills himself and waits upon the Lord always reaps great rewards. Study the lives of God’s generals in scripture and you will find their periods of stillness and waiting on the Lord.
To reach heights and depths in God, the clamor of man has to stop. Therefore the Lord says, “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen.” Indeed they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength….This is what waiting does. To wait in worship before God, we move away from our space into His space. We enter into the secret place where cares and burdens are not welcomed. Be still and wait on the Lord, in this powerful place of rejuvenation!!