Waiting For God’s Voice & Presence

I first shared this with those I send emails to on a regular basis. Make sure you’re on that list to get other great articles like this when you most need it. [Link] But I wanted to share a bit about waiting on the Lord and what waiting does for our faith.

It’s about that time when everything ramps up again. Goals are set, deadlines scheduled and once overlooked tasks form the holidays are now lingering over your desk every waking second waiting to be met. Back-to-work stress hits you as you’re trying to get the kids up on time, out the door and masking the fact you really weren’t ready for this transition. Back into the cycle. Back into Sunday’s comin. Back into systems and processes and it hits you:
Vacation is over.
Just last week I was talking to a friend on the phone and I asked “How are things? I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve talked.” Here’s how the conversation went:

“Things are very busy!”
“Oh really, what’s going on at the church?” I said.
“Oh I don’t know, just a lot I guess.” she replied.

My friend isn’t shy, she just couldn’t come up with how to answer. Her busyness had rendered her unable to share with one another. Unable to be present with me in the moment. She was more concerned with being and looking busy than being and looking effective.

I think I am a lot like my friend too. I find comfort in the busy, I find a home in the crammed schedules and I seem to take shelter in the never-ending to-do lists. As if we really want a non-stop to-do list?! We avoid moments of solidarity and silence because we’re so uncomfortable in those state of beings.

The world around us is extremely loud. There’s no escaping that. Too often, this noise that surrounds us, makes it incapable to be silent and impossible to wait. But it is something we must pursue.
At church on Tuesday (that’s when those who work events on weekends go to church in Nashville) we sang the Christy Nockels song Waiting Here For You. Like many of you, I find I often sing songs and don’t think about the intentionality of the words. In that moment, I began to wonder (like my ADHD mind often does) Why are we waiting for Him?

Think about it — Jesus is… well… JESUS, He’s both omniscient and omnipresent. He doesn’t wait on me, I’m supposed to wait on Him right? Doesn’t he know exactly where I am at all times? He’s very active in my life, I see it almost every day. It’s not like he has this massive to-do list to finish before he spends time with me.

It’s an interesting thought to consider. So today I scoured the scriptures for all the times people were waiting on Him. Noah waited on God’s sign of protection as the waters receded in the flood. Moses, waiting on the mountain before God gave him the Ten Commandments. Ruth encouraged waiting for the Lord’s direction, Job’s entire life was waiting on the Lord in his season of pain and despair.

And then there was Jesus, only Jesus. If anyone knew waiting, it was Jesus. First, waited to begin ministry. Waited for the disciples, waited to do his first miracle, waited (in agony) for the cross, waited (in darkness) for the resurrection and wait for the Holy Spirit to come in His place. All throughout the bible there are moments where we are called to wait on God, sometimes in silence and sometimes in agony/darkness too.

When we wait, something amazing happens. Expectation begins to break walls down, our hearts begin to open up and the noise around us begins to settle down as we begin to discern that still small voice.

God doesn’t whisper because He wants to be difficult to hear.
God whispers so that we naturally lean in and draw nearer in our “waiting.”