Day 2: Courage to Wait

Bible Reading: Psalm 27

I read a story many years ago about a younger tree feller who really felt he could outdo this older man that was really recognised and highly regarded in the profession. The younger tree feller was much stronger and more agile than the older man, and wondered why he wouldn’t be able to cut down more trees than the older man if they had a contest. So he challenged the older man to a tree-cutting competition. Both men went to a forest and agreed to cut freely for three hours, at the end of which they would count who had cut down more trees. 

‘Start!’ 

The younger tree feller swings as hard as he can without stopping for the entirety of the three hours. He was determined not to give the older man a chance at winning. To his delight, he noticed the older man sitting down to rest for some five minutes, every fifteen minutes. 

Well, when the three hours was over and they took a count, they realised that the older man had cut more trees! 

‘How?’ The younger man exclaimed. ‘I saw you sit down every fifteen minutes and rest for five minutes! I didn’t stop cutting at all!’

The older man smiled: ‘Well, every time I sat down, I was sharpening my axe.’

In a world that is so fast paced, and  especially in a day and age in which it seems that there is everything to catch up with, it takes a whole lot of courage to wait! For every second that you wait, you feel like you’re losing something. 

But waiting is still a sharpening and strengthening secret of the believer. I believe one of the expressions of courage that we need in this season is the courage to wait. The courage to seek God. The courage to wait on God for a refreshing and a renewal. The courage to wait on God’s timings and God’s wisdom in seasons- to wait on God’s leading. The truth is that I really need the Lord to teach me, prepare me and sharpen me, and that takes waiting on Him.

I pray that in this season, as we seek God, that you will be made deeply aware that drawing the catapult backwards is not retrogression. It is what launches it forward. Ordered steps will do so much more in effectiveness and fruitfulness than rushed steps. And that’s what we are aligned into as we wait.

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
 Psalm 27:14 NKJV

That takes courage!

But those who wait for the Lord will receive new strength. They will lift up their wings and soar like eagles. They will run and not become weary. They will walk and not become tired. Isaiah 40:31 EHV

Read that again- Notice, we sometimes lift up wings and soar, sometimes we run, sometimes we even slow down and walk. But through all the different paces of life, our lives are routed out of a posture of waiting  on God and walking in the newness of strength. 

Something To Pray

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
Psalm  27:13 NKJV

Would you pray today not to lose heart in the waiting spaces. Pray for courage to trust and wait on the Lord and to be strengthened anew through that.