I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:13-14

My ladies group has been studying “Detours: Lessons from Joseph” by Dr. Tony Evans and, while it has been filled with spiritual wisdom on waiting well, there’s one line from this week’s study (Week 3) that I just can’t shake. It reads like this:

“Overall, to wait on the Lord means to not go outside of God to fix or bring about the issue for which you are waiting.”

Sweet friends, I’ve written about waiting on the Lord before because we’re all waiting on something – salvation of a loved one, healing for ourselves or others, a conflict to be resolved, a breakthrough in our careers, a relationship to be mended… Our hearts hold so many needs and cares that only the Lord knows them all. We all know what it means to wait and yet, despite lots of waiting in our lives, so many of us are not good at waiting.

I am so not good at waiting.

I’m an analyzer, and a planner, and a doer; I like digging for root causes and making step-by-step lists and keeping a full calendar. I have a vision, and I do what needs done to see it come to fruition.

In full transparency, I can be more controlling than I’d like to be and I can be terribly impatient. Sometimes I delegate to train or empower someone else and then take the work back or redo it so it’s done “my way”. Sometimes I don’t ask for help because I fear someone else won’t “do it right”. I’ve been known to push ahead when God says wait. I’ve had times when I went my own way even after God said, “Don’t go that way.”

That last paragraph isn’t so flattering, but in my experience, most of my friends and colleagues have come to deal with it as simply “who Andrea is” and so I’ve felt little urgency to improve this area of myself.

But dear heart, as I draw more closely to the Father each day, and as I reread the words that He gave Dr. Evans to share, I recognize that those not-so-positive quirks in my personality – controlling, impatient, independent…oh let’s admit it…rebellious – aren’t quirks at all, but doubt-filled and disobedient attitudes and actions.

Let’s reread the words God gave Dr. Evans again with a little emphasis added by me:

“Overall, to wait on the Lord means to not go outside of God to fix or bring about the issue for which you are waiting.”

Not go outside of God.

Oh friends, how many times have we gone outside of God’s will or His way or His timing to find a quicker solution to a problem? to fill a need when we were tired of waiting?

I can only speak for myself, but one time is one time too many, and over the past 41 years, I’m definitely past the one time mark.

There was a time in my life I could have chalked my impatience and independence up to spiritual immaturity or lack of experience following God, but Holy Spirit is making it pretty clear that those days are past.

Is there an issue in your life that you’ve been asking God to resolve while also attempting to fix or bring about yourself?

Beloved, if you’re like me, Holy Spirit is tugging on your heart right now to call your impatience or independence what it is – sin – and to confess it to the Lord and turn away from your own way, agreeing instead with God’s way and will and timing.

1 John 1:9 reads, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 25:8-9 tells us:

“Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in justice,
And He teaches the humble His way.”

Heavenly Father, thank you for Your perfect teaching and timing. I pray You work in our hearts this week Lord to reveal to us where we are immature or inexperienced in our waiting and where we are knowingly impatient and working intentionally independent of You. Teach us Father, lead us in the way righteousness, draw us always, only closer to You. Amen.

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