![[Photo two roads in the desert]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/waiting_and_waiting.jpg)
| “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.” |
| —Psalm 40:1a |
I have two very dear and special friends who have now waited a number of years for God to answer their prayers for a new job. Each of them have highly specialized training and skills along with world-class credentials. They are also each more than 60 years old and would be considered by many employers as a risk not worth taking. Each also lost a perfectly good job through no fault of his or her own and because of horribly sinful actions on the part of others.
For a long time, even as I have prayed with them and for them, I have thought that they needed to surrender any idea of using their skills and training in a way they might normally expect and open themselves up to some totally new task that God might have for them. I’ve even felt that God is waiting to bring that new task to light until they completely let go of any preconceived ideas and surrender into His perfect will.
Of course it’s easy for me to coach from the sidelines where the overwhelming intensity of their personal pain is dulled by distance. Yet, I can’t shake the idea that God is waiting for each of them to completely let go of their past successes and look to God for a new venture that will complete their working careers in a fresh, exciting, and very different way than they might expect.
I’m sensing God wants to place a “new song” in their hearts—because that’s what He did for me when disability ended my career as a fire protection engineer. God gave me a totally new task to do for Him. This new task has proven more fulfilling than anything I did previously during my 45-year-long career in fire protection.
The Psalmist understood how excruciatingly painful it can be to wait for God to answer a prayer for help. Notice these words from Psalm 40:1-3:
I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
In our own walk along the road of life, let us continue to wait for the Lord to respond to our prayers and also look forward to the new song He will put in our mouths. I invite you to pray for anyone in your life who may be waiting for an answer from God. Please pray that God will overwhelm them with something exciting and new, that their waiting will come to a glorious end, and that the Holy Spirit will reward them for each of the long days they have waited while God seemed to remain silent.
And, dear ones, while we—you and I—wait day by day for His answer to our prayers, let’s remember that letting Him work in and through us, following His schedule not ours, is always the best. When God does finally respond, we can gladly say: “Thank You, God, for a new song!”
Based on a blog originally posted on Monday, June 22, 2015
