Worship in the Waiting

If there's one certainty in our lives, it's that Jesus will always be true to His Word.

Expecting Jesus to intervene in our lives demonstrates profound faith, rooted in divine strength and human trust. This involves spiritual discipline and can be challenging, yet it carries significant purpose and transformative grace. By opting to wait, we allow God to act in ways beyond our comprehension and control. And in the waiting moments, Jesus molds our hearts, refines our intentions, and fosters a life of worship grounded in steadfast trust in His perfect timing. Waiting on God reassures us that He is always at work, even when we feel His absence.

In this article, I will examine three facets of God's work as we anticipate His direction: 1) the way He readies our hearts for obedience, 2) the manner in which He refines our motives through the Holy Spirit, and 3) the way our worship intensifies as we rely on God’s timing. These principles are upheld by Scripture and anchored in God’s constant nature as shown in Christ's redemptive work on the cross.

Divine Preparation

Waiting on God to act entails divine preparation. Hebrews 11:8 informs us that faith involves progressing without knowing the final destination and entirely relying on God's direction. During this period of waiting, God is assuredly at work in shaping our hearts, aligning our desires with His will, and cultivating the patience essential for faithful obedience.

Biblical characters such as Abraham and Joseph are excellent examples for us to consider. Abraham's faith was strengthened during his extended wait for a son as God cultivated trust and humility in him. Similarly, Joseph's endurance through adversity equipped him to govern Egypt and rescue his family, illustrating that preparation frequently precedes a divine mission. These two biblical examples teach us that whenever God leads us into a season of waiting, there is always a sacred mission to fulfill.

We all encounter these "waiting moments" where God is preparing us for divine action. Right now, I'm in a period of waiting to see how God might continue to guide me in parish ministry. Transferring my ministerial credentials from one Lutheran organization to another is a process that takes time, requires patience, and demands a prayerful and discerning attitude in submitting to the work of God's Holy Spirit. Moreover, during these waiting periods, we don't just sit idly as if we have endless time. Instead, we utilize our Spirit-given gifts to fulfill our responsibilities and to share Jesus' love with others. We become like the apostle Paul, who leveraged his God-given gifts to be a tent maker, making money with his own hands.

Theologically, this highlights the Holy Spirit's role in sanctification, which includes transforming us through challenges, changing our desires, and molding our character. We discuss sanctification similarly to justification, as both involve divine mercy granted to humanity and the strengthening of faith in everyday life, relying entirely on God rather than human efforts. Moreover, both justification and sanctification are acts of God, not of humans.

James 1:3-4 indicates that challenges foster perseverance, which is crucial for spiritual growth, obedience, and service. During periods of waiting, God grants grace, nurturing the fruit of the Spirit—patience, humility, and hope—so that when the moment is right, we can faithfully follow the Holy Spirit's direction. Honestly, patience isn't a natural trait for me, and my wife would certainly agree. This divine work continues to shape my heart and mind as I journey with Jesus each day. I often remind myself, "I am just a work in progress." And the truth is, so are you.

Thus, relying on the Lord prompts us to trust in Jesus' authority and readies our hearts not only for His deeds but also for who we are becoming in Christ.

Transforming Grace

Waiting for God acts as a time for self-reflection. It enables the Holy Spirit to evaluate and refine our motives. One crucial aspect of this is prayer. Prayer is more than just requesting or merely stating our laundry list of needs before God. Instead, it is a sacred moment where God invites us to examine our true intentions and postulate a heart of surrender to His divine leading. Psalm 139:23-24 exhorts us, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." This waiting period provides a significant opportunity for the Holy Spirit to conduct this spiritual assessment, guiding us on our path of faith.

The scriptures reveal that God's love is both patient and demanding. He evaluates our intentions not to judge us, but to extend mercy. God ensures that our prayers are genuine and rooted in faith, rather than driven by selfishness or impatience. If our motives are self-centered, prayer can become a form of negotiation where we make demands for God to act based on something we have said or done. This is not the correct approach. However, when refined by the Spirit of grace, prayer becomes an expression of trust and surrender to the One who knows everything from beginning to end.

The sanctification process entails eliminating selfish ambition, pride, or doubt. In John 15:1-8, Jesus is depicted as the true vine, with us as the branches. The Father prunes us to enhance our fruitfulness. Waiting on God, then, becomes a divine pruning process, aligning our desires with God's desires. As any follower of Jesus can attest, the pruning season can be pretty painful. But the result will enable growth, spiritual maturity, and deepen our faith in the living God. As we submit our motives to the Holy Spirit, God's love purifies our hearts, allowing our prayers to originate more from dependence on His grace than our own efforts.

The primary aim in all of this is internal transformation. When our lives are transformed by the person and work of the Holy Spirit, our prayers and intentions will better reflect trust in God's goodness, power, and love. The goal? Simply stated: to become more like Jesus. Isn't this the goal of the entirety of discipleship? In our waiting, we have the chance to become more like Christ, who fully trusted the Father's plan in Gethsemane and on the Cross. This transformative power of waiting encourages us to stay faithful, understanding that God is always at work during our times of waiting.

Perfect Timing

A life dedicated to worship is founded on trust—trust in God's perfect timing, His compassionate plans, and His eternal purposes. As one pastor expressed: "God is never late, never early, but always on time." Waiting deepens our worship by affirming that God's authority is absolute and steadfast. It transitions us from simply engaging in devotional practices to embracing a continuous lifestyle of trust and praise, regardless of the circumstances. Trusting Jesus, therefore, is an act of faith that God truly knows what is best and will work everything out for our good and to the praise of His glory.

God's sovereignty is central to understanding the perfect timing of God. As we trust in the faithfulness of almighty God, we confess that He is the Lord of history, our lives, and every blessing (Rom. 8:28-30). We need not live in fear lest we succumb to the enemies' plan to distract us from living in God's will. We must wait for God to act on our behalf. As the prophet Habakkuk said to the nation of Israel, who were waiting for God's redemptive plan: "Wait for it, for it will surely come" (c.f. Hab. 2:3). Therefore, in our waiting, we release our desire for control and entrust everything to God's capable hands.

Ultimately, waiting on God fosters a sense of dependence that turns our worship into a continual act of surrender and reverence. God seeks a heart that is surrendered, echoing Mary's words, "let it be to me according to your Word" (Lk. 1:38). By trusting in Jesus, we learn to wait with hopeful anticipation, confident that God is arranging everything for our good and for His glory.

As we wait on God, let us worship Jesus in spirit and truth, trusting that His plans are to give us hope and a future, both now and in the days to come (see Jer. 29:11).