Waiting and Watching

I freely admit, I am not naturally a patient person. Waiting does not come easily to me: I would much rather be active, making progress – especially when it comes to reaching people with the ministry of Jesus. But I don’t believe in compulsion or doing things for the sake of being busy either – that’s worse than waiting. And in this season God has been quite clear that we are not to rush ahead into busy-ness until He shows the next step. So in His kindness and great patience He has been repeating the command to wait…

Like in the short picture that He gave me on Monday: just a brief snapshot of a line of people along the seashore, all looking expectantly out to sea – faithfully waiting and watching for what was coming next. The only movement was their hair and their clothing being blown about by the wind (symbolic of the Spirit moving), but they were stood still, their faces turned resolutely to the horizon: backs to the world, they were simply watching and waiting for the coming King, or what He was about to do. And that image has not left me all week. Even after I wrote about it on Monday, I felt there was more that God wanted to say through it.

Then this morning He took me to Isaiah 25:9 –
“And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God;
We have waited for Him, and He will save us.
This is the Lord;
We have waited for Him;
We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation“

The word ‘wait’ there is qavah – to wait expectantly, endure patiently: it’s a picture of a twisted rope, bound together and stretched in the tension of waiting. The tension of this kind of waiting is in it being an active, expectant waiting (not a passive one that allows us to disengage) but also a waiting that requires us to be still and focused, not busy with other things.
We need to be actively expectant of what Jesus is preparing us for, while also steadfastly refusing to be distracted into doing anything active! Even many ministry opportunities have the potential to be distractions right now.
And God has been repeatedly saying, “Wait. Don’t rush to move on.”
So we are waiting, but at times it is easy to feel wearied by the apparent endlessness of it. And when we are wearied by that place of constant tension, it can be all too easy to fall back to sleep.
Like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to wait in a certain spot while He went to pray but, exhausted by the tension of the moment, they all fell asleep. And when He returned Jesus said, “could you not keep watch with Me?” (Matt 26:40)

We are being asked to wait and watch – to wait with vigilance, alert to what is happening around us and what is brewing on the horizon; to have our eyes fixed on Him and Him alone, watching for his move, His command. We absolutely must be spiritually awake & clear-headed, watching, seeing & understanding. Over and over the Bible exhorts us to watch…
(Luke 12:37; 1 Cor 16:13; Col 4:2; 1 Pet 5:8; Rev 3:2-3; Rev 16:15)
And the verse that really leapt out at me today was in 1 Thess 5:6 – Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober (NKJV)
Or as The Message puts it, “let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others”
Watching is more than being awake – it’s being awake and alert. The sleepwalking analogy from The Message illustrates this perfectly. There are those who appear to be awake, moving through life as if they had a purpose and understanding, but they are asleep to the spirit-realm, ignorant to the truth of God’s Kingdom. Obviously this refers to those who are not born-again of the Spirit, but also, it seems, to some believers…
1 Thess 5:14 – “We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to instruct those who are not in their place of battle. Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. Be faithful to stand your ground. Help the weak to stand again”.

So as God has been reiterating this week, let’s receive this reminder again to wait – not to rush ahead into whatever we feel God might or should be doing next – and just to keep watch: to hold our position and encourage those around us to do the same. It is only by watching for and focusing on Jesus that we will be ready for what comes after the wait