Comfort & Strength in the Waiting: Part 2 (Isaiah 40:3-5)

           I am currently preparing for my upcoming surgery, which involves a lot of phone calls, e-mails, scheduling, re-scheduling, arranging, and organizing. I’ve put together my 4th home file for working with my clinic, complete with dividers inside and a schedule attached to the front. I’ve secured a place to stay in the town where I’ll be having surgery and requested the appropriate amount of time off of work. I’ve read through my pre-op packet so that I know which medications and supplements to stop and when. I’ve reviewed the notes from the communication logs from my past surgeries to figure out the quickest, most efficient way to get financial estimates with the fewest phone calls.

[Free tip: keep a call log involving communication about anything medical – write down the date, the name of the person you talked to, the department that person was from, the direct phone number for that person (if possible), and the gist of the conversation.  If they don’t offer this information automatically, or if you forget it as you are talking to them, ask them for it at the end of the conversation.  It is so helpful to have later, trust me!]

            Something like surgery obviously requires some amount of preparation.  What may be less obvious is that accessing the comfort and strength God promises also requires some prep work.  We want the comfort, and we want the strength, but if our hearts have been neglected and cluttered up with sin, untended wounds, and distrust, we will have an impossibly hard time receiving those things.  It would be like trying to apply a registration sticker to a dirty license plate – the sticker will likely just fall off, if you can even get it to stick in the first place. 

            Isaiah 40:3-5 is used in all four gospels (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) in reference to John the Baptist.  John’s job was to prepare the way for Jesus.  His message was one of repentance and of dealing with sin.  When we repent, we change our mind to fully agree with what God says about sin.  This change of mind naturally directs us to change our behaviors (Romans 12:2 tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds). With this message, John helped prepare the hearts of the people – to smooth out the rough edges and clear out the debris – so that they were ready to receive and believe in Jesus when He came.

            John’s message didn’t leave his listeners despondent or defensive like we might assume (though I’m sure he probably had a few who responded that way).  Luke 3:15 records that the people who heard John speak were left in a state of waiting expectantly.  Some even wondered if John himself was the Messiah, though He quickly corrected them and pointed them to the One who would come after him.  The point of dealing with sin through repentance isn’t to leave us trapped in shame, crushed under the weight of our guilt, or restricted to a robotic and boring cookie cutter life.  On the contrary, dealing with sin is the path toward restoration, healing, freedom, and hope. 

We must be diligent to keep our hearts clear of all that doesn’t fit with the way God designed us to live.  As we do that, we ensure that our hearts are prepared to see God’s glory when it is revealed, to accept the love and comfort He offers, and to rely on His strength in an act of trust.  If we are not careful to tend to our hearts, particularly during seasons of waiting, we will find ourselves much more often and much more quickly falling into despondence, desperation, and weariness. We rob ourselves of the richness of God’s fellowship and presence when we focus so much on preparing outwardly for whatever it is we are waiting for that we fail to do the work inwardly. 

It’s an easy mistake to make.  Particularly with waiting for a pregnancy, I have neglected my heart several times in my determination to do “all the things” to try and make the physical outcome happen.  You’ve read it before in my posts, so I don’t need to repeat all the things I’ve been doing to try to get pregnant.  Most of it is outward and physical, and it is easy to get so busy and wrapped up in it all that I don’t realize how messy my heart has become.  Just like the laundry that is never done, our hearts need constant maintenance.  They don’t automatically stay clean once we know Jesus. One day, we will be free from the very presence of sin, but for today, it still lives and wars inside us.  It often sneaks in undetected while we are distracted, like mold does.  Coasting is not an option – we have to be diligent and intentional in keeping our hearts clean and prepared. 

Thankfully, those of us who trust in Jesus have the Holy Spirit – another subject John spoke of frequently with great anticipation in conjunction with his message of repentance.  The Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s Word so that we can know how we are to live.  He also guides and leads us as we remain sensitive to Him and walk with Him throughout every step of our day.  However, we can also stifle Him and drown out His voice by refusing to act on His prompts and by harboring sin in our hearts and refusing to give it up.  He helps us prepare our hearts to receive the blessings God has to offer, but we still have to do our part or we will silence His voice in our lives until we finally decide to cooperate in dealing with the mess.

            When we are hurting and waiting, we want instant comfort and strength without much effort.  God gives it to us every day in various ways, but if our hearts aren’t prepared to receive it, we will miss it.  We cannot afford to wait passively and “let ourselves go” spiritually.  Nearness to our God is so important in times of waiting, and we have to do the work to make sure our hearts are always ready to hear from Him, to believe Him, and to accept whatever He deems good.  If we refuse to take care of our hearts, we are really choosing to rely on our own drained strength.  God has provided a better way.  We just have to take it.  

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