Blessed Are the Peacemakers: When Waiting Is Hard

When Waiting Is Hard

It has often been said that “Patience is enduring difficult circumstances while longsuffering is enduring difficult people.  People can definitely leave us feeling helpless and exhausted. I often wonder why people are so much harder to endure?!? 😂  

When I read phrases like suffereth long, and is kind and not easily provoked in the Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, I think of longsuffering. We do not have peace in our relationships without longsuffering. It is all a part of the jam.

When family relationships turn into a trial, there is much we can learn when we seek godly wisdom. Micah 7: 5-8 is a passage that has really helped me with my own personal struggles. This passage has taught me the importance of waiting. We learn not only how to wait and what to do while waiting, but also the blessing that comes to those who wait upon the Lord.

Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.

Light is given and great peace comes when we choose to wait on God. Micah 7:7 teaches what to do while you wait: 

1. First, we need to look to God.

When we have our eyes on people,  we lose focus. Does any good come from allowing people to live rent-free in our head? In the book of Esther, we see a perfect example of this. Haman could not get Mordecai out of his head. 

I love what my friend, Amy Vassak, had to say about the “Haman Syndrome:"

“Haman had everything going for him: money, power, prestige, influence, position, a loving wife, supportive friends, and even the ear of the king! Ninety-nine percent of his life was so good it should have been enough to carry him through any period of discouragement or darkness. Sadly, it wasn’t. All Haman could focus on was the one percent that wasn’t going his way. Mordecai, the nemesis he had created in his own mind, wouldn’t bow to him. Yes, Haman had the world by the tail and yet he finds a reason to still make this statement: “Yet all this availeth me nothing as long as I see Mordecai.” What kind of life is it that won’t allow a human being to see the ninety-nine percent that is clear in life and only focus on the one percent that is not? It’s the same kind of darkness that gets you and me to focus on what is going wrong when so many things are going right.”

Let's keep our eyes on Jesus!

2. Next, we are told to wait for God.

Micah notes that we are waiting for the God of my salvation. The very God who saved us from eternal death in hell is the God Who is able to help us with patience and endurance when it comes to people problems. I can know that God is at work in my life. God is also working in the lives of others. Even if, that someone has been against me in some way.

Let us remember that we are waiting on an eternal God. His work is always done in His time.

3. Finally, we are expected to pray to God.

Micah 7:7 says, “my God will hear me.” I have found that God never hears the prayers I have never prayed. We pray believing God hears. Believing God hears our prayer makes our prayer a prayer of faith. 

When we walk in the flesh waiting can feel like suffering. The Holy Spirit empowers us to endure with longsuffering.

We fall and at times fail others. God’s Word admonishes us to get back up. The Holy Spirit is our Comforter Who comes alongside us to help us arise and shine for Jesus.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1

We will face dark times. We will not always know what to do, or clearly see the path to take. So we wait for the Holy Spirit to shine the light of truth in our hearts.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6

Waiting is hard, but not impossible with the Holy Spirit Who lives inside of us. Patiently waiting on God to work in our lives and in the lives of others has such great value! 

 Here is a verse I quote when I feel the wait is especially long:  

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in HIs Word do I hope. Psalm 130:5

The light of Christ that leads to peace is worth waiting for!

We can live in the flesh and allow the actions of others to cause us to react impetuously, or we can live in the Spirit, filled with longsuffering, waiting for God to show up and light the way. God will show up for those who wait for Him!

Practical tip #4 

Write out Psalm 130:5.

Put it somewhere you can see it.

Feeling anxious about a relationship?

Choose to wait for the clear leading of the Lord. 

Make a commitment to look to God and to wait for Him.