Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; 2 O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 O Israel put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Perhaps one of the most difficult demonstrations of our faith is waiting on the Lord. When we are flooded with worry or we see the wild animals of fear or we feel the hunger pains of want and desires we ask and want an answer right now. It is so difficult for us to imagine our real plight from God’s perspective. So we worry, doubt, fret, protest, get angry or depressed or just want to give up, all because we don’t see the answer when we want to see it. God has a way of testing our faith by waiting until the “last minute.” Consider the Israelites as they left Egypt. They were looking at a dead end to their escape; the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s army closing in from behind. You talk about “reason” to worry! But just in time, God opened the sea and they crossed on dry land. As if this were not enough, God then caused the sea to return and destroyed the enemy.

Put yourself in Abraham’s shoes when God told him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. If I had been Abraham I could have thought of a lot of reasons why God did not really mean for me to do that. From a human point of view with human logic (which we try to force God to use) it did not make sense and could not be harmonized with what Abraham knew to be “right”. But when he just obeyed God and offered his son (in his mind Isaac was dead), at just the last minute God provided the ram to be offered in the place of Isaac.

Yes, to wait on the Lord as a watchman waits on the morning is not easy. We hear the sounds in the darkness and begin to imagine all kinds of dangers only to find at daylight we were safe all along. God is our strength, our shield, our fortress. He knows our needs and already has the solution. We need to just trust him and do his will. It may not fit our time table but God knows best.

Dear God, my father, please increase my trust in you. Help me to not worry about things in this life but to rest in the assurance that you as the giver of life are in complete control. Forgive me when I fail to do my part but keep me out of your way and help me to yield to your leading and bidding. I ask that you give me your peace today. I come to you in the name of Jesus.

May God bless each of us as we learn to wait on the Lord.