Day 53: Patience in the Waiting

Read Genesis 7:14–16

In my life, there have been a lot of things that made me wait. From jobs, to relationships, to healing from illnesses, much of my life has been compromised of waiting. And this past year, I was waiting on the Lord to bring relief from the battles I was facing in mental illness. 

It seemed like the Lord had me waiting for Him for the foreseeable future. It was month after month of coming before the Lord, and praying for release from the sorrow that was on my heart. He was faithful to me in that time, but the time in between was extremely harrowing.

 “Then the Lord shut him in.”

The door was sealed. After years of preparation on the ark and bringing animals together, the moment had finally come. When the door of the ark closed, there was a closing on the depravity of humanity. Noah and his family weren’t going anywhere. They had every animal on this boat, with their unique scents and noises. There were wings and hooves and stamping beasts. There were small little birds to the greatest of mammals. God faithfully brought every animal to the place they needed to be, and he brought Noah’s family too.

It was time for them to wait and trust that God would deliver them from the chaos of overwhelming water. This was a moment of in between. We don’t know how they responded in this wait. They may have been silent in prayer, or loud in their cries.

This wasn’t just a few hours of waiting before it finished, but days upon days of prayer and petition and patience. Noah had to be patient in waiting for God’s timing. He had to trust that in the moments of in-between, it would lead to the fulfillment of the promise set before him.

Have you ever found yourself at a place in life where you had to wait on the Lord? Even now, I find myself waiting on the Lord in some very painful areas of petition. When there is no light to be seen, still we are called to wait on the Lord. As I look at the specific areas of petition I have brought before the Lord, I have to walk in the faith that I hold. 

I believe that God is who He says He is, and so I walk in the hope that he will answer the prayers I bring before him. The season of waiting we find ourselves in doesn’t guarantee we get the answer we want, but God will answer us.

In what areas of your life do you find yourself waiting? Maybe it’s on a relationship to be healed, or a new job to come your way. Or, maybe like me, you are waiting on healing from physical or mental illness. God will not leave you waiting on Him without an answer. Believe that truth as you live in the waiting.