How to Wait Well (Part 1)…
Waiting. This is a word and concept that few of us like or are comfortable with. Everything in our world is geared to tell us that we can get what we want, and we can get it now. Want to know some information? You can Google it in seconds. Want to order something? In some parts of the world, through places like Amazon, you can click the order now button and have the product at your door within 4 hours. Want something like a new TV or gadget? No worries – just buy it now on a finance package. Enjoy it today, worry about paying for it tomorrow.
We have become accustomed to getting what we want and getting it now, and it shows. We are actually becoming more and more impatient, and studies are proving this. In 2019, a study released by BIC and One Poll surveying 2,000 adults from the UK showed just how startling our impatience has become. Respondents said anything longer than 14 minutes when waiting for their food order to arrive tries their patience while anything longer than waiting 7 minutes to get a drink was a pain. The survey also found that respondents expect to get their luggage within 13 minutes after landing at the airport.
And it gets worse. The survey found the average individual became impatient after waiting just 16 seconds for a webpage to load and the average person becomes frustrated if it takes longer than 22 seconds for the computer or TV streaming to start. The survey also shows people get impatient if it takes longer than 25 seconds for a traffic signal to change and if it takes longer than 20 seconds for ink to dry on a greeting card. Almost two-fifths of those surveyed – 38 percent – say they lose their patience trying to stay focused with a speaker during a class.
But, here’s the challenge. In God’s Kingdom realm, waiting is a huge part of life, and we see that all throughout the pages of Scripture. God promised Abraham and Sarah they would have a child when they were unable to conceive. And they had to wait 25 years. Did you catch that? 25 years! Joseph had dreams as a late teenager that God gave him, and while we don’t know exactly how long he had to wait for his dreams to be fulfilled, we know that it was many years, and very difficult years at that. The nation of Israel were being led from Egypt to the promised land, and they had to wait (because of their own unbelief) for 40 years to set foot in the place the Lord had set apart for them. David was ordained king of Israel, but had to wait for years, and often fleeing for his life, while Saul was still on the throne. And Jesus, who by the way, gave up his place in heaven in that perfect place with the Father, had to wait for 30 years in a human body in this fallen world before he even began the ministry he had come to earth to do.
And today, there are many who find themselves in a place of waiting. That waiting might look different, but it’s all a form of waiting. My family and I are certainly in that place ourselves. God has given us specific dreams and promises, BIG dreams and promises. And many of them have not yet come to pass in the physical. Time and time again, I am coming across followers of Jesus who are in a similar place. Living in that uncomfortable place – waiting.
I am coming to learn and understand that to God, the waiting is just as important, if not more, than the actual promises being fulfilled, because of what he is doing in us during that time of waiting. And I am learning that there is great joy, blessing and wisdom to be gained from waiting well. But something I don’t hear talked about much is, in those times and seasons of waiting, how do we actually wait well?
Well, today, I hope to shed some light on how we do that, as God has been revealing some things to me. And I want to unpack some of that in 3 parts, with the hope of helping you if you are in a season of waiting also.
I have been spending a lot of time in the Psalms of late. They are so rich! Every time I am pouring over the words of them, I find there is a feast for me to devour. In Psalm 25, David is pouring out his heart to the Lord as he is in a season of waiting. The Psalm opens with these words:
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
Firstly, what stood out to me was that David’s heart was in the right place. When we are in seasons of waiting, particularly when the seasons are long, or our circumstances look impossible, it is so easy to take matters into our own hands and try to navigate things on our own wisdom or strength. But David, no matter what, held on to the eternal, unchanging reality that the only one who can direct our paths is our loving Father himself. And we also are promised that when we are in Christ, we are led by him. In John 10, Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, who knows his sheep (us), and his sheep are led by his voice. That is a promise not just available to us, but we have the fullness of it now! When we ask to be led by him, we will be and are. That alone is a beautiful and incredible gift!
Something else that impacted me in this Psalm is in verse 5. In the translation I quoted above, it says ‘for you I wait all day long’. Ugh, that word ‘waiting’. But when I also read this text in The Passion Translation, it said this: “For you are the God of my increasing salvation; I have wrapped my heart into yours.” One translation says ‘for you I wait all day long’, and the other says, ‘I have wrapped my heart into yours.’ Those are very different wordings!
But when I looked into the original Hebrew language, the word here is the word ‘qavah’, which has several meanings. One is to wait. The other meaning of this word is ‘to bind together. To twist. To wrap tightly’. This was a light bulb moment for me. When we wait on God, it’s not something we do passively, like we’re standing on a platform waiting for a train that’s running late. We wait by pressing into him. Wrapping ourselves around him. Becoming intertwined with him. In other words, intimacy.
Why is this important? Because I believe intimacy is actually what it’s all about! Why did God even create humanity in the first place? Because he wanted people made in His image to have an intimate relationship with. God himself literally walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Why was it so heart-breaking to him when we ate the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Because this intimacy was broken. We had sin and shame pulling us away from Him.
That is the whole reason why Jesus came to this earth and did all that he did – to restore that intimacy. His actions enabled the curtain of the Temple to be torn in half. The very place that God dwelt that was not accessible by anybody except the high priest was now available to all who desire that relationship. And we can once again walk with God and run to his throne of grace with confidence that we will be welcomed and not shunned.
And the other result of intimacy is that we become more like Him. When Moses would enter the tent and speak face to face with the Lord, it changed him. He would become radiant – so much so that he would wear a veil as the people couldn’t handle it. That kind of relationship is now available to all, and we have the very presence of God even dwelling in us! I believe it is impossible to have intimacy with the Lord and not be changed. Jesus confirms this in John 15 by using the analogy of the grapevine and the branches. He said that he is the vine, and we are the branches. When a branch is strongly connected to the vine, the nutrients and sustenance of the vine enables the branch to be healthy and produce good fruit. When we have intimacy with the Lord, that intimacy has the added effect of changing us and causing us to produce fruit that shows his presence is in us – the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
That intimacy and the transformation that takes place in our lives also prepares us to be able to then handle the calling and promises that God has given us. If God just gave me the fullness of the promises he made to me when he first revealed them, there is no way I would have been able to handle them! In this season of waiting, I have spent a lot of time getting to know him and his ways better. As a result, God has been preparing me, stretching me, healing me and working on the things in me that are not in alignment with him, and even then, I still have such a long way to go! But what has been most important is intimacy. That’s what it’s all about. In my season of waiting (and believe me, it has been long and difficult), what has come from it has been intimacy with Him. And even though it’s still hard in so many ways, I wouldn’t change it for that reason. I have been discovering the only thing worth pursuing in life – relationship with my heavenly Dad.
David knew this back when he wrote Psalm 25. And I believe that even today, thousands of years later, our Father is extending an invitation to each one of us. He’s saying, “will you wait with me? Will you allow yourself to become intertwined with me? I have so much for you. It might not be what you expect, but it’s glorious! I know you and love you so much. I want you to know me more. I have plans for your good, not for harm.”
I don’t know about you, but I think this invitation is beautiful. And it’s available to you right now. Will you wait with him? My prayer is that you will take this invitation with both hands and jump right in. It may not immediately change your circumstances, but it WILL change you.
Next week, I will share part 2 of what I’m learning about waiting. I look forward to sharing them with you.
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