What does “wait patiently” really look like?

When we are told “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him”, how do you react?  Honestly, I get antsy.  “Being still” is a real challenge to me.  At this point in my life, I  have to set a timer and force myself to sit quietly before the Lord until the buzzer rings.  My ability has increased. I used to sit still for 3 minutes.  Now I am up to 12 minutes.  A 73 year old friend of mine told me he has been practicing being still before the Lord. After one and a half years, he is now able to sit still and focus on Jesus for twenty minutes.

Studying Psalm 37: 7 has encouraged me, because as I look at the verse more deeply in the original language, I think I can do it.  In the NIV, the verse is “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.”  Examining the Hebrew, changes my understanding of that verse.  This is my paraphrase:

“Be silent and struck dumb.  Yes, be dumbfounded as you watch the LORD.  Now, chuwl.  Go ahead. Writhe, squirm, move like you are in pain or agony. Move like a woman in childbirth, or a soldier in the midst of hand-to-hand wrestling. Chuwling is what waves do as they swirl upon the sandy beach, or what the veils of dancers do as they swing to the rhythm of the dance. ”  This is what waiting on the LORD or “travailing” before the LORD really looks like.

Certainly, I can be in the LORD’s presence,  silenced in awe by His actions in my life.   And I do squirm and twist, and strain and wrestle, sometimes in agony and sometimes in joyful dancing.