Waiting can be hard. It can be exciting. 

Have you ever seen a flash of lightning and counted to see how far away the impending storm was by when the boom of thunder came? Whether it is barely a minute or several, there’s a time of waiting for what we expect will come next—the sound of thunder. We do so much waiting in our lives. We wait for red lights, phone calls, responses to texts, visits from friends, even things to arrive in the mail. While we may get impatient at times, life involves waiting. Our “aha” for this week is about just that and it comes from Exodus 24:16,18 

 

“Then Moses went up on the mountain, which was covered with a cloud.  The shining-greatness of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai. And the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day He called to Moses from the cloud… Moses went into the cloud as he went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 24:15-18 NLV).

 

God told Moses to come and then Moses had to wait in six days to find out what God wanted him to do next. I wonder how many times we have sought God about something only to hear nothing but silence. We wait and wait for direction and still, silence. However, if Moses had given up and gone back down, he would not have received the stone tablets or all the other instructions he received during those forty days he was in the presence of God. 

 

Often, when we are troubled, experiencing grief, or perhaps fearful of an unknown future due to a loss, we want God to answer our prayers immediately. We may feel God doesn’t hear the cries of our heart. Yet, in it all, God is working—just like He was preparing Moses to receive all the laws and ordinances God had for him to take back to the Israelites. In our waiting, God may be giving our hearts time to trust Him more. He may be preparing our hearts for what His next step is for us, or God may be aligning all the details to work for our good. There is so much good accomplished in the silence! 

 

Believing in God’s faithfulness, trusting in His silent presence, and knowing just like every seed a farmer plants waits in the dark until its time for new life, in the waiting, God is working.