Wait on the Lord

 

Read Psalm 40:1-5

O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.

- Psalm 39:7 (NRSV)

One day at the close of my devotional time, I said a special prayer for my 12-year-old son, Esteban. At the time, my wife was with our son at the hospital. At midnight, the phone rang. It was my wife, Doreen, with the news confirming that Esteban had meningitis. This was especially alarming because in those days in 1993 many young children had died from meningitis. I hung up the phone, fell to my knees, and prayed. I placed Esteban in God’s hands, as my wife and I had done countless times since his birth. The next day a medical treatment plan for my son was initiated. Praying constantly, my wife and I placed our hope in the Great Healer to restore our son’s health. God heard our prayers and the prayers of our brothers and sisters in the community of faith.

After several months, Esteban pulled through. Today Esteban serves God. He plays piano in our worship services and is an English professor deeply invested in his students and their achievements. Doreen and I are grateful to God not only for restoring Esteban’s health but also for the ways God is bringing wholeness to Esteban’s Christian life. Our family has learned to wait on the Lord even in the midst of life’s most challenging moments.

 

The Author  Raúl Rocha Gutiérrez (Buenos Aires, Argentina)  from the Upper Room

 

 Thought for the Day  All that concerns me also matters to God.

Prayer

Dear God of hope, may we always confide in you, especially in our darkest days. Amen.
 

Prayer focus    Parents of children facing serious illnesses