Day 18

Wait on the Lord. Adapted from Psalm 27:14, Psalm 33:20-22, Psalm 130:5- 6. My soul waits for You, Lord. My soul waits, and in Your word I do hope. My soul waits for You more than those who watch for the morning—Yes, more than those who watch for the morning. From You I gather strength and trust. Yes, I wait for You, Lord. You are my help and my shield. My heart rejoices in You because I trust Your holy name. I ask for Your loving kindness to be upon me, Lord, as I have waited for You. Amen.

In rereading our commentary from Pray. Act. Pray Again, I was struck by the reminder that “when we are not waiting for God, God is waiting for us! ‘Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30.18).’”

The title of our book—Pray. Act. Pray Again—is meant to help us see that a relationship with God is fluid. When we pray, it not just to tell God what is on our mind, it is also a time to listen. The “Act” part of praying is what happens when we have waited to discern what God is placing on our hearts. In the years that I have made communication with God the center of my life, every other relationship has improved. Waiting for the Holy Spirit to nudge me to act does not mean that I am passive; it simply means I have opened my heart to hear God’s messages. I remember so many times that a person has been placed on my heart and I have stopped what I was doing and reached out to them, only to discover that they needed contact with another human being. Once when I was driving home from Trinity UMC, I thought of a woman whose house was on my way home. I got the feeling that I needed to stop in to see her. Now it had been a long day, and I was really eager to be home, but something made me drive to her house. When I knocked on the door, she greeted me with a hug and said, “I am so glad to see you.” She had just gotten a call that her niece had died after a long battle with cancer. The visit was brief, but the blessing was on both of us. Will we wait to hear from the Lord, and then when we hear, will we act?