The last few weeks have been action packed, exhilarating, trying, exhausting, incredible. The fall feasts were wonderful as always, but in a new way. Isn’t that how it is? Each step we take brings new revelation and experience to light. The Father has been very busy facilitating deliverance and restoration via the ministry He does through Healing Wings. Prayers of long standing are beginning to be answered - His timing.
I want to share something about prayers and timing. One of my sons left home for a time before he graduated high school. It was his desire to not have contact with us - his parents. During this time, I would spend hours on my face in my walk-in closet (this was also my prayer closet :)) praying for him very specifically, crying out for his return. Weeks went by and then months went by and seemingly nothing. They say divorce is worse than death because usually it is a choice to leave vs. being taken away. This felt like that. My own child chose to leave and he was old enough to go, but it wasn’t time yet and my heart was broken.
One day the phone rang and it was my son saying he wanted to come home. One prayer answered. After he returned, we spent many nights talking into the wee hours. He shared many things that God had showed him or that he had learned while away and I just sat in awe of our God and how my specific prayers had been answered so specifically.
Often after that, when I would get discouraged about not seeing results, Abba would bring to my mind how He worked and answered behind the scene, so to speak, in this instance with my son.
Impatience is not a virtue.
The word most often translated “wait” in the sense of waiting on the Lord is the Hebrew qavah. Qavah means (1) “to bind together” (like the twisting of strands together in a rope), (2) “look patiently,” (3) “tarry or wait,” and (4) “hope, expect, look eagerly.”
The second most frequently used word translated “wait” is yachal. Yachal means “to wait,” or “hope, wait expectantly,” and is so translated in our English Bibles. The KJV sometimes translates yachal as “trust” as in Isaiah 51:5, but the NASB has “wait expectantly” and the NIV “wait in hope.”
A third word sometimes translated “wait” is damam. Damam means “to be dumb, grow silent, be still,” but it is sometimes translated “wait, tarry, rest” as in Psa. 62:5 KJV.
A fourth word for waiting is chakah, “to wait, tarry,” or “long for” (see: Ps. 33:20; 106:13; Isa. 30:18).
Generally, the word means allowing time to pass for benefit. We, as a society, are not inclined to wait. Waiting makes us grumpy and irritable. The flesh wants instant gratification. How often have you looked for the shortest line at the grocery store only to find the person at the end of the really long line you avoided is now checking out while you are still waiting?
My sister told the story of a time she took a dirt road to avoid a crowded main road. She had to stop at a sign and wait for farm equipment to s l o w l y move across the intersection. She was fuming by the time it had all passed. Farther down the road, she came upon an accident that had just happened at another intersection. She was struck by the fact that this could have been her had she not had to wait five minutes. Was this providence, or YHVH’s intervention, or just coincidence?
All things work together for good . . . But the Scripture doesn’t stop there.
All things work together for good to those who love YHVH and are called according to His purpose. Can we purpose to exercise the spiritual fruit of patience and wait, tarry, hope, expect, look eagerly, rest, long for, and trust that which is His perfect will in His perfect timing? There is the alternative . . . which most of us know all to well.
Father, I purpose to come into alignment with Your will, Your, plan, Your timing.
I want to share something about prayers and timing. One of my sons left home for a time before he graduated high school. It was his desire to not have contact with us - his parents. During this time, I would spend hours on my face in my walk-in closet (this was also my prayer closet :)) praying for him very specifically, crying out for his return. Weeks went by and then months went by and seemingly nothing. They say divorce is worse than death because usually it is a choice to leave vs. being taken away. This felt like that. My own child chose to leave and he was old enough to go, but it wasn’t time yet and my heart was broken.
One day the phone rang and it was my son saying he wanted to come home. One prayer answered. After he returned, we spent many nights talking into the wee hours. He shared many things that God had showed him or that he had learned while away and I just sat in awe of our God and how my specific prayers had been answered so specifically.
Often after that, when I would get discouraged about not seeing results, Abba would bring to my mind how He worked and answered behind the scene, so to speak, in this instance with my son.
Impatience is not a virtue.
The word most often translated “wait” in the sense of waiting on the Lord is the Hebrew qavah. Qavah means (1) “to bind together” (like the twisting of strands together in a rope), (2) “look patiently,” (3) “tarry or wait,” and (4) “hope, expect, look eagerly.”
The second most frequently used word translated “wait” is yachal. Yachal means “to wait,” or “hope, wait expectantly,” and is so translated in our English Bibles. The KJV sometimes translates yachal as “trust” as in Isaiah 51:5, but the NASB has “wait expectantly” and the NIV “wait in hope.”
A third word sometimes translated “wait” is damam. Damam means “to be dumb, grow silent, be still,” but it is sometimes translated “wait, tarry, rest” as in Psa. 62:5 KJV.
A fourth word for waiting is chakah, “to wait, tarry,” or “long for” (see: Ps. 33:20; 106:13; Isa. 30:18).
Generally, the word means allowing time to pass for benefit. We, as a society, are not inclined to wait. Waiting makes us grumpy and irritable. The flesh wants instant gratification. How often have you looked for the shortest line at the grocery store only to find the person at the end of the really long line you avoided is now checking out while you are still waiting?
My sister told the story of a time she took a dirt road to avoid a crowded main road. She had to stop at a sign and wait for farm equipment to s l o w l y move across the intersection. She was fuming by the time it had all passed. Farther down the road, she came upon an accident that had just happened at another intersection. She was struck by the fact that this could have been her had she not had to wait five minutes. Was this providence, or YHVH’s intervention, or just coincidence?
All things work together for good . . . But the Scripture doesn’t stop there.
All things work together for good to those who love YHVH and are called according to His purpose. Can we purpose to exercise the spiritual fruit of patience and wait, tarry, hope, expect, look eagerly, rest, long for, and trust that which is His perfect will in His perfect timing? There is the alternative . . . which most of us know all to well.
Father, I purpose to come into alignment with Your will, Your, plan, Your timing.
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