Wait for the Lord
Wait for the Lord
In our series of talks about the Fast of the Nativity of Christ, in which we prepare to celebrate the Nativity of Christ, we remember an important matter, namely that the Lord had promised that He would come from the seed of the woman for our salvation, yet He did not come except after thousands of years, during which humanity was waiting for the Lord—when would He come?
Let our subject tonight be about waiting for the Lord.
Wait for the Lord
The Lord said to Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, yet the serpent remained raising its head for thousands of years, and humanity was waiting for when the Lord would come to crush its head.
And the Lord said to Abraham, “In your seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed,” and He repeated this promise to Isaac and Jacob. More than two thousand years passed, and the children of Abraham were waiting for the fulfillment of this promise. And the Lord was patient until the fullness of time should come.
And humanity was waiting for the salvation of the Lord all that time, confident that the Lord would surely come, save, and fulfill His promise…
But as to when He would come, no one knew… And many of the saints waited all their lives, “and did not receive the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them and embraced them” (Heb. 11:13). And indeed the coming of the Lord was fulfilled after this long waiting. And I want to speak to you tonight about waiting for the Lord.
The Psalm says, “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” And this Psalm gives us a beautiful meaning about the manner of our waiting for the Lord. It is that we do not wait in despair, or in collapse or weakness, but we wait in strength, with our heart strengthened by faith… This strength is explained to us by the prophet Isaiah when he speaks about waiting for the Lord:
“But those who wait on 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” (Isa. 40:31).
The person who has not experienced waiting for the Lord, you see him constantly in anxiety and disturbance. He asks, and becomes very distressed if the Lord does not answer his request quickly. And every delay in the response increases his anxiety and robs him of his peace…
But the one who waits for the Lord never loses his peace and does not become anxious.
Elijah the prophet—the Lord promised him that the heavens would rain, and he prayed and it did not rain; and he prayed a second, a third, and a fourth time and it did not rain. And Elijah did not become anxious, but waited for the Lord. And in the seventh prayer, he saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand, so he trusted in the Lord and was strengthened… and the heavens rained.
Waiting for the Lord is a test of our faith: does our faith waver if the Lord delays, or does it remain firm as it is?…
The one who lives in a life of faith casts his matters into the hand of the Lord and leaves them there. He does not worry, nor become troubled, nor hasten the Lord. Rather, he believes that God will solve everything in the proper way and at the appropriate time. Truly how deep is the Lord’s saying to His disciples:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority” (Acts 1:7).
We wait for the Lord, and we wait for the Lord in hope and in confidence and in joy, and we are certain that He will come. We do not know when He will come, but we are certain that He will come and work for our salvation… in the morning, or at noon, or at midnight, or at the fourth watch? … We do not know, but we leave the determination of the time to His wisdom.
The one who waits for the Lord trusts in two fundamental matters upon which he depends in his waiting: the Lord’s surpassing love for mankind, and His boundless wisdom… And in the period of waiting, we do not resort to human solutions.
We do not act like Rebekah when she despaired of waiting for the Lord to grant the blessing to Jacob, so she resorted to human cleverness in deceit and trickery. Nor do we act like Abraham, who despaired of waiting for the Lord concerning the birth of Isaac, so he took Hagar… Truly, human methods are a painful result of despair in waiting for the Lord, and anxiety if the period is prolonged. Therefore the Psalmist says in the Psalm:
My soul has waited for the Lord, from the morning watch until night…
Do not be anxious and think that God delays in His coming. For God never delays, no matter how much you think He has delayed in His response…
God knows the appropriate time with exact precision, and He does not miss it by even a single moment. What you think is delay is nothing but waiting for the suitable time.
Let there be in you confidence in God’s wisdom, and in His good choice of timings… And you also need to trust in God’s love for you…
God is the Lover of mankind; He loves you more than you love yourself, and He works for your benefit more than you do…
He gives you without your asking, and before you ask; how much more then if you ask. And He gives you what benefits you, more than giving you what you ask.
Perhaps what you ask is not suitable for you, nor beneficial to you. And perhaps the time you specify, God knows perfectly that it is not good. Therefore humble yourself, and leave God’s wisdom to act, and wait for the Lord. Is it not painful that we trust in our intelligence more than we trust in God?!
God—when we think that He has delayed—is actually working in wisdom, the depths of which we do not perceive except later, when the vision becomes clearer before us…
The one who contemplates the story of Pharaoh and Moses is greatly amazed…
The Lord waited upon the humiliation of His children more than 400 years, because the cup of the sinners whom He would drive out from before them was not yet full. And He also waited upon Pharaoh ten times, in severe successive plagues, perhaps he might repent or soften. And perhaps those who were weary of waiting were astonished… But when they saw the miracle of the Red Sea, no doubt they then realized the wisdom of waiting and its depths…
If God had acted from the first plague, His work would not have appeared as powerful as it did at the parting of the sea, and we would have asked: why did the Lord not grant Pharaoh an opportunity!
God’s patience for more than 400 years did not mean that He forgot, or that He neglected. Rather it meant that He was arranging and choosing the best times. Therefore let us trust in this wisdom as we wait for Him…
Waiting may also be a school of prayer, in which we learn persistence, clinging to the Lord, depending on Him, and being united with Him in depth…
Perhaps the Lord delays for us, to urge us to pour out ourselves before Him in supplication. And the longer the period, fasts and prostrations may be added to our prayers, and perhaps vows. As the Lord delayed for Hannah the wife of Elkanah, and did not open her womb to bear, then she prayed a prayer, and wept, and vowed a vow, and her son became a son of the temple from his childhood.
Another reason is that when the response comes quickly, we do not feel its value, nor does it grant us love and thanksgiving and gratitude, and we may quickly lose it because of lack of care and appreciation.
The Bride in the Song, when she labored in finding her Bridegroom, and endured for his sake, and sought him but did not find him, and called him but he did not answer her, and entreated the daughters of Jerusalem to tell him that she was sick with love… then when she finally found him, she said, “I held him and would not let him go”…
Thus, in order that the Lord may make you hold fast to Him, and long for Him, and say to Him, “With my whole heart I have sought You,” He delays for you a little, in wisdom and love.
All those who waited for the Lord reached wondrous results. And the children whom the Lord gave to their parents after long waiting were a blessing to their generations.
The Baptist, whom his mother bore after long waiting, became the angel who prepares the way before the Lord. Samuel, who came after barrenness and prayers and vows, became the great prophet who anoints kings. And Joseph, whom the Lord granted to Rachel after her barrenness and Jacob’s intercession, became a blessing to Egypt and to his father and his brothers…
Therefore wait for the Lord, and trust that your waiting will be followed by blessing and grace.
We do not mean by waiting for the Lord that you wait in boredom and distress and weariness, while doubting the Lord’s love and His response, or doubting prayer and its effectiveness. No, this is not a spiritual waiting…
Rather we mean that you wait for the Lord in fullness of hope, and fullness of confidence and faith. Wait for Him in love. And while you pray say: “I am certain, O Lord, from my depths, that You will resolve this matter. I believe this. And if I happen to become impatient, then help my lack of faith.”
But the one who despairs in his waiting and whose morale collapses hears the Psalm’s saying: “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait on the Lord.”
The promises of the Lord are true and faithful, and we trust in the promises of the Lord… And whatever obstacles may fight against our faith, we do not doubt…
“But those who wait on 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.” (Isa. 40:31). “… God promised that in the seed of the woman all the tribes of the earth would be blessed. Yet the earth was cursed, and the world was flooded by the deluge. But we did not despair. God preserved for us a remnant in Noah and his sons… Then the sons of Noah were corrupted, yet we did not despair; God preserved for us hope in Abraham, then in Jacob and his sons… And his sons were corrupted, yet the light of the Lord continued to shine, until the fullness of time came, and with it came the awaited Messiah…
We do not only believe that God will work, but we believe that He is indeed working, and perhaps He began His work for us before we asked by a long time…
And I will give you an example: a church that needs urgent service asks the Lord to ordain for it a holy, active, loving priest, with urgency, and perhaps the ordination is delayed months, or a year or more. And the people cry out, “Why, O Lord, have You delayed?!” And the Lord answers them: I have not delayed. On the contrary, for forty years or thirty, I have been preparing for you this priest, with a special heart, and special spirituality, and with experiences and expertise, and of a special type suited to your church… before you asked by a long time…
The children of God are always happy and reassured… Whenever doubt fights them they say, “Behold, the voice of my Beloved! He comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Surely the One who leaps upon the mountains cannot be slow…
The one riding in an airplane sometimes imagines that it is standing still, while it is moving at the utmost speed. And sometimes you look at the electric fan and think it is standing still while it is at its maximum speed… So is God sometimes in His work.
In waiting for the Lord, do not rely on sight, nor on the senses, nor on human understanding, but on faith.
And there are works that the Lord does with us whose results we do not feel except later.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Seven (Issue Fifty-One) 17-12-1976.
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