Tom Petty has written, "The waiting is the hardest part..."
Reading Psalm 18 today.
"In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears." Psalm 18-6-7 (NIV)
We all have times when we struggle, when everything seems to be coming at us. Life feels like it is being choked out of us.
David says that in his distress, he cries out to the Lord. And God hears him.
Isn't that a wonderful message?
Well... it doesn't feel wonderful when your heart is breaking and God is silent, does it?
Yet even when we don't feel him, God always hears the cry of our hearts.
God will show up in a powerful way, as David tells us a few verses later.
"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters." vv 16
But the problem for us is, how long do we have to go between the "he heard me" and "rescued me". David doesn't say how long that is. However we know from Psalm 22, even a man after God's own heart can feel like God is taking a long time to show up.
In fact, the waiting can be downright painful.
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest]" Psalm 22:1-2 (NIV)
How long do we wait?
Why is this a part of every believers walk? David, Joseph, even Jesus who quoted Psalm 22 on the cross. There will be times when God feels far away from us, and often at our deepest trials.
Why?
It is hard to accept that God does not see life as we see it. God's agenda is to make us like Christ, not to give us a happy satisfying life here on earth.
And the things inside of us that bubble up during the time between "he hears" and "he rescues" tell us a lot about the state of our walk with him (OH MY!).
Those things are there during the good times too, we just don't see them as clearly as we do during times of stress.
God is more interested in making us holy, into the image of his Son, than to make our lives comfortable.
So he allows hard times to bring things to the surface so he can remove them.
How long?
I guess however long the Lord feels it takes to do the work of his agenda, not ours. We can choose to go off and find relief on our own, or we can choose to stay and wait while he works.
Really only one good choice, because we are left in that same place Peter was, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life." John 6:68 (NIV)
What can we do? See what comes out of us during this time, ask forgiveness for that, and wait.
I know this isn't a pleasant message, but life isn't always pleasant walking with the Lord, is it?
But it is the path that leads to life. Perhaps on those days we should just be grateful we are on that path. This road may be hard at times, but it does lead to paradise.
