US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, writes about the frustrations – and benefits – of waiting on God…
Grove, Oklahoma, US
Via ASSIST News Service
PICTURE: chuttersnap/Unsplash
For since the world began no one has seen or heard of such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for Him!” – Isaiah 64:4 (TLB).
Before I learned to wait on God’s timing, impatience would have been my middle name. I didn’t like waiting on anything or anyone.
We spend our lives waiting. We wait for an answer after a job interview. We wait in anticipation for a life-changing event, like our wedding day. We wait impatiently at the doctor’s office, especially when we have to sit very long after our appointment time has passed. We wait for the outcome of a relative’s surgery or our own diagnosis of a life-threatening disease. And time seems to stand still when we’re anticipating the birth of a child.
Waiting on God’s timing
I’m currently waiting on God’s timing, even though I want to give Him a nudge to hurry up. I’ve learned the hard way you can’t hurry God. But, in the meantime, I’ve learned to trust Him more each day. Maybe that’s because I’ve gotten ahead of Him in the past and paid the price of my disobedience.
For over a year, I’ve been searching for the right house in the right neighborhood in a community where I previously lived for 11 years. I obeyed God, moving there in 2005 after my 30-year teaching career ended.
Then, almost three years ago, God’s nudging led me back to my hometown. I’m now waiting on God. I have peace He’s ready for me to return to the larger community I left in 2016.
Why do we hate waiting?
We’re wired to want what we want and have it now. We’ve become spoiled with instant access to everything via the internet. Before that, it was instant mashed potatoes and the microwave.
A recent Grubhub TV commercial begins with a man ordering food from his couch. He wants it all and he’s going to get it. While the song I Want it All plays, he races through the GrubHub app, ordering a variety of meals from restaurants all over town. When the doorbell rings, the man opens the door to see his yard full of deliveries with more on the way. The commercial promises, “If you want it all, you can have it all.”
Resisting the temptation to get ahead of God
Scriptures abound with examples of people who didn’t wait on God. Instead, they took things into their own hands and suffered the consequences of their choices.
One of those examples is in Genesis 16. God had promised Abraham he would be a father to many nations. However, it was 25-years later, when he was 100 before Isaac was born. But, before that happened, an impatient Sarah prodded her husband to take Hagar, her handmaiden, to produce a child.
The Israelites also got ahead of God. While roaming through the desert, they didn’t wait on God’s counsel. Instead, they put Him to the test and ended up on a 40 year trek through the desert.
Psalm 106:13-14 says, “Yet how quickly they forgot again! They wouldn’t wait for him to act but demanded better food, testing God’s patience to the breaking point.”
The sobering truth for Christians
Today, we still test God’s patience. Getting ahead of Him means we often lose out on His best for our lives. But, if we remember the following three truths, we’ll be much better at waiting on God:
1. God’s timing is not the same as ours.
2. We’re not in control. He is.
3. Waiting is an exercise teaching us to trust Him more.
God is at work. Wait on Him.
