I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.
-Psalm 130:5
There are hard days and weeks and months and years. If Lent teaches us anything, maybe it should teach us the freedom to name our frustrations and the complexities of this daily walk. After these forty days are up, how much will we have grown? Will we realize that we need to be more dependent upon God and God’s word? Will we be able to freely name our failures? Most of all, will we have hope that none of those things are the end of this story that we're writing with God day by day?
It seems cliche to say “Wait for the Lord and have hope;” yet there is always a point in our lives where we have to do it. Our experiences shape us, which means that our experiences with God shape us, too. David is crying out to God for help with no absolute certainty that God hears him, but he cries and ultimately relies on his experiences with God to arrive at this point: I'll wait with hope.
What has God done that you can draw on to build your hope in the Word? What stories can you recall of God answering even where there were no clear answers available to you? What person (family, friend, Bible) might share a testimony with you?
God is at work for us, but we must allow the work to happen in God’s time and have hope in the many words we have been given.
O God, thank You for the ways You have been present for me many times before. Help me to depend more fully on You and Your Word, so that I may wait for You, hope in You, and share my life and story with others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.