“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.” (Psalm 130:5)

Waiting is one of the difficult tasks of life. The more we anticipate the thing waited for, the harder it becomes. Perhaps all of us have a moment of, “How long, O Lord?” Even doing His work can sometimes require a lot of patience from us. It may be that because we are involved in what we see as spiritual things dealing with souls that we find it hard to be patient.

I once had a dear friend whom I wanted so much to be a part of the active body of Christ. I taught and encouraged him to become a child of the Christ, but he would not move further than he was. Don’t misunderstand; he wasn’t a bad person but rather the opposite, he was a wonderful man living as we think good people should. He did not want to be baptized, and he was not too interested in attending church. I taught, led, and prayed for three years and then he moved away. Later I saw him again, and at that time I urged him to obey his Lord and take an active part in His church but to no avail.

Then many years later I received word that he had yielded to the gospel and gave himself wholeheartedly to the Lord. He died not too long ago an active leader in the church where he worshipped. To be honest, I had waited so long that I had given up hope. But God had not. God is patient not wanting anyone to be lost but waiting to give everyone as much time as they need.

Task for Today: Two things to do today if you aren’t doing them already. First, read the promises of God in His word. Put them to memory. Second, don’t give up on the promises because God is faithful. Let your soul wait with the assurance that what God has promised He will do. We have the assurance that if we labor we will reap, we just need to wait for the Lord.