Waiting on God

How easy to do you find it to wait on something important? I must say I find it quite a challenge which is probably why the theme keeps cropping up in this blog. My current wait is for a date for my second mastectomy. I was originally due to have this surgery on 29^th December but just before Christmas I finally caught Covid after successfully evading it for over two years. Understandably my surgery was immediately cancelled and I was told that I would be given another date in the New Year.

Since then, I have been waiting for the phone to ring. On various occasions I have tried to take matters into my own hands and have rung the admissions line only to be greeted by an ansaphone message which says something along the lines of ‘If you are ringing to find out your surgery date – don’t! We will ring you.’

I have huge sympathy for the staff of the NHS at this terribly difficult time and am frankly horrified by the impact that the current crisis is having on patients and their families. Every death and any suffering caused by the pressure on the NHS is a tragedy. At the same time, I have spent the last couple of months psyching myself up for this surgery after the with the drama round my previous mastectomy (I suffered and internal haemorrhage and required resuscitation and emergency surgery) and there is only so long once can maintain such a state of preparedness.

While I wait I am also avoiding socialising so as not to contract any of the other viruses that are currently running rampant and the uncertainty means that I am unable to take on any new work for clients.  My life is in limbo, but once again God seems to be using these circumstances as an opportunity for learning.

The book of Ruth

The other day, when I was feeling particularly vexed about the uncertainty of the next few months, I stumbled across a programme by Pastor Joseph Prince on TBN UK about the book of Ruth. He said that at time when he had really been struggling with waiting he had been given a passage from the Chapter 3 which recounts how on the advice or her mother-in-law Naomi, Ruth the Moabite went to the threshing floor of her kinsman-redeemer Boaz and enacted a traditional proposal by lying at his feet as he slept after threshing the harvest.

Naomi’s hope was that Boaz, who is seen in the light of the New Testament as a ‘type of Christ’, would redeem the land that belonged to her late husband and at the same time bring her under his roof as her wife. There was however another who could challenge this plan, so Boaz tells her to return home while Boaz negotiates with the other potential redeemer in the presence of the town elders. When she returns to her mother-in-law, Naomi tells her ‘Wait my daughter until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today’ (3:18).

It was this passage that drew Joseph Prince up short and one that I have been meditating on, because if Boaz the redeemer is indeed type of Christ, then there is a very important lesson here i.e., that just because we may feel that nothing is happening while we are waiting, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work on our behalf.

Trusting that God is on the case

In fact, it’s a message that is repeated throughout the Bible. In Exodus 14:14, when the Israelites were being pursued by the Pharoah and his men, Moses told them ‘The Lord will fight for you , you only have to be still.’ In his final speech as he challenged God’s rebellious people over their lack of faithfulness, the prophet Samuel told them ‘Now then, stand still and see the great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes’ (1 Sam. 12:16) upon which the Lord responded with an impressive climatic display to emphasise his power. And in the beautiful thirty-seventh Psalm, David assures the people that God is fully aware of all the challenges that they suffer and the seemingly paradoxical prospering of the wicked and instructs them ‘Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act’(Ps.37: 7).

When we face the challenges of life, especially those that don’t seem to be resolving as quickly as we would like them to do, we are called on to stop agitating about the issue and instead to be still, and trust that God is on the case.  Some of these passages seem to suggest that he will resolve our issues today but we need to remember that ‘With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day’ (2 Peter 3:8). He will answer our prayers, but not necessarily to our deadline. in the meantime, we are to be still and trust that God is on the case.

Dear Lord, today I hand over to you all my worries, concerns and impatience and I will be still, for I know that you are on the throne – and will stop bothering the admissions team!

Post script

 I can’t  believe it. Just as I was about to post this, I received a call from the admissions office to tell me that my surgery will go ahead

on 24^th January!  A live example of God’s teaching methods.

Kate Nicholas is a preacher, Christian author, broadcaster and consultant. Her memoir Sea Changed an account of her unconventional journey of faith and previous healing from advanced cancer.  Her latest book is Soul' Scribe – a guide to understanding and sharing your soul story.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay