Wait Patiently...Even If The Answer Is Slow

Habakkuk 2:1-3 -  I will climb up into my watchtower now and wait to see what the LORD will say to me and how he will answer my complaint. Then the LORD said to me, "Write my answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed."

 

Habakkuk had poured out his heart to God.  He had asked him some pretty tough questions.  He needed the answers really bad...just to understand what was happening around him. So he climbed up in the nearest watchtower….to wait on God’s answer.  He was prepared to wait as long as he needed…but he wanted to be in the best spot he could be to hear the answer when it came.

 

Waiting is one of the hardest things that God asks us to do.  We have learned how to speed up most other things.  We have created fast food… drive through windows at banks… self-check outs at most stores… and can manipulate most other earthly things to our advantage.  But time is one of the things that we can’t completely control.

 

When we pray and God says no right away… it is a definite enough answer for us to move on….even if we weren’t prepared for the no.  When he says yes…our heart is so overjoyed that the pure elation of the moment carries us through the yes.  But when God says wait… it means we have to trust in him just that much more…until the day he decides to say yes or no.

 

I admit that I don’t wait well.  I hear and see things and try to convince myself that what I saw or heard is God’s answer. Perhaps I need to build a watchtower in my heart to listen for God’s answer.  Perhaps if I were in the best spot I could be to listen… I would hear his answers more clearly.  I know I could use the time I am asked to wait a lot more effectively if I were not trying to manipulate the things I see and hear into his answers.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that time is in your hands…not mine.  Forgive me for the times that I have manipulated answers to be what I wanted.  Help me to be a better waiter…and use the time you ask me to wait to study more… pray more…. and search out more sin in my heart for you to wash away.  Give me the resolve of Habakkuk….to find the best spot to hear your answers…so satan’s whispers don’t trick me as much.  Amen.