They That Wait Upon the Lord
Learning to hope, wait, abide, and trust
I’m a collector of personal journals, and sometimes I sift through my completed ones. I enjoy looking at the varied covers and reading the thoughts and memories held within. So often, it seems like my life circles back to the same themes over and over again. It’s as if God wants me to learn these lessons and is using spaced repetition to help me to “get it”!
Waiting on God
Waiting on the Lord is one of those circling-back kind of themes.
Two years ago, I journaled about how the word, “hope,” in the Bible is sometimes translated as “wait.” For example, the NIV translates Isaiah 40:31 as “hope,” while the KJV opts for “wait”:
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (NIV)
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (KJV)
Reading these verses this transports me to the 1980s, and I picture a congregation singing the chorus, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…teach me Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait.” Waiting…
