Tom Petty said that waiting was the hardest part, and it truly is. Waiting for simple things is difficult enough; we start counting the days until Friday on Monday afternoon, or if there are too many cars in the drive thru, we go somewhere else. It’s just the way that things have changed over time. No one likes waiting. It’s especially difficult when we are waiting on something much bigger than a weekend break or a hot meal. Waiting on God to intervene on our behalf is one of the most difficult things we can go through, but we must; because God’s timing is perfect, whether we choose to believe that or not.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8
We need to recognize that, all of the time that we are waiting, we are not wasting time. This is hard to accept. Most of us like to stay busy, and do, do, do; waiting feels unnatural to us. It causes us to feel as though we need to be fixing things and doing things in order to be valuable. But waiting is an action. We are not really sitting around, failing to fulfill our purpose; we are actually growing so that we can fulfill our purpose.
The purpose of waiting on God isn’t expecting the reward; it’s about what happens in you while you wait. All that time that you spend waiting is changing you. You mature and grow when you stop striving to fix everything around you. Suddenly, you have extra time to spend on yourself, rather than investing it into everything else around you. Waiting is time that God allows you so that you may gain the tool that you will need for whatever He has in mind. Our hearts change, our minds change, and our desires change as we rest in Him to do the work. We are molded through time and patience into the image of ourselves that God had in mind. Our reward not only comes at the end of the wait, but we are shaping our own rewards in the meantime.
Allowing God to form us into His masterpiece as we wait means that everything we lose along the way is to His glory. Every friend, every relationship, every church, every job, regardless of how attached we are to them - if God takes those things away from us in the waiting time, it was to edify our lives and bring Him glory. Likewise, all of the things that God brings into our lives during the wait is for His glory. We learn to trust, we learn to hope, we learn patience - because waiting is a lesson. We want our lives to bring glory to Him, so we must rest in Him and trust in His plan.
The Lord does not delay as though He were unable to act, and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is extraordinarily patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (AMP)
Self-Reflection
When you are waiting on your miracle, are you trusting in your own ways, or in God?
What changes can you see that have come through a waiting period in your life?