22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
(Lamentations 3:22-26)
At this interesting juncture in my life, verse 26 hits differently. That part about waiting quietly for God's salvation raises some eyebrows.
What does it mean to wait quietly?
The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah in response to the city of Jerusalem being besieged by the Babylonians. I grew up in the church and I never heard a preacher preach a sermon from that book, so I kind of took an interest in it. I mean the root of the word "Lamentations" is "lament", to express grief or sorrow. Sometimes when stuff happens to us in life, we like to express our feelings to others and ourselves concerning what we don't like about pressing circumstances.
However, I am learning that "waiting quietly" is also synonymous as "waiting in faith." It takes a lot to wait for something and not say anything about it. It's even more difficult when you want the situation to change and you feel that you have to take actions into your own hands.
As a man, it can be tough to say this. But the Bible is telling us to wait for the Lord to be our knight in shining armor, not for us to be the knight in shining armor. And that can be hard, especially when you don't always feel sure that things will get better, which is why faith is so important.
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