Desert Waiting

Our family taking a break "in the bush" on a long road-trip.

Advent is our reminder of waiting.

I think back to Habakkuk crying out to God, "How long Lord must I cry for help, but you don't listen?" The Bible has so many great examples of faithful waiters. It makes me feel immature in waiting. Waiting seems almost like a promised inevitability in our lives. We lift up so many prayers and wait. Yet I remember a Beth Moore comment from her Genesis Bible study. Something like, "Imagine if God had answered all my prayers. I would be married 10 times."

And so we wait on God's timing for answered prayers, even though the time of waiting feels like our trek through a dry and inhospitable desert. In our city on the edge of the desert, this season means we are waiting for the daily city water cuts to start. And waiting for what we know will be many months until there is any precipitation to freshen up the vegetation, make the roads less soft and sandy, and take the penetrating haze of dust out of the air. Can we wait that long for answers to prayers?

After reading about the answered prayers of the famed missionary George Muller that could often fall in the category of miracles, it is hard to have unanswered prayers. Am I not praying correctly? Am I praying for the wrong things?

The promise that has carried me through a time of waiting is from Jeremiah 29:11. "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you." This assures me that my waiting is for my own good even though it seems like a dry time.

-- La Maestra