The Sovereignty of God in the Waiting Room of Life

In life, we’ve been in limbo a number of times, and it’s where we currently sit. The waiting rooms of life happen to us all, and often without warning.

• Waiting for the tests to reveal, “What is this illness ravaging my body?”
• Waiting for the right employer to offer a position.
• Waiting for a proposal from the man you hope will ask.
• Waiting for word back from a friend after a disagreement
• Waiting for a positive pregnancy test after miscarriages or months of experiencing disappointment each month while we’re “trying”

Our natural inclination in those moments is to stress over delays, and with increasing tightness to clutch control of the situation. Sometimes, when we are desperate for a solution, we’re tempted to hope in, or fear, men. But no matter our circumstances, neither our hope, nor our fear, can ultimately be in men. Only God deserves our hope and our right & reverent fear.

The waiting room of life is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to God’s sovereignty. 

• Do we REALLY trust God to oversee the details, as we see our bank account diminishing?
• Do I trust Him to oversee the timing, when it feels like my health or heart is on the line and things aren’t going as fast as I’d like?
• Can my heart be at rest, trusting God, when all is urgent and uncertain?

OR:

• Am I placing my faith in my competency or goodness? Or someone else’s (a doctor? accountant? husband? friend? boyfriend?)?
• Am I falling prey to a churning anxiety rather than being prayerfully at rest?
• Am I hoping in vitamins, a special diet, or exercise regimen to heal or make me well?
• Am I clutching and grasping over the ability to control the speed and specifics of how the situation progresses?

If we trust God at all, we MUST trust Him in these times of waiting. It’s these times that reveal the truth about our trust & faith.

Does God’s sovereignty mean that we do nothing? That we just sit around waiting all the time? No. A thousand times no! But there are times when you have done all you can do. You’ve fasted and prayed and researched and sought the Lord’s will and applied for jobs and altered your diet and asked for wise counsel.

You’ve done all that you can do, and you find yourself in the waiting room. The truth is that God is sovereign in the good times, and sovereign in the hard times. He is sovereign in the times when there is nothing we ourselves can *do* and yet things around us are still not as we would like for them to be. 

Joseph said to his brothers, speaking of all the hardship he’d experienced, “you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good.” God meant it. Meant it. Do you remember what that “it” refers to– being left for dead, sold to slaves, betrayed, jailed, forgotten, humiliated? God meant it.

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
~Proverbs 19:21

When the rainclouds are pouring, the diagnosis is uncertain, or the job path is unclear, our hearts can REST in God’s goodness and perfect Lordship over the details and process, just as we REST in His goodness and Lordship when skies are blue.

He is the same God at the sunny apex of the mountain as He is in the foggy, mucky valley.

His goodness is not shaken because our circumstances seem gray. Words like “never” or “impossible” hold no power over Him. He sees our wounds and our hopes and our fears and our needs.

He reigns, still absolutely sovereign, as we sit in the waiting room of life.

When you look around and realize you’ve done all you can do, and things still look bleak, rest in the God of your salvation. He created you, He knows your inmost parts. Trust in His goodness. Instruct your heart: “Do not be anxious, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God.” (Phil 4:6-7) “Cast your burdens on Him, for He cares for you.” (1 Pet 5:7) His sovereignty has not run out, or gone defunct, in your life. He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Deut 31:6-8, Heb 13:5-6) Trust Him. Cling to Him. Let me encourage you– and instruct my own heart in the process– when you are in the waiting room of life, ACTIVELY choose to trust and hope in our sovereign God. 

 

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