WAITING ON THE LORD

When we recite prayers by rote, without infusing them with feeling, the results are negligible. All prayers and meditations are visits with God. If you are not interested in a prayer, only saying it because you are “supposed” to, God responds in equal measure. Remember reaping and sowing? What would happen to the farmer if he approached his fields in this manner? Tilling the ground with disinterest, the rows uneven and of inconsistent depth, planting his seeds while thinking about other things, letting them fall where they may. Watering and tending the crop with little regard for the seeds welfare or working to insure a successful harvest. What happens? When he goes to harvest his crop, the demonstration of his labor, it is poor. He laments that he did “everything” a farmer does to raise a crop but his is a failure. It must be “God’s will.” Many when they pray do exactly the same thing. Instead of focusing on the spiritual work before them, they rush through, fit it in, do their daily meditation while driving (not possible by the way, it is like the farmer careening through his field throwing seeds out the window of the family car) demonstrating by their actions the level of their true reliance on a power greater than themselves.

The greatest sermon we will ever give is the one we give with our actions. Waiting on the Lord does not mean that if hungry we close ourselves up in a closet and pray for a hotdog. The true path is to ask in prayer to be relieved of the bondage of self, of how we may be of service to God and our fellows, God already knows what we need. We wash our face and hands and step out into the world in faith, EXPECTING to receive. The expectation comes from having prayed with interest, focus and commitment. In reaffirming our reliance on God, some days minute by minute when fear and doubt dogs us, we Wait on the Lord. We have taken the indicated action, have turned our focus from the false belief to the truth, now just as the farmer who plants and tends his fields with interest and care, we will reap as we have sown, a magnificent crop indeed.