Healing Rays of Righteousness

I’m sure many of us can recall unhappy experiences sitting in a hospital waiting room, becoming more anxious as the clock measured the lengthening of wait time.  The waiting room is often a place where time seems to stand still.  A place where life is put on hold and where anxiety and fear can take hold and grow in you causing hope to dim.

Perhaps you are presently in a “waiting room” experience in your life.  Possibly a loved one is critically ill or suffering severe injuries in an accident, and you have been praying for God to heal him or her.  Or maybe you yourself are in the midst of an emotional or physical crisis. Maybe you are right now feeling as if God has led you down a long hallway and ushered you into a room with a huge sign over it that reads, “WAITING ROOM.”

You reluctantly enter that room, and you wait, and wait, and wait.  Time seems to have stopped.  Tomorrow becomes an agonizing uncertainty.  Well-meaning friends stop by and say, “I’m so sorry to hear about what’s happening to you.  Wait for the Lord.  He is good.”

Meanwhile, the extended waiting causes your anxious heart and mind to cry out in anguish and frustration, “How long, O Lord?  When are you going to do something?  I don’t know how much more I can take!  Please, God, hear my prayer!”

It is at such times, that I need to remind myself and you that waiting is about much more than simply the passage of time.  Neither should we be thinking of waiting as a passive activity, that is, simply sitting back and waiting for something to happen.  The Scriptures suggest that our waiting time should be about anticipation and active with hope-filled expectations for something good to happen.

For example, whenever I am restless, anxious, or fearful and can’t sleep at night, I eagerly wait for the morning light to dawn.  I wait in confident anticipation that the sun will rise up above the horizon, giving light, warmth, and a new perspective to me.  Somehow light seems to take away some of the anxiety and re-energizes my hope and expectation.

Lamentations 3:25-26 encourages us to wait for the Lord by seeking 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.”  We seek God when we fill the time of our waiting with reading and meditating on God’s Word, looking for answers to our questions; and by speaking directly to God in prayer about our situation and fears.

Whenever we encounter a “waiting room” situation, we have to make a choice whether or not to wait on the Lord.  When we choose not to wait on God, we become impatient, fearful, and we worry.  We begin to doubt that God is good and loving.  We begin to doubt his ability to provide for us and to resolve our problem situation.  When we respond like this, we are prime candidates for ulcers, migraine headaches, high blood pressure, and even heart attacks.

God doesn’t want that for us.  Instead, he wants to give us physical and spiritual refreshment, “but those who hope in (wait on) the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”  (Isaiah 40:31)

God’s “Waiting Room” experiences invite me to again listen to the ancient and eternal wisdom of the Scriptures.  They repeatedly invite me to wait with the unwavering confidence that God is present with me and working for good in my behalf.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?  … Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:1, 14).

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.”  (Psalm 40:1-3a).

And so, I say to myself and to you, as we sit in the waiting room, let’s take time to read God’s health manual.  Let’s use the time to seek God and discover who he is and what he has promised to do for us.  Let’s pray to God, with confidence and anticipation, expecting him to hear our cry and do great things for us.  For we really do believe that “God is Love!”

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – March 6, 2019