“Deep in my heart I say, ‘The Lord is all I need. I can depend on him! It is good to wait patiently for the Lord to save us’” (Lamentations 3:24, 26, CEV).
December is a difficult month for those of us who are not good wait people. We sit on the precipice of action and are irresistibly drawn toward the edge of doing something. We can’t wait to open packages. We shake and rattle, and at times, I am ashamed to say, even weigh gift boxes to guess their contents. We finish other’s sentences so that we can get started on our own.
Patience is that steady, deep faith that whatever is in the future is God’s gift for our needs. We know, in those deep places, that God has given us all that we need. While we wait for the answers to our prayers, while we wait for guidance through difficult times, while we wait for tomorrow to come, may we all know deep in our hearts: “The Lord is all I need. It is good to wait patiently.”
This message is excerpted from “Waiting for patience” by Marj Leegard from the December 22, 2016, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate John of Damascus, theologian and hymnwriter, c. 749.
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