Isaiah 40: 31.  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not fain
 
Have you ever heard the concept of “waiting on the Lord” described as someone who has prayed to God and requested something of God and now they are “waiting on the Lord” for that thing to come to pass? I used to hear this sort of thing at Bible studies and prayer meetings and I’d think nothing of it. For example, someone might say that they were waiting on the Lord for a new job, or a car or whatever it might be. That was many years ago, before God taught me what truly waiting on the Lord means.
 
As often is the case, we tend to get things backwards when it comes to God’s word and ways. Once God opens the truth up to us, we see that it is just opposite from what we were thinking.
 
Luke 17: 5.  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
 6.  And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
 7.  But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
 8.  And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
 
If I may take Jesus’ above example and put it in more contemporary terms, I would do like this: Imagine that you went to a nice restaurant and were ready to order when suddenly your waiter sat down at your table and began rattling off to you what he would like to eat from off of your menu.
 
“Let’s see, I believe I’d like a nice T-bone steak and a baked potato; salad with Ranch dressing; vegetable of the day; and iced tea to drink.” Your waiter says this to you, as you sit there incredulous, and wondering if he’s putting you on…
 
He then hands you back the menu and sits there and “waits on you” to get up and go to the kitchen to get him his order. Imagine the conversation that might ensue when you try to explain to him that you are the customer and he is the waiter who is supposed to bring you the food that you order, not the other way around. But then he insists that he is waiting on you and will you please hurry up with the order because he’s hungry.
 
If you called the manager over and complained to him and he asked the waiter what he was doing, then the waiter responds that he is waiting on this customer and the manager said, very good, keep up the good work. Then the manager asks you when you are going to go get the order as he began to tell you that this is how we wait on our customers here… What would you think of this kind of restaurant? Probably not a place that you would like to frequent, correct?
 
Maybe we can understand how God feels in that same situation, when we “wait on Him” that same way.
 
You see, what I learned was that waiting on the Lord means to do towards God what a waiter (a real one) does when he waits on a customer in a restaurant. It’s not that we go to God and tell Him what we would like in a given situation. But rather, we go to Him and ask Him what He would like from us. Then wait for Him to tell us whatever it is that He wants us to do.
 
(Of course, we are invited to make our requests known to God. There is nothing wrong with that. But always the attitude is to be, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”)
 
Jesus was pointing this out in His example saying which of us, if we had a servant coming in from working in the field would begin to serve him dinner, and wouldn’t rather expect him to serve us first. Then, after we are fed, we will see that he is taken care of also. Well, obviously God is the master and we the servants.
 
God has promised a very powerful blessing to us is if we will put Him first and go to Him as a waiter goes to a customer at a table and simply say to God, “May I take your order,” or “Here am I, what would you like for me to do?” Then listen and wait for His answer, and do whatever He tells you. You can do this in any situation that you are facing, whether you need a job or a car or whatever. This is waiting on the Lord. First you must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of you if you diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11: 6)
 
This is also why Jesus could say to the disciples that if you had faith as a mustard seed you could order trees around and they would obey you. But then He goes right into this example that it’s not up to us to just start ordering whatever we want but we must get our direction from Him first and then whatever we ask for will be done because He is the one telling us to ask for it in the first place. Does this make sense to you? It’s like Moses parting the Red Sea. Moses never would have come up with that idea on his own, but it was God’s idea. God told Moses to do it. Moses obeyed in faith and spoke the words that God told him to speak and stretch out his staff and just like Jesus said we could do, the sea obeyed Moses’ voice, and parted.
 
In a very wonderful kind of way, Jesus was telling us that a servant is not greater than his master; but when your master is God, and you give Him His proper place, the fringe benefits are really, really good. You can order trees around and they will obey you. Why do you suppose He used such an absurd example as that? Because if He will do something as silly as that, then how much more will He do everything else that you really need, if you will just trust Him and let Him be the master and you the servant.
 
Not really all that tough is it?
 
Barry Amundsen