It is a blessed word upon which your prayer is stayed, for the prophet tells us what eye has not seen and ear has not heard, that there is a God who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. There is a waiting God and there is a waiting people, and the wonder is that He waits to be gracious unto us.
Behold how the heart of God yearns towards His people. When everything has broken down and we come back to God and to salvation through Jesus Christ, we find the Lord lovingly waiting, graciously waiting, a God ready to pardon. Such is His singular patience. And when God has waited for the soul, that soul is brought to wait on Him. His patience is not in vain towards His chosen.
You ask to be taught how to wait with quiet confidence and active trust, and this is true wisdom. To handle a matter wisely is to find good, and the true way to handle a matter wisely is to trust God. We are not to be rash, for God is a God of economy and order. We are to act in all prudence and in all uprightness, and yet to rely simply and entirely upon Him. Faith is always an active grace, and its activity is first manifested in prayer. As David in the cave could say, I will cry unto God most High, unto God that performs all things for me, so you also may cry unto Him and leave all with Him.
This is the faith that pleases God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for without faith we cannot recognize Him, approach Him, or commune with Him. But by faith we hang upon nothing but the promise of God, and have no other support but that, needing nothing to uphold us but the right hand of the Majesty on high. You can judge whether you are His by this, can you say, My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him. Trust you in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.
Remember in whom you trust. You trust not in a dead force or a distant deity, but in the living God, who made heaven and earth and sustains all things by His mighty power. He is not an inactive God who leaves the world to go on by itself. He is a thinking God, an active God, a working, personal God with a great, warm, loving heart, who comes into the midst of this world and works behind the scenes for His people. Though you cannot see what He is preparing or perceive how He is moving, He is even now acting for those who wait for Him.
Therefore cast all you have upon Him, and all you have not, cast upon Him also. If your faith seems but little, despise it not. Little faith is still true faith, born from above, and it is safe because Christ is near. He that has promised to keep you will keep you. Instead of fearing that you cannot hold on, despair of holding on yourself and fix your entire reliance upon Him who performs all things for you.
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. May He strengthen your faith in His character and His perfect timing, and teach you that quiet confidence which rests on His past faithfulness and that active trust which obeys His precept and cries unto Him in prayer. He will not turn away from those who trust Him. He cannot and will not fail you.
Our prayer with you is this, Gracious Father, Thou art the living and true God who works for those who wait for Thee. Forgive our restless and anxious thoughts and our wicked fears. Help us to wait only upon Thee, with expectation from Thee alone. Give us grace to trust Thy blood and Thy finished righteousness, and to cast our nakedness, our hunger, and our very life upon Thee. Direct our hearts into Thy love and into patient waiting, that we may find Thee faithful in Thy time, which is always good and wise. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our hope and our salvation, Amen.
