First Pray, Then Wait

"All the paths of the Lord are

steadfast love and faithfulness,

for those who keep his 

covenant and his decrees."

(from Psalm 25)

First Pray.

During worship when people ask for prayers, the most common types call upon God for relief from some personal suffering. 

prayers calling upon God for relief from some personal sufferings are the most common in the psalms

On the other hand, people share deep seated prayer concerns needing long-term resolutions only God can resolve.

Deep seated prayers include ending cancer, the Ukraine War, hungry, homeless, and other social injustices.

And so, we pray.

Then wait.

And then we wait. 

Waiting for answers may feel like Noah adrift 40 days as we faithfully wait continually praying for resolutions to the deep-seated pains of humanity. 

It seems to me there are two ways to wait.

The first is passive by asking, "How Long O Lord? 

This strikes me as being impatient because God hasn't acted in the time frame I desired. It's an "I'm expecting God to do something because I asked."

The second, is actively "following the paths of the Lord."

A path to begin with Wesley called "searching the Scriptures" which suggests faithfully reading the Bible. 

An excellent way to do this is reading from the Lectionary daily. This offers a psalm, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel. 

A portion of this path includes the Lord's Prayer, prayers of your own and prayers based on deep-seated needs of humanity.

Finally, I feel, communion is a path of the Lord that nourishes and sustains, as we wait.

Breaking bread, sharing the cup, with the work of the Spirit among us is God's active sign of presence and healing.

Since God is the God of salvation, this is how we wait: faithfully and hopefully.