WAITING
Do you like to wait? Most of us would say no. By the time we pass away, we will have waited a total of six months of our life. Even the word wait brings us a bad feeling, makes us nervous and so stressed. The word wait means: “stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens” and “used to indicate that one is eagerly impatient to do something or for something to happen.” (Oxford Languages dictionary) What are some things we wait for? Meals to cook, responses to emails or texts, waiting for payday, we have all looked at the clock when waiting for someone or the end of the work day and thought, did the clock stop? We have all sat in the hospital surgery waiting room for a loved one. We have all said we couldn’t wait till we became older. Even our pets, wait for us to feed them or to get home. My daughter and my four grandkids in Norfolk, Va. have waited nine months for my Navy son-in-law to come home from deployment. (Praise God, he came home this week!)
Why do you think life and God makes us wait? Why do we not just automatically get what we want? Let’s look at a couple of possible reasons.
One reason is: waiting is necessary for our emotional and spiritual growth. Often waiting helps grow our character and build the patience muscles that help us embrace satisfaction for what we currently have. When we think of the word wait, it also involves patience. During my rough trials, there were so many years that I waited for so many prayers to be answered. But they never came. But now I can see that God was preparing me for my best future. My waiting helped me to grow into a strong woman who leans on God’s promises and knows He is in control for my best life. I have realized that part of the purpose for the rest of my life, is to tell my ten-year struggle, heartache, fatigue, bitterness of when my husband was mentally and physically sick. God prepared me to be a witness to others who are going through hard times. I can show them that God is by their side even when they don’t think He is. Times when we don’t think He has answered our prayers, like we think He should answer them. God gave me hope, comfort and peace even during the hardest times. I want others to know that God has a plan in their waiting, for their good and His purposes. If God brings you to it, God will bring you through it!
Another reason is: God is using your life to fulfill a purpose. Think about Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph was sold by his brothers becoming an indentured servant to Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife tried to entice him to sin. He was falsely accused and thrown into prison. He waited and waited there to be released. He eventually got out and was made the governor of Egypt. Genesis 41:40 reads “You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” It is thought that from the time he was put into the pit by his brothers and he provided food for his brothers who were in a period of famine, was about 25 years. Think about all these things that happened to Joseph in his life! God used Joseph’s life and the waiting he did, to save the Jewish nation from the famine that could have caused their annihilation from hunger. Genesis 45:5-8, after Joseph had revealed himself to his brothers, reads “…do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” God had a purpose in Joseph’s life and he remained faithful through his period of waiting!
Did you realize that wait-hope-faith-patience all work together? Those words of hope, faith and patience, don’t sound like they go together with the negative word waiting. Waiting is involved in active hope towards a confident expectation of a future, that you are holding faithfully to, during the waiting. Our faith in the goodness of God helps us to wait patiently! Psalm 27:13-14 “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!” Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Most of the “major” people in the Bible waited for something. Abraham waited to obtain the promise of a son. Moses waited to lead the Israelites out of slavery. Joshua waited for the promised Land. Ruth waited for a husband. David waited to become king. Elijah waited for rain. Job waited for suffering to end. Paul waited for release from prison. These men and women waited in hopeful faith with patience while serving their families and those around them-they learned more about God in their waiting-they prayed from deep in their souls- they lived their lives the best they could in obedience to God while they waited for the promises that we actually still have today. We wait with earnest expectation for the day we can go be with God in heaven!
When we are young, we say we can’t wait until we get older. Then when we get older, we say we cannot wait until we leave this life to be with our Savior, away from the pain and evil in this world. But what we need to do, no matter if you are young or old, is to live your life in service and obedience to God! Life is unsure how long you will live. Be prepared while you are waiting!
Waiting! Let’s think of that word more as a positive! Let’s remember there is purpose in our waiting! When we wait and do not realize there is purpose for it, we forget to see the beauty and opportunities of today! God uses waiting for our benefit and His purposes!
Till next time!
Keela
