When I was a little girl, I hated waiting. I hated waiting for my birthday so I could get my special present and turn another year older. I hated waiting for Christmas. I would think, It’s going to take so long for Christmas to get here, only to realize it didn’t take that long at all. Or I would say to myself, I can’t wait to be an adult so I can drive, eat whatever I want, do whatever I want.
Waiting isn’t always something we want to do. Waiting can be hard, and at times, it can be discouraging because you’re waiting for something to happen, yet you don’t see it moving. You don’t see it progressing. You simply feel the stillness.
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” But in a fast-paced world where everything seems to be handed to us in the blink of an eye, waiting can seem difficult. We can check our emails quickly. We can research something without waiting. Yet God says, “Be still.” We don’t want to be still. We don’t want to wait. We want it now.
There comes a point when we’ve prayed for something and continue waiting for God to do it. We may wonder, God, why haven’t You given me what I asked for? But we cannot approach God that way. He wants us to wait for a reason.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Abraham and his wife, Sarah, had to wait for the child God had promised them. Abraham began to lose faith that God would answer his prayers. They waited for a long time, and finally, God gave them their son, Isaac.
Elizabeth and Zacharias also had to wait. Elizabeth was childless, and she likely never imagined that in her old age she would become a mother. But in her waiting, God gave her a child who would introduce Jesus Christ to the world.
The Bible also tells us about people who waited for Christ’s coming. Anna and Simeon saw Christ as a baby and died knowing they had seen the face of their Redemption (Luke 2:25-35 KJV). Others died without seeing Christ at all, but they believed He was coming.
Waiting is never easy. Waiting can be frustrating and discouraging, and it can cause us to question or even compromise our faith in God.
However, God wants us to wait. He wants us to trust in Him when it seems like He won’t answer our prayers. When we feel this way, we need to walk by faith and not by sight, especially when the waiting has taken its toll on us.
I’m in a period of my life where I feel like God is putting me in a season of waiting. I’ve been sitting there wondering, God, what are You doing in my life? Why aren’t things working out the way I thought they would?
God hasn’t said anything, but He’s working. I need to give it time. I need to be patient. Maybe that waiting is God teaching us patience for when He brings us what we’ve been asking for. When that season of waiting is over, we can know and trust that God was acting in our best interest, and we may discover that the waiting wasn’t so bad after all.
Waiting for God to direct our steps or produce what we’ve been believing for is never easy, but we must keep holding on.
God is in the waiting.
God waited for Noah to build the ark, even though He could have fast-forwarded the process. But He waited. When Noah finished the ark, souls were saved.
If you’re waiting on God to do something in your life, be patient. He may be having you wait as a test of your faith, or He may be preparing something beautiful so that when the waiting is over, you can finally say, Now I know why You had me wait.
There’s a saying that good things come to those who wait. I may feel like I’ve been waiting for a while for God to do some things, but I know if I keep patiently trusting Him, He will bring it to pass.
I may not like the waiting process. I may not understand it. But I know that He has never left me, nor will He forsake me.
If you’re in a season of waiting, have faith and wait for God to open the door you’ve been praying about. Trust that He knows what’s best for us more than we can ever imagine.
