It will be said on that day: Behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.
– Isaiah 25:9
Oh, did you hear that word, wait, twice? This description of God as the one for whom we have waited. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. And that word, wait, we see all throughout the book of Isaiah and the Bible. In terms of our relationship with God, what does it mean to wait on God? And one of my favorite commentaries, actually on Isaiah 40, talking about this word, wait, said basically it means to rest, trustfully, in God.
Isaiah 25:9 encourages us to wait on God.
And I just want to speak that word over so many who are listening to this right now, who are walking through hard days, that you would wait on God. When you’re walking through days where you don’t understand why this is happening and you don’t know where the light is at the end of the tunnel, when this will stop, I just want to encourage you today. There is coming a day when you will behold the salvation of God, the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the wisdom of God, in ways far greater than you have ever beheld him before. In other words, you will not. You will never regret waiting on God. You will not regret resting trustfully in God. So, speak these words from God to your own heart today. You can trust him. You won’t regret waiting on him.
I just want to pray for you along those lines. And if you’re not walking through a hard time, hide this word in your heart for hard times to come. Rest trustfully in God. Wait on God. God, we praise you as the one who is worthy of our waiting. We praise you as the one who is working in our waiting. We praise you that, right now, in each of our lives, you are working for our good.
Isaiah 25:9 reminds us that God works everything for our good.
Everything we’re walking through, including the hardest things we’re walking through, God, we trust that you are working for our good and for the good of all who trust in you. So, God, we pray that you would work out your purposes in our waiting as we look forward to the day when we will see your wisdom in ways that we struggle to see now, when we will see your love and your power in ways that we struggle to see right now. And God, we praise you for the hope we have, that we will behold you and we will be glad in you and we will rejoice in you when we have walked through these trials in this world, that we will look back and be glad that we waited for you.
We will boast in who you are, in even greater ways than we know you now. And oh God, we pray for people who don’t have this hope around us. God help us to spread this hope to people around us who are walking through hard times. And God, we pray that you would cause this hope to spread around the world to all peoples.
Prayer for the Comorian People
We pray for people who’ve never heard of the hope in Jesus, who don’t have people around them who can spread this hope to them, for the Comorian people of France, these African migrants who live in France, Muslim people. No known followers of Jesus among the 100,000 Comorians in France. God, we pray for the spread of your grace, your love, your mercy, and your hope, to Comorian men and women and children that they might behold you, that they might be glad and rejoice in your salvation.
We pray all this according to your Word in Isaiah 25:9. In Jesus’ name, as we wait for you, as we rest trustfully in you. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
