Former Blackout Artist

“After the Lord was taken up into heaven, there was a brief period of waiting. The place of the traitor Judas was filled, but nothing else seems to have been done. No signs of power just yet! Just a little company of plain men and women, meeting for prayer in an upper room! But that upper room contained the hope of the world. In that room, the Christian Church received its baptism of power.”
– J. Gresham Machen

I don’t particularly enjoy waiting. I like plans. I like progress and clear answers. More than a few times I’ve found myself frustrated because God seemed to be moving far slower than I thought He should. I would pray, make my case, and remind Him (as if He needed reminding) why “time was of the essence.” And yet heaven remained quiet.

At the time I couldn’t understand it. We seldom do. But looking back, I realize the Lord was preparing me. And He was inviting me to trust Him.

But we’re human, and we tend to treat waiting as an unwelcome interruption… as if life cannot possibly resume until God answers our prayer, or opens the door, or changes our circumstances. But Scripture teaches us just the opposite.

What we do while we wait for the Lord matters.

David understood that. In both Psalm 27 and Psalm 40, he pours out his fears and desires before God, but he never stops exalting the Lord. He waits because he knows the character of the One he’s waiting on. God’s goodness, mercy, and power are never in question.

Paul and Silas understood it too. Waiting in a prison cell, uncertain whether morning would bring freedom or death, they prayed and sang hymns to God.

And Anna… she spent decades in the temple, worshipping with fasting and prayer until the day she was finally able to see the arrival of her long-awaited hope – the infant Jesus.

And in an upper room, a handful of ordinary believers waited exactly as Jesus had commanded – and not with restlessness or anxiety, but with unity in prayer. Before the Spirit came in power, there was a genuine and humble dependence.

So if you’re in a season of waiting, don’t waste it. Keep praying, keep worshipping, and keep trusting.

God often does His deepest work in us before He does His greatest work through us.