“If it takes forever, I will wait for you. For a thousand summers, I will wait for you…” is the first line of the 1966 song “I Will Wait for You” by Bobby Darin. There are hundreds of songs written about waiting forever for our romantic love. But what about waiting for our True Love? One of the amazing lessons found in the book of Habakkuk is that the prophet asked God exactly what he wanted to know. He also asked with the right attitude and was willing to wait for the answer.

Habakkuk 2:1 [Message Bible] says:

What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst.

I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon.

I’ll wait to see what God says,

how He’ll answer my complaint.

The Spiritual Journey requires much waiting. The messages, lessons, tests and trials are aligned with the divine purpose and plan for each individual, but the progression depends on listening, asking and waiting. As with Habakkuk, during distress or troubled times, the counsel of God is the only safe place. Climb to the lookout tower and wait to hear. When nothing is heard, listen to the quiet—even when excruciatingly long periods of silence occur. Wait for clarification and wait for counsel. Continue to listen and wait, scanning the horizon.

Learn to respond to light and love rather than taking action from a place of fear and selfishness. F.B. Meyer once wrote “How often God’s answers [finally] come and find us gone! We have waited for a while, and, thinking there was no answer, we have gone our way but as we have turned the first corner, the post [h]as come in. God’s ships touch at our wharves; but there is no one to unload them. It is not enough to direct your prayer unto God; look up, and look out, until the blessing alights on your head.” (F.B. Meyer, Our Daily Homily, Westwood, New Jersey: Revell, 1966)