Living His Word

Isaiah 30:18 ERV: So the LORD is waiting to show his mercy to you. He wants to rise and comfort you. The LORD is the God who does the right thing, so he will bless everyone who waits for his help.

We don’t usually think of God as being a God who waits. After all, He is the Sovereign Lord of the universe. He can do what He wants when He wants. He doesn’t have to wait for anything. All He has to do is speak and worlds come into being. He says: “My words make the things happen that I want to happen” (Isaiah 55:11). Nevertheless, our verse for today tells us that God is waiting for us. He is waiting for us to come to a certain point and then He will spring into action.

What God is waiting for is the opportunity to rise up from His waiting and comfort us, show us His mercy, and help us in our time of need. God is a God who wants to do the right thing by us. He wants to help us, but He wants something to happen before He rises up to show Himself strong on our behalf. If we will come to a certain point, if we will do the right thing, then God will do the right thing for us.

The point that God wants us to reach is the point where we stop trying to make it on our own apart from Him. God wants us to turn to Him and wait. One might say that God is waiting for us to wait. He could help us without any waiting on our part if He wanted to, but He wants us to wait for Him. He wants us to honor Him as God by waiting for Him to decide when to act. What He doesn’t want is for us to give up on waiting and try to go it alone. What He doesn’t want is for us to give up on Him as God.

God is God. He is the Sovereign Lord and King over all things. We are subjects in His Kingdom. It is only fitting and proper that we wait on Him to move on our behalf.

And we can count on Him, because the Lord is the God who does the right thing.