Do the next faithful thing
What does it mean to wait? You show up for an appointment and the person at the desk directs you to sit in the waiting room. You’re getting gas for a road trip and your friend says, “Wait here just a minute, I’m going to run in and grab a soda.”
But what are you doing in these or countless other situations? Maybe you scroll around on your phone until your friend returns or watch HGTV until your doctor is ready to see you. But both of those actions are just place-holders, right? They serve as distractions from waiting more than as acts in or of themselves.
Most of the time, when we think of waiting we mean staying put until the next thing happens. According to this understanding we remain stationary until the circumstances around us change.
All throughout the Scriptures, Christians are instructed to wait on the Lord. But is this what the Scriptures are getting at - simply holding our place until the next thing happens?
Jesus’s teaching in Luke chapter 12 leads us to a different and better understanding of waiting.
“Be ready for service and have your lamps lit. 36 You are to be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. 37 Blessed will be those servants the master finds alert when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will get ready, have them recline at the table, then come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the middle of the night, or even near dawn, and finds them alert, blessed are those servants.”
In this parable and the two following Jesus illustrates Christian waiting. And what the Lord describes looks more like readiness than staying put. The three parables together ultimately have the sure and glorious return of the Risen Lord in mind. In a smaller way, though, they depict what it means for a Christian to wait faithfully.
In the parable, those waiting for the master are anything but passive. They are dressed - belts around their waists, equipped - lamps lit, and alert - about the master’s business, preparing for His return. For Christians waiting is not simply staying put until the next thing happens. Waiting is active.
Has God placed a calling on your life but hasn’t opened the door yet for you to walk through? Has the Lord burdened your heart for some work but the pieces aren’t quite in place? Surely these variables are subject to His sovereign authority. So, what are you to do?
Do the next faithful thing. What does that mean? It means the small, steady steps of faithful readiness. Position yourself continually under the authority of His Word (Psalm 1:1-2). Commune with the Lord in prayer (Rom. 12:12). Confess sin before Him and before your brothers and sisters in Christ (1 John 1:5-10). Encourage your family in Christ to pursue Him through accountability, hospitality, and exhortation (1 Pet. 4:8-11). Share the hope of Christ that is within you with your neighbors (2 Cor. 5:20).
So, yes, that means getting up and gathering with your brothers and sisters each Lord’s Day morning. Yes, that means calling that friend who is struggling and in need of counsel or encouragement. Yes, that means dragging your sin into the light again. And yes, that means returning over and over to read and meditate on His Word.
This isn’t mechanical. We ought not think that we can obligate God to any course of action by some action on our part. But we ought to be continually about cultivating a life of active devotion to and trust in Him. And we can believe that whether we see it or not, He is at work accomplishing His will and purpose. We cannot know when He will open the door but we do know that when He does He blesses those whom He finds alert.
This is the good way. This is the way of Christian flourishing.
Friend, God is sovereign. His promises are sure. Not one of His plans will fail. And He is good. In one sense, all of the Christian life is one of waiting. But it is not one of passivity or inaction. Stay awake, stay the course, do the next faithful thing.
Blessed are those whose waiting is faithfully active.