WAITING ON THE LORD

Written by: Leonard Chipangano

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength……” Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV).

The motif of waiting on the Lord is common in scripture and it is commonly used here in Africa when encouraging people who face various hopeless situations. Throughout the years of my ministry both as a Pastor and the Country Director for African Leadership Malawi, I cannot remember the number of times that I have used this biblical virtue to encourage people to put their hope in God in their various desperate situations. Not only have I used it to encourage others, but it has also encouraged me in my life.

It is not easy to convince people who are passing through difficult situations to keep waiting on the Lord simply because waiting is hard even for Christians. The question could be, why is waiting so difficult? It is difficult to wait probably because it seems to be a contradiction between what people experience in their lives and who they know God to be. When people are in dire situations, we always want God to act swiftly. We always forget that God’s Word has an appointed time. In most cases when bad situations such as civil wars, hunger, poverty, people are tempted to lose hope and believe that the difficulties of their present situation will never change. These situations are common here in Africa. But though it’s difficult to encourage others to wait on the Lord, it gives a sense of satisfaction when the effort is successful. I must say here that one of my greatest joys is seeing the people that I have encouraged become so determined to move on and keep waiting on the Lord for help.

Although several usages of the motif of waiting on the Lord may be discerned in the Bible, for me waiting on the Lord is not a passive thing. People must be active in their daily life while anticipating the time that God will act accordingly. I believe this is exactly what African Leadership is doing in Africa. It actively invests in Africa’s Leaders while waiting on God to have lives of people in Africa and their communities transformed through our training program.

We thank God that in Africa, “waiting culture” is mostly strong. This culture helps us to endure hardships and to keep us moving even when going is tough. People in many African countries have been waiting on the Lord to have peace restored and poverty alleviated in their countries. Although this “waiting culture” is strong in Africa, not everyone has this culture. Africans, like any other nations of the earth have also different abilities to wait. Therefore, this makes the motif of waiting on the Lord to be universally important in order to save a lot of people who are experiencing anxiety because of a delay in getting what they desire. The passage that we have read from the book of Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, the Lord is giving us hope that those who wait on Him shall have his strength renewed. In other words, there shall be light at the end of the tunnel for those who wait on the Lord for help.

In the line of our daily duties, we become weak and hopeless because human strength inevitably fails in one way or another. When facing numerous difficult situations, people lose hope and strength to cope. But the good news is that our Triune God never fails. He is too great to fail and His power is awesome. His promises are true. What we have to do is to believe and wait on Him to have his promises on us fulfilled at the appointed time.