![\"Girl](\"http://blog.antipas.wpprofix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/waiting-300x199.jpg\")
Last week, Pastor Jim Wood of the First Presbyterian Church of Norfolk, and I co-taught Wednesday night Bible study. Our topic was \”Power of the Wait.\” We explored scriptural teachings about waiting on God. We learned that waiting on God has to do with the human soul being grounded in Christ.
It is one thing to expect God to simply answer our prayers the way we want Him to. It is another matter to wait on God, believing that even if God does not come through when we want and the way we want, God remains the only source for which all humanity yearns.
It is a wonderful thing to find God. Hallelujah!
Yet, faithfulness to God means that we must abide in Him, keep waiting on God – even when life gets frustrating; and it will!
Waiting on God is part of what it means to depend on Him, despite the odds. Pentecost happened in Acts 2 while the people of God were waiting on Him. If the Church was born out of faithfully waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, christians must continue to wait in faith, believing that God will come through for us – in God\’s way and in God\’s timing.
19th Century Underground Road Conductor Harriet Tubman often prayed this prayer: \”Lord, I\’m going to hold steady on to You and You\’ve got to see me through.\” In other words, waiting on God is not a passive way of living. It means we must actively pursue God whether as we need something from God, or in decision making, and in living out God\’s will for our lives.
At Bible study, Jim and I discussed Simone Weil, a faithful early 20th Century believer. Weil was a young French woman who struggled with physical illness most of her life. She died at the young age of 34; but, Weil left behind some keen wisdom for Christian thought and practice.
Let\’s ponder and live out these words from Weil: \”To be rooted [in Christ] is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.\” Simone Weil.
With our feet planted in faith in Christ, let us wait on God with an \”anyhow\” kind of faith.
Waiting on God,
Dr. Antipas
