“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him. To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Lamentations 3:25-26 (NKJV)

If you listen very closely to our devotional passage you will no doubt hear the heartbeat and lament of the prophet Jeremiah. His task assignment to speak to his brothers and sisters; God’s chosen elect has not been easy. His prophetic cry is produced in 52 chapters of scripture from the book that bears his name. Now he begins to “lament” or weep over the suffering that his people must now endure at the hands of the Babylonians. They are not at all innocent. They have sinned greatly before God, from the priest to the people; from the pulpit to the pew. He is in anguish and pain almost ready to throw in the towel when he remembered something that restored his hope once again. “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed. Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV)

The “mercies” of God defined in this context are characterized as “covenant love” or “steadfast love.” It can be intimately linked with God’s divine attributes of truth, faithfulness, compassion, and goodness. While there are a myriad of reasons why God is good, Jeremiah shares one of those reasons with us to say that God is good to those who wait for Him. God is good when we wait and He is also good while we wait. Jeremiah knew that the current circumstances of his people would not last forever because whether it is punishment or persecution, trial or trouble, it is all under the sovereign control of our God who knows how and when to deliver us. He is just that good. Here the idea of God being good is best understood from the creation narrative in Genesis chapter 1 when the Lord declares every aspect of His handiwork to be “good.”

In order to receive God’s goodness in times of distress, despair, and devastation there will be times that we will have to wait on Him to move on our behalf. When believers wait on the Lord in this instance it means to “look for, expect, or hope.” Waiting is never passive but always active. It is our earnest expectation that whenever God arrives and deals with our most pressing issue He will do so in His time and He will be right on time, yet we must wait. He will sustain us even when we are weak and weary from waiting. “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, the shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)

According to the passage, waiting is not enough. We must also seek Him. The suggestion here is that of worship. It is here that our waiting moves from passive to active. We wait for the Lord to deliver us but we seek Him while waiting. To ‘seek” the Lord further defined means to “examine, inquire, or to be in pursuit of.” No need to have an anxiety attack, heart palpitations, sweaty palms, and uncontrollable thoughts of despair. Be still, lift your hands, seek the Lord, and worship Him while He may be found. Trust Him enough that you are able to wait upon Him quietly without fanfare or interruption. Deliverance will come if you seek Him as you wait for Him. “The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” Psalm 34:10 (NKJV)