Hold Please

As I type this I am setting on hold with the airline. I am waiting to talk to someone and there is music playing. Occasionally a prerecorded voice comes on and tells me how busy they are and that I should continue to wait. "Hold please."

Although the ability to multi-task in a situation like this one is good, as I listen to this music it gets me thanking about how at times we feel like God puts us on hold. We pray and it seems that our prayers are not getting through. We pray and it seems like we have been put on hold. It tries our patience and our self-control much like being on hold when we make a call. We want instant gratification and service. We want the answer yesterday. We want God to act and we want God to act now. Sometimes the answer to our prayer is wait. What we really need is to be more patient and persistent in prayer. What we really need is to trust that God gives us what we need for today and tomorrow God will give us what we truly need for that day. Maybe what we need is delayed gratification. Maybe what we need is not at all what we think we need and if we wait on the Lord we will see what our true need is. Yes. No. Wait. These are the answers we receive to our prayers and waiting, as my friend Dave Goes once told me, is the hardest.

God does not put us on hold. When we pray he hears. We connect directly to God, there is no waiting for the next available time that God can get us. God always hears us. And God always answers. "They who wait on the Lord renew there strength," writes the Psalmist. In the waiting we are renewed. In the waiting we can gain strength, patience and self-control. Waiting on the Lord gives us deeper faith and trust in God.

In your prayers don't get discouraged or lose heart. Wait on the Lord. Pray everything through trusting that God is providing you with what you need in this moment. Wait on the Lord. Pray with confidence that God has not placed you on hold but is hearing your cry and is in his time bringing what is needed, when and how it is needed. Wait on the Lord. Keep praying.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug