Hope and Quietly Wait

A couple Sundays ago, Pastor mentioned a verse in passing that has stuck with me ever since.

“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:26)

I am in a season of learning again the lessons of trust and patience as I seek God’s guidance for the many details and decisions of the publication process. There is one detail I have been praying for God’s leading on for weeks now, and that Sunday I was particularly discouraged by the seeming lack of answer to my prayers for God’s direction and provision. Maybe that’s why this verse hit me the way it did.

I realized I was waiting, but not hoping, and certainly not with quietness of heart. Since that moment, I have sought to have a Godward perspective, looking at the situation with hopeful expectation instead of distress and impatience. I am learning that, as Solomon said,

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Seasons of waiting may be months or years long, or they may be only a matter of days and hours. In a busy season, when every minute seems to matter, I find it hard to wait even an hour for anything. But God has used this one unresolved detail in my book launch plans to teach me to wait quietly, and to rest in His timing instead of fretting over upcoming deadlines I can’t do anything about yet.

Yes, there are things that are time-sensitive, but if I am waiting for something, I can trust that God knows what He is doing in arranging the timing of it.

Perhaps you, too, are in a season of waiting. Remember that God says it is good to both hope and quietly wait for God to work.

“The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.” Lamentations 3:25