This week, after 18 months of waiting and praying, I received word from my ankle orthopedic surgeon that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved a new ankle prosthetic I need. This is a great answer to prayer! My surgeon, Dr. Steven Haddad, is one of seven surgeons on the design team of the prosthetic developed specifically for patients like me who need revised ankle surgery because the previous prosthetic has worn out.
Eighteen months of waiting has been a rollercoaster season of anticipation and disappointment. Proverbs 13:12 captures this thought, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." In life, we all have hopes and expectations of people, circumstances, and life. Often, they don't go the way we want them to. I wish the prosthetic I need and surgery could have taken place over a year ago, but it hasn't. God had a different plan.
The Lord wanted to teach me, again, what it means to wait on Him and depend on Him. For me, waiting on the Lord is one of the hardest disciplines of the Christian faith. It's a battle to wait. It's a battle between my flesh and walking in the Spirit. I want it now or I want to make it happen, but God says, "wait."
The word "wait" is used a lot in the Bible, 76x in the Old Testament and 11x in the New Testament (ESV). Waiting on God isn't passive, but an active pursuit of Him. What it means to wait on the Lord in detail, I will explore in another post. Hear the words of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah that fuel my faith and I pray will fuel yours too. "But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Isa 40:31).
