Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you

This verse from Isaiah 30:18 continues with “And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for Him.” The Lord had been calling Israel to repentance saying “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But you would not,” (verse 13). He will not violate our self will by control or manipulation, and it is for this reason that He needs to wait. We have been talking about waiting on the Lord, and this morning we are talking about His waiting on us. There is a recovery saying that we will not change until the pain of being stuck (or of our rebellion) becomes greater than the pain of change. Until we get there, we are not likely ready and so “we will not” applies. This can be about salvation, or about the hurts, habits and hangups we are not yet ready to deal with. And our not being ready is why in His Grace and Mercy He waits!

I have said before that I had to have the rug pulled out from under my feet a number of times before my initial surrender. And the Lord had waited for me to be ready and to come to Him so He could not only deal with me graciously, but He could also be just and merciful at the same time. You see this morning’s Old Testament verse is revealing the then hidden mystery, that because of what Jesus did on the cross, He can be faithful and just to forgives us when we repent (1 John 1:9). And when we turn to Him in this way, all heaven rejoices and He is indeed exalted (Luke 15:7; Revelation 5:12 and verse 18 again). When I was sixteen I heard the Lord speak clearly into my thoughts for the first time. I understood He was asking me why I was running away from Him. All He wanted me to do was to love for Him. He knew I wanted to love others, but in my foolishness I felt I did not thing I needed Him for that and told Him so. It would be twelve years of pain, most of my own making, before I was even ready to start to surrender.

And I am saying “even ready to start,” because in the beginning I only surrendered what I knew to surrender. I did not know that surrender is a daily thing, and it would take a lot more pain before I would allow Him to reveal the hidden things in my heart that needed to be surrendered. As I look back, I can see that He has been incredibly patient in His waiting. And since we are called to be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1), and since He has shown such incredible patience with us, should we not be patient as we wait on Him and with others? Note though, that when we do, we are blessed (verse 18). Waiting on Him in “quietness and confidence” (verse 13) though, is something we have to learn, it does not come automatically. Paul had to learn this, and so do we (Philippians 4:11), and it takes practice!

Father, I have learned that when we cooperate with You as fully as we are able, it goes easier with us. Thank You Lord, that You use our pain, our trials and difficulties and our being burdened and heavy laden, to draw us to You. When we take Your yoke upon us, You give us rest for our souls and we are more able to return in rest and in quietness and confidence. Thank You Lord that You wait to be gracious. Help us Lord to have patience to wait on You as You “work in ways we cannot see,” and that You have promised to make a way for me and my brothers and sisters reading these posts in Jesus Name Amen