No one likes to wait, especially in North America. I’m pretty well traveled and we in the USA and Canada want everything hot, fast, and now, that’s in part why the microwave was invented, so we wouldn’t have to wait to eat the TV dinners, instead of that roast beef that takes so long to cook in the oven. Did you catch while TV dinners are essentially ready, hot, fast and now, they aren’t nearly as healthy or good tasting as roast beef with roasted potatoes and all the trimmings? Ok, who’s hungry now?
Philosophers say “Good things come to those who wait.” But be honest, I don’t like to wait and chances are neither do you, not if you have a choice. But reality is we many times, if not all the time, have to wait for something to happen, or someone to show up. Such as doctors, at an appointment, waiting to go from the waiting room into an examine room, or for a plane, train, bus, subway or automobile to arrive, to board , to get into, to go, to take off, or for the holidays to come on the calendar, be it the weekend, a vacation, or Christmas or Thanksgiving. Life is about waiting, even with God.
Isaiah 40:31 says, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles.” But Tom Petty had it right, “the waiting is the hardest part.” But so not to get depressed, let’s focus on 5 things we can do or that happens, while we’re waiting on The Lord.
#1 Waiting on God causes us to Pray more. It seems we remind God everyday what we’re waiting for, as if God has forgotten. I know he’s God. He’s busy with lots of people and lots of things, and has the whole world in his hands. And it’s just little old you or me. But come on, he’s God. Maybe change your prayers from desperate reminders to proclamations like, “God you know what I want and need, even before I ask. Therefore, I’m just going to praise you for who you are what you’ve already done in my life and trust you with the rest…. And by the way incase you didn’t know, haven’t heard, or forgot ,,,,, just as a reminder,,,,” Ok, go ahead and add your prayer request in again if that makes you feel better or trust the all-knowing God more, which leads us to #2.
#2 Waiting on God causes us to Trust, Hope & Expect which causes us to Please God.
Hebrews 11:1-6 says “Faith is the substance of things Hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.” And “without faith it is impossible to please God” which means our faith, trust, hope and expectancy in God, pleases God, because we’re convinced of the certainty that God is real, well defined, compassionate and caring and will take care of us earthly and eternally. In English the word “hope” is used as uncertainty, as in “well I hope this or that happens, but I’m not sure it will.” In Greek the biblical word for "hope" conveys an absolute convinced certainty leading to expectancy. Biblical hope is the certainty that God is real. God sees you, loves you, hears you, answers you and will take care of you. That kind of thinking, trusting, praying, hoping, waiting and believing pleases God.
#3 Waiting on the Lord develops the strength of Patience, which is a much-needed muscle in everyone’s life, including mine and yours, but be careful what you wish for or pray for. A man asked God one day to make him more patient. So God just stood there for ten years. Get it?
#4 Waiting on the Lord applies the doctrine of God’s absolute sovereignty, which is to say God is in command and control and always has the last word on when, how, what, where and why. So trust him in that. God loves you and knows all your why’s, when’s, where’s, what’s and how’s. The absolute sovereign, creating, saving God of the Universe has got this and has got you.
#5 Waiting on the Lord makes the Receiving that much more Special & Sweeter
Psalms 37:4-5 says God gives us the desires of our heart as we set our ways towards his way, which in application is simply to trust, follow and obey God, even in determining and disclosing to us, what our hearts true desires really are. There’s been tons of times God has done this in my life. Simply because Scripture says God knows me better than I even know myself. I know my whims and wants and perceived needs, but God knows my heart and the long-term desires of my heart, what's really going to fulfill me. So sometimes when I eventually receive my “hearts desire” from God, it's a little different than what I, in myself, was expecting it to be. And God gets to watch me have that “ah-ha” moment like Christmas morning, when I look to God in gratitude and say, “Wow, that’s what I always wanted.”
Romans 8:24-25 says, “For in this hope (certainty) we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently for it.” And that’s the hardest part, “waiting patiently for it”.
Tom Petty was right. “You take it on faith. You take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part.” Who knew he was a theologian?
So as you wait on the Lord, for the whatever you're waiting for, keep praying to him, talking to him, listening to him, reading about him, reminding him if you feel you must, and trust him because, “Good things come to those who wait” on the Lord. But don’t expect it to always be easy.
Blessings in Jesus’ name