Waiting on God

How many people like to wait?  Who likes standing in line at the grocery store, being put on hold by the operator, or waiting at a red light?  It is hard to wait and even harder to be patient while doing it.  Perhaps the most difficult times of waiting are those that involve the pursuit of God. 

 

Have you prayed and had the feeling that God did not hear you?  Maybe it was a prayer for a promotion at work, a new home, or even something more crucial like a prayer for a loved one who was ill or dying.  Whether it is a short wait or a long one, we all have to wait to see what happens in order to learn how the Lord has worked it out. 

 

The Bible is filled with historical accounts of people who waited on God.  For instance, there was a man named Abraham who had to wait until old age before God answered his prayer for his wife Sarah to have a child.  The great King David had to wait many years for the oppressive Saul to die before the Lord placed Him as king.  There was a woman who was deathly ill and waited 12 years to be healed by touching Jesus' garment.  But in each and every case, God had a plan and a purpose for the wait that was worked out perfectly in lives, in history and in time. 

 

The greatest example of waiting we find in the Bible is the crucifixion of Jesus.  Jesus waited on a wooden cross for hours while His life drained away.  Waiting itself is hard, but when the wait involves any sort of pain – yet alone the suffering of being crucified – it seems to last forever.  The agony of the cross was an eternal wait.  Yet, Jesus did this to prove God’s love for us.  “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8, TLB).  Let us remember His sacrifice when we are in a time of waiting – it always puts things into proper perspective.  Let us remember how the Lord waited on us.  He waited on the cross for our sins and He waits at this very moment for us to surrender our sins and follow Him with our lives.  We spend our time thinking we are the ones waiting, when it is the God of heaven who lovingly waits for us to turn to Him.  In what ways might He be waiting on you today to live out His gospel and walk in obedience to His word.  In the midst of waiting, we must always keep perspective on the reality that we are not the only ones waiting.