Cut The Whining!

"I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry."
Psalm 40:1

"Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You.
Let such as love your salvation say continually
'The Lord be magnified.'
But I am poor and needy
yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer.
Do not delay, O my God."
Psalm 40:16-17


"Why are you downcast, oh my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him
the help of my countenance and my God."
Psalm 42:11

This weekend I was thinking to myself how much my life related to the Psalmist's words in Psalm 40. In my frustration over our adoption delays, I felt very connected to the cry of the Psalmist who expressed anguish at God's seeming lack of involvement in his trials. When I went back and reread Psalm 40, I was convicted by how selective I had been in my recollection of that famous text. I couldn't help but feel like I have been being a pouty little whiner. The author does express his apparent need for God's intervention, but his words are also hopeful in their faith in God to deliver and prevail in any circumstance. I was reminded - again - that God is working. He is ordering our steps. We just need to put one foot in front of the other each day and wait for Him to move. And perhaps cut the whining.