Lamentations 3:24-26
"I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord".

Humans Find Waiting Tough
Think back how many times you had to wait for something in your life, and how much you've hated it. Getting to a sale to buy that much desired article of clothing, only to find that your size was sold out. Then going to the sales person and asking them to call around to the other outlets of the store to see if they could trace your size. The words, "come back tomorrow," are just the most difficult words to agree to. Knowing that a Christmas or birthday gift waiting there for you to open, just seems to evoke restlessness, curiosity, and impatience. Being separated from someone you love for a long time, and being forced to wait for the moment when you can be together again. Or, meeting a person at an agreed location and time, and then having to wait for them for 15 minutes or longer. Waiting, for whatever reason, is really a difficult thing for most of us to do. Then we get to the Bible, and there we read that God wants us to wait for Him. Wait for an answer to prayer, wait while He brings us through a trial, or wait for Him to show us what His will is with regard to a decision we need to make. As humans, we like to know exactly what is going on in our lives, and we want to do as much as we can to be able to control as much of the future as possible. We want to be secure and comfortable in our lives from day to day. We naturally hate change, insecurity and uncertainty. Waiting on God incorporates all of these! Waiting on God means that God might change the way we are used to doing things. Waiting on God means that He might work out our lives to be totally dependent on Him, bringing us to a very insecure point, humanly speaking. Waiting on God means being uncertain of what happens in the future, because we are not busy chasing around with our normal earnest attempts to keep our lives moving along the normal fixed and controlled path. The question is, can God expect us to wait on Him in all areas of our lives? What does it mean to wait on God? How do I cope in my situation of loneliness, of confusion, of hurt, of anger, or whatever my situation might be? If I am down spiritually, or feel far from God--when I have more questions than answers, can I wait on God? This is surely the time I need instant answers. Where do I go for strength and focus to implement this most difficult request . . . to wait on God?
 

Waiting Demands Closeness
Let's go back to what it takes to wait for someone somewhere. Say for example, you were to meet a friend at a supermarket parking lot at 2.00p.m. You arrive at 1.55p.m., and start waiting. At 2.10p.m. you start wondering why they're not there. At 2.20p.m., you get a little edgy because you wonder why they are late. At 2.30p.m., you start speculating where they could be and whether something happened to them or not. At 2.40p.m., the test of your friendship comes in. If the person is just an acquaintance, you start getting really irritated because they are wasting your time! But, if that person is really close to you, and you know them intimately, knowing that they would never keep you waiting on purpose, you would have a totally different emotion as you wait for them. You would firstly hope that they didn't have an accident or that something else really bad didn't happen to them. Because of your knowledge of the person, you would give them the benefit of the doubt that something happened to delay them to this extent. The closer and more intimate the relationship you have with the person you are waiting for, the easier and more relaxed the waiting becomes. So, when God calls for you and I to wait on Him, He is calling us to be close and intimate with Him--to give Him the benefit of the doubt, and to have complete and unconditional confidence in Him, as Creator and Controller of the universe by the mere power of His spoken word. (See the article on "If He Created All--He Controls All"). If His spoken and written Word has the power to bring the universe and this earth into existence, and control the flawless working of the universe, then that same spoken and written Word can answer any questions I have, and control any crisis in my life. However long the wait is, whatever the intensity of our emergency is, and however desperate we are to find the answers, the intimacy we have with God will enable us to let God be in control and just wait for Him to work in and through that particular situation."Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14. Is this possible? It sure would bring relief and rest if we could come to this point in our lives.

Examples of Waiting
The best way to answer the question as to whether it is possible to implement unconditional waiting on God, is to look at examples from the lives of people before us. Examining the lives of people that have successfully waited on God, can teach us, inspire us and motivate us to wait on God.

Joseph - is one of the most inspiring examples of someone who waited on God. Imagine the anguish of being sold by your own family to slave traders and then being taken hostage to a foreign land.

Being sold as a slave to a strange man who has a different culture, religion and language to you. (See picture above). Waiting day by day for some kind of purpose to unfold in these events, but only to be thrown into further confusion and apparent defeat by the false accusations of his master's wife, and be thrown into prison. More waiting, more time, more trials. A flicker of hope enters the picture as Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's baker and the cup bearer, only to have to wait for two more years. Finally, after about 12 years of waiting, Joseph gets the answer of why this long period of waiting, of confusion, of change and uncertainty. Coming through the crisis and looking back always makes sense . . . but at the time, nothing makes sense at all. It took over 12 years of waiting, day by day, for God to bring Joseph to be the Prince of Egypt, ruler of all the land, having only Pharaoh higher than him.
 

Mary and Martha - had an experience of waiting that really put pressure on their relationship with Jesus. Mary and Martha sent an urgent message to Jesus, informing Him that Lazarus, their brother, was seriously ill. Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus' aid. He waited for four days before He went to see Lazarus, but, by then, Lazarus had died from his illness. When Jesus arrived at the home of his close friends, Martha ran out to meet Him, saying, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

When Mary came out to meet Jesus, she voiced the same words. (See picture above). Jesus then performed a miracle that impacted the lives of his dear, intimate friends in a way that an earlier visit could never have done. Jesus walked to the tomb where Lazarus was buried and said, "Take away the stone." So they took away the stone. Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Was the wait worthwhile? Was it worth having gone through the soul anguish in order to witness the power of the Creator and Controller of the universe's powerful word? Was the short term suffering worth exchanging for the long term involvement in the awesome display of this divine deed--the awakening of the dead to new life by the spoken word of the Son of God? (Read this story in John 11)

Esther - was a young Jewess, carried into exile by the king of Babylon, who was later conquered by the king of Medo-Persia. She and her people lived in this foreign land, among foreign people. She had an uncle, Mordecai, who served in the king's court. When Esther was just a young teenage girl, she was taken into the king's court as a candidate to be selected as queen. She had to undergo 12 months of beauty treatment before being presented to the king. The king was attracted to Esther more than any of the other young virgins, and chose her to replace the existing queen. One of the king's evil nobles devised a plan to kill all the Jews living in Medo-Persia at that time. Esther played a crucial role in saving her people from being destroyed. What if she had given up on God because she was in captivity, seemingly removed from God and His leading in her life? How could God allow her to stay in captivity? What was the purpose of her being selected as one of the many girls who would serve the king? These are all questions that Esther could have asked. But, in the end, Esther saved the nation of Israel from being destroyed. Waiting on God to act and work in the circumstances of her life, brought her to the place where she could do a saving work for those who lived in her world at the time.(Read her story in the Book of Esther).
 

David, Moses, and John the Baptist - all waited, alone, for God to work through their circumstances, to prepare them for a special task, and to develop a more intimate relationship with God. Moses and John the Baptist spent time alone in the wilderness, and David spent time alone out in the meadows, tending sheep. Each person waiting on God to work in their lives in the way that He knew best.
 

Are You Confronted With Waiting?
Are you trapped by a set of circumstances that you are desperate to get out of? Have you tried everything in your power to find answers to your unique situation, and just cannot find any? Do you feel totally helpless and out of control to the point where your state of well being is effected? Have you been listless and unmotivated, have you been feeling depressed and disillusioned while you have been wrestling with the complexity of this mysterious maze? Well, along with so many others, those in the Bible and those in life around you, God is calling you to wait on Him. God's heart aches to get involved with your life and bring you the clarity, the confidence, and the composure you long for. God's timing is not the same as ours. God longs to give us answers and an outcome which is far superior to the short term solutions which we might have come up with. God asks us to just wait. Wait so that He can work slowly and thoroughly through the mess that has come into our lives due to our ignorance and independence of Him. It will take a period of time, a period that no-one can determine, for Him to bring us to where we will find an undisturbed happiness, and to where we are able to save other people trapped by their circumstances, with whom we make contact from day to day. Oswald Chambers in his inspiring devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, makes the following statement in the passage for January 4, about waiting for God:
 

"There are times when you can't understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings a time of waiting, and appears to be unresponsive, don't fill it with busyness, just wait. The time of waiting may come to teach you the meaning of sanctification--to be set apart from sin and made holy--or it may come after the process of sanctification has begun to teach you what service means. Never run before God gives you His direction. If you have the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt--wait.

At first you may see clearly what God's will is--the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, or something else you feel is distinctly God's will for you to do. But never act on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will cause difficult situations to arise which will take years to untangle. Wait for God's timing and He will do it without any heartache or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move."

Daily Loyalty Eases Waiting
As Joseph sat with tied hands and feet on the back of a camel, his broken heart must have forced many doubts and questions toward God. (See picture above). How could God possibly be in the center of this hurtful deception and betrayal? How could God allow him to experience this measure of pain when his life was unconditionally committed to God from childhood? God called Joseph, as He calls each one of us, to "present perseverance," or "daily devotion," and "future forgetfulness." In other words, forget about the future and its outcome in any given situation. Concentrate on today and persevere in a single minded move toward oneness and intimacy with God. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow . . . each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:33, 34. Learn the simple steps of how to build your life around God one day at a time, and how to spend time alone in His presence, praying, meditating, and absorbing His Word. "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalms 130:5. Building a relationship of oneness and intimacy with God is how to find the vigor and vitality to wait--wait without any if's or but's. As Joseph, and all the other spiritual giants in the Bible, went through the seemingly insurmountable struggles that surrounded them, they just remained loyal to their devotion to God for just the day ahead. Day by day, even if it took years for their waiting to be rewarded, they never looked ahead impatiently. For them, just that one day of complete oneness and intimacy with God was enough. When a person has received full forgiveness from God, and has given free and unrestricted forgiveness to everyone who has wronged them, the intimacy and oneness they experience with God is unbelievable and very real. There is a level of "God consciousness" and "God awareness" present which overshadows the unknown of future events. The present known with God cancels the future unknown. The confidence in the present, inspires confidence for the future. The person waiting for the future answer or solution rests from fretting and worrying about the future, because of the successful and accomplished contact with God in the present.
 

Giving God Room to Work His Perfect Plan
Only when we are in a state of waiting, can God work His perfect plan in our lives. As we discussed above, waiting comes with an inseparable call to intimacy and oneness with God, and when we agree to wait unconditionally for God, God has a secure and steadfast foundation to work from as He gets more and more involved in our lives. God is not bound by time. He might take many years to accomplish the miraculous, magnificent purpose that He has planned for each of us. In comparing the rewards of waiting between Esther and Joseph to our lives, we need to put their power, position and prosperity aside, and focus solely on their role of saving the people that entered their worlds at the time. The Steven Spielberg movie, "Schindler's List," is a tremendous trophy of how greed and selfishness gave way to the inner spiritual wealth of selfless saving. A mission of money making and personal profit by the German businessman, Oscar Schindler, turned into a crusade of care and compassion, as he hustled condemned Jews to work safely under his control. As the drama came to a close, Oscar Schindler, overwhelmed by the anguish of seeing innocent men, women and children taken to their death, fled from the Allied forces saying, "This ring could have bought life for two more people--this car could have bought life for 3 more people--this suit could have bought life for one more person." Yes, the human spirit soars to heights beyond material possessions or positions of power when it is involved in lifting a soul, threatened by death, back to life. God knows that this component is fused into every fiber of each of the beings He created. Unfortunately this noble feature has been dwarfed by the demon deceiver. Satan has fused thoughts of self exaltation, self enrichment and self gratification into the minds of mankind, making them insensitive to the higher and more noble aspirations that form such an integral part of their makeup. When God calls us to wait, He calls for intimacy and oneness for the present, but He also calls for each of us to go through a preparatory time for a saving work in the future. Yes, like Joseph and Esther, God needs each of us to save the people whom have crossed our paths, whom have entered our individual worlds in some way, or have been associated with people we know, directly or indirectly. Think about it. If each loyal believer waited loyally on God, without question, like Joseph did for all those years, how easily God would cover the earth with "mini messiah's" or "small savior's." How easily God would touch each alienated rebel with the magnetism of His irresistible love and inconceivable care. Whether filling a position, like Joseph and Esther, high in government, or merely filling a position of humility like Jesus Christ Himself, every person waiting on God will be a savior of the people attached to them. Every person will feel the heroic thrill of lifting people around them out of the clutches of death and destruction, to a new level of life and loving.

"What About The Specific Answer to My Particular Crisis?"
I can hear you ask, "So, am I being told to wait on God in a crisis, and God will bring the answer by making me save people in crisis around me? What about the specific answer to my particular crisis? What about my failing marriage, what about my financial difficulty, what about my soul anguish due to the abuse I have suffered, what about this addiction that won't let me go, or what about this fatal disease that I am facing right now?" The answer to these disturbing questions come from the lives of Joseph, Esther, and all the other loyal believers who had the will to wait on God and rest in the hope that He will deal with their crisis in His time. God brings answers in a swift miraculous manner, He brings answers that are delayed in order to fit in with the work He is busy doing in us, and He brings answers much, much later at a time when we think He has forgotten about us--at a time when that answer will facilitate a miraculous contribution to our overall salvation and our long term character development. Yes, Joseph had many trials along the 12 year waiting period--trials which God answered along the way. He had the normal needs of being fed, of giving and receiving love, of maintaining his contact with God, of holding on to his self worth, and of facing abandonment and loneliness. Joseph learned all too well that "the moment of greatest discouragement is the time when divine help is the nearest." E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p.528. Joseph sacrificed the quest for immediate relief to his crisis in order to gain the bliss of the overwhelming reality of God's presence in his life daily. Joseph never had the Scriptures as we have, Joseph had no first hand knowledge of the Messiah's historic walk among men, or His death and resurrection. Joseph had only the stories that were told by word of mouth from generation to generation, and he had the evidences of the Creator's work all around him. Joseph only had a fraction of the evidences of the reality of God's infallible dealings with mankind, but, he trusted unconditionally in the evidences that he did have to rely on. As he undertook the journey to Egypt, of despair and discouragement, Joseph must have gazed bewildered and baffled at the grasslands, the trees, and the tiny insects darting from blossom to blossom--just carrying on with their usual activity as if nothing had happened. He must have remembered his times alone in nature and all the lessons his father had taught him about the Great God who created everything around him, and who had called his forefathers into a special relationship of constant communication and counsel. As the day died down in the west, and the kaleidoscope of burnt shades filled the sky, and then as darkness came, he must have looked up at the countless constellations above him, and whispered softly, "You are still with me. I can't understand the meaning of all this dear Father, but you are still with me." His mind must have milled around the dreams he had, and somehow he had to reach out in blind trust, holding onto hope, and he was held in the Hand of the Heavenly Helper. In our crisis, in our darkest hours, in our times of not knowing where to turn, we too need to focus on all the evidences God has given for our survival. (Click on the following for more detail). Spending time alone in meditation and prayer and study of the holy Scriptures, focusing on the beauty of nature in order to be reminded of the awesome power of the spoken word of the Creator and Controller of the universe, and the sweet encouragement when Spirit filled believers fellowship together.