Waiting on God is a good thing, but it can quickly evolve into just another form of the excuse, “let me pray about it.” And to tell you the truth, I’ve received some great emails in the last few weeks asking me to address this issue.
Rather than going over the steps on how to run and how to wait, I thought I’d share the three stories that kind of punched my understanding of waiting on God in the face:
1. The silent bush.
If you have kids and their Sunday School teacher has access to red construction paper then you’ve seen this story 19 times. But here’s something I always missed. God didn’t talk to Moses until after Mose took a step toward the burning bush. Here is what Exodus 3 says: So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” What if Moses had “waited” on the Lord instead of exploring the strange sight?
2. The great goat parade.
In Genesis 43, after Joseph of the coat fame, forgave his brothers, he tells his father Israel to come to Egypt. Here’s what happens: “So Israel (Jacob) set out with all that was his and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied. “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.” Do you see the sequence there? Israel had to pack up his entire life first. He had to get the goats moving, pick up his tents, send his clan to Egypt before God spoke to him. The journey was underway before God comes on the scene. What if Israel had waited on God before he left for Egypt?
3. Why test when you can split?
After Elijah goes up to heaven and Elisha takes up his mantle he’s forced with a decision. He can sit and pray and wait or he can strike out on his own campaign for God. Here’s what happens in 2 Kings 2: He (Elisha) picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. I love that. He didn’t test the waters with his toe, he parted them. He basically said, “God if you’re down, let’s do this thing.” And then he did it.
The one thing we can’t miss in those examples is that a period of great waiting preceeded a the period of great action. Moses was in the desert for 40 years before the bush caught aflame. Israel had spent years trusting in the Lord even though he believed Joseph was dead. Elisha had apprenticed to Elijah for a while.
So the question comes down to, should you wait on God or run?
And I think the answer is “yes.”
