The best advice for those with needs unmet in 2022: Wait on the Lord
By Dean Collins
I have lost track of how many of the prophets told us to wait for the Lord, look for the Lord, be silent before the Lord, make our complaint to the Lord, and other similar messages. I know I found these themes recently in the books of Amos, Nahum, Micah, Haggai, and Zephaniah. And as I think about all of this today, I am staring at an often-quoted passage from Habakkuk.
I suspect we don’t consider these things in the middle of normal daily life when getting kids up and off to school, commuting to work, planning dinner, exercising, or doing countless other usual routines. But when you find yourself in an uncertain situation with fear and anxiety as your nighttime companions, then you are drawn to passages that speak of God’s unfailing promises.
Maybe someone reading this today knows what I am talking about because 2022 dealt you a tough hand. Now, just as the band is playing the introduction to “Auld Lang Syne” and we are about to tear off the last calendar page of this past year, maybe we need more than a toast to the old times with a friend. Maybe you are still waiting for relief, for hope, and for the Lord to answer your prayers.
You are not alone
I assure you that you are not alone and that God has neither forsaken nor forgotten you. The prophet Habakkuk, along with all of the prophets, saw many and repeated hard times of desperation and wondered when and how God would show up. Habakkuk’s determination led him to declare that he would literally stand at his watch post and wait on a high tower until the Lord answered him. The Lord responded that the prophet should write down his vision and prophecy so we could read it and cling to its promises.
The Word from the Lord was that we must wait until the appointed time. It may seem slow, but we are to wait. It will surely come; it will not delay. I suspect you share my frustration with waiting. Waiting seems lazy sometimes or even irresponsible. But waiting is also surrendering to what we cannot see or control. Waiting requires faith and is an expression of our trust in God. Waiting is a commitment of what we have and do not have in complete surrender to the Lord.
The psalmist said it this way: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” Whether waiting for justice, healing, reconciliation, or provision, our best posture is to release our situation and our need to God. Even if we walk in the shadow of dark and difficult paths, the Lord is with us.
You can choose to rejoice
Habakkuk waited and he didn’t yet see the solution or remedy. The fig tree failed to produce. There were no grapes for wine on the vines. There were no olives to eat or to use in essential oils that were needed in daily life. The stalls for the livestock were empty when Habakkuk last looked. But the prophet, though likely hungry and tired of trying to get God’s chosen to repent and trust in their only hope, gave them a model of behavior. It is one we need to learn and practice.
“I will rejoice in the Lord,” Habakkuk vowed. “ I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.”
The apostle Paul again and again echoed the same commitment. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” Paul urged. “Again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
So as we close this year, I pray that you will join me not only in waiting for the Lord but also rejoicing in the Lord, even as we start a new year that may bring more waiting or sudden and divine intervention at any given moment. In every case, I pray that you and I will both rejoice that God is with us and will meet every need today, this year, and always.
Your time with God’s Word
Habakkuk 2:1-3; 3:2, 17-19; Psalm 37:7-9; Philippians 4:4-7 ESV
Photo by Andrew Ridley on Unsplash
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