“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).
Teach me, Lord, to wait! I am the first to admit I am not very good at waiting. I don’t like to wait for answers. I don’t like to wait for test results. I don’t want to wait to open presents either. I don’t want to wait until I read through the entire book to find out the ending. Counting today, I have five days until my surgery. I am having to wait.
I do much better when there are lots of things going on around me and I don’t get a chance to allow my thoughts to wander. It gives the enemy a chance to introduce doubts and fears. I have to take my thoughts captive. If I don’t, I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of all the things I need to do before I go for surgery, all the things that I need to make sure are taken care of while I’m gone for surgery, and all the things that will go on afterwards. All the things. Why do they seem so much bigger in the middle of the night?
I have been around this mountain once already. At the beginning of this journey, when I found out I had cancer, they were going to set the time of my surgery out 7 1/2 weeks, almost 2 full months from diagnosis of carcinoma. I had to fight to get a different surgeon, who kicked it up to 5 1/2 weeks. But those 5 1/2 weeks were intense. And during that time I learned to hang on tight to my Father in heaven.
So, waiting five days, now, is pretty small potatoes in comparison. The crazy thing is, in spite of me being impatient, I have absolute peace about the surgery and the outcome. I have from the very beginning when I learned of it. Lesson taught; lesson learned; lesson applied. My strength is renewed, and instead of being impatient, I am slowing down to absorb everything into my spirit that God intends for me to learn as I wait.
I want to walk on water! I want to soar with eagles! I will wait upon the Lord!