WAITING

Do you have a hard time waiting for       

                a traffic light to turn to green from red?

a reply from a text you sent?

                the anticipated arrival of a special occasion or

                                a loved one’s visit?

Most especially, what about waiting for grief over the loss of your loved one to ease?

Take a look at the well-known Psalm 119, especially verses 81 and 82:

                “My soul languishes for Thy Salvation. I wait for Thy Word.           

                “My eyes fail with longing for Thy Word, while I say ‘When wilt Thou comfort us?’ ”

Perhaps you look at these words and say to yourself, “That’s ME!”

The Psalmist also had a hard time waiting. Let’s take a look at where he goes for an answer to his pressing question, “When wilt Thou comfort (me)?” Two times he expresses the pathway that leads to help. “I wait for Thy Word; and “My eyes fail with longing for Thy Word.”

In Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, coming in at 176 verses, only three verses do not include thoughts relating to God’s Word (verses 90, 122 and 132). God speaks “loud and clear” throughout His Word, including in this longest chapter in the Bible, to tell us that He cares and that there is a place of refuge to go in our anxious waiting. It’s to Himself, through reading the Words He spoke long ago, Words that can still touch the deepest wounds of our hearts at this immediate moment.

As hard as it is sometimes, when our hearts are broken, to read ANYthing, including God’s Word, the Bible is the place to find answers, hope, strength and comfort. While you wait for your grief to ease, don’t neglect this amazing gift from God. You’ll find yourself, in your waiting for relief, able to believe the words of Frank Graeff in his hymn, “Oh, yes, He cares; I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief; When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.”