By Jason Smith

“A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” (Job 14:5, NIV)

What are you waiting for? I frequently find myself wishing things were happening faster. Maybe it’s because I’m naturally an impatient person, or maybe it’s because I love the thrill of seeing things get done. Either way, I often feel that one of the greatest struggles in life is living in the tension of waiting.

So what are you waiting for? A new job? A new house? A new relationship? A call from your doctor? Take inventory of your heart for a moment. Have you ever noticed how the other highway lane or the other grocery line always seems to be moving faster than the one you’re in? What tends to happen to you when you feel like something you’re waiting for is taking too long? Do you grow agitated by your circumstances? Do people start to rub you the wrong way?

It’s very easy to be short with others when life seems to be stuck at a red light. It gets worse when others seem to be finding or achieving the very things for which you are most longing. It’s as if you’ve been stuck in the back of the line for a ride at Disneyland, and you keep watching one person after another jump ahead of you with their fast pass. You begin to wonder, Where’s my fast pass in life?

It can be discouraging to the point of debilitating when you live in a fast-paced world, yet seem to be stuck in slow motion. We think, Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to have a fast-forward button for life? We all know what it’s like to experience the unwelcome tension of waiting. Millennials like myself probably struggle with this even more than former generations. After all, we are enmeshed in the world of fast food, next-day delivery, and real-time news alerts. Every bit of information we need is merely a click away. Our culture has programmed us to view waiting as an unpleasant part of life. When we do have to wait for something, we see it as nothing but an inconvenient obstacle to our life plans.

But what if waiting is part of the plan? What if God intends to do something in us while we wait that could not otherwise happen? This is where a healthy view of God’s sovereignty can be indescribably freeing. “My times are in Your hand” (Psalm 31:15).

Scripture offers this promise to our restless hearts: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Read that promise again, only slower. The first thing we need to see is that God is working out “all things” for the good of His beloved children. “All things” has to include even the tiniest details in life. How we choose to respond to waiting reflects our confidence in God’s sovereign goodness and wisdom in that moment. I intentionally say we choose how we respond, because while we cannot always change our circumstances, we can always change our attitude (Philippians 2:14).

Over a dozen passages in the Bible talk about waiting on or for the Lord. To wait for the Lord is “to put your hope in the Lord with great anticipation.”

“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14)

“For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.” (Psalm 37:9)

“Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’; wait for the LORD, and He will deliver you.” (Proverbs 20:22)

“…but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

The oft-repeated cliché “Good things come to those who wait” could be amended to “Great things come to those who wait on the Lord.” But let’s be careful not to reduce waiting on the Lord to some version of hyper spiritualized laziness. It is an act of faith, whereby we live in the present in full reliance on the One who holds the future. It’s not an excuse for passivity. Followers of Christ are to be passionately involved in loving service in the midst of the waiting (Romans 12:6-13). “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically” (Romans 12:11, NLT).

While the late Tom Petty was talking about his romantic relationship, the chorus from his song “The Waiting is the Hardest Part” can well apply to our situation: “You take it on faith, you take it to the heart/ The waiting is the hardest part.”

We see many examples in Scripture of those who had to wait a long time for their prayers to be answered. The woman with a bleeding problem had to wait twelve long years for healing (Luke 8:43-48). Despite their faithfulness and courage, Joshua and Caleb had to wait 40 years to enter the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 2:7; Joshua 5:6). Abraham and Sarah had to wait until they were 100 and 90 to have children (Genesis 21:5-7). The lame man at the Pool of Bethesda waited 38 years before God healed him (John 5:5-9).

In each of these cases, God was doing something in those who were waiting while they waited. Think of it. The man of John 9 who had been blind from birth had the unspeakable privilege of not only being healed by Christ but coming to know Jesus as Messiah and Savior (John 9:35-39). In the words of Jesus, all those years of blindness “happened so the power of God could be seen in him” (John 9:3).

Treasure this truth: God is never idle. He is doing something in and through you today to reveal His power in you tomorrow. He is always at work in the waiting.

Photo courtesy of Metiza