While You Are Waiting, God Is Working

I Hate Waiting

One of the worse things to see at a train station are the doors of the train shut right in front of you.  It is so annoying, especially when your bag gets stuck in between the doors and those on the train try to force the doors open so they can throw your bag back at you and get going.

The thought that runs through your mind is “I sure wish I got here a minute earlier”. It doesn’t hurt much when the next train is just two minutes away. When it is a whopping thirty minutes, it hurts badly.

You start pacing up and down the platform as if that will make the next train arrive earlier. You keep looking at the train clock. Every second seems like a minute.  More and more people start trickling into the station.  You get all the angrier because they get to go on the same train as you though they arrived later.

Some commuters could really tick you off. The ones that stand right in front of you when you want to be the first to get on the train. They could be eating, talking loudly on their phones or doing something irritating. You don’t need all that, you don’t deserve all that. You just want your train to arrive.

You look at the clock and you have five minutes left before your train arrives. You are starting to feel a bit better. You look up again and you see your train has been delayed for ten more minutes.  You can feel the anger begin to rise up in you. Your face is squeezed. You want to scream and punch but you just have to hold your peace.

It seems so unfair. “I only missed it by a second” you explain to the stranger standing next to you. “The doors shut right in front of me” you mutter.

What Does It Mean to Wait?

Waiting, as defined by the dictionary means to remain inactive or in a state of repose until something expected happens. It means to hope for or to anticipate.

Waiting is a part of life.  We wait in line to pay at the grocery store, to be served at the restaurant, to pick our children from schools or clubs, for taxis and even for our food to be ready when cooking. Everybody has to wait for something sometime.

The longer the waiting process, the more impatient, restless and frustrated we sometimes get.  We are always rushing to the next high, and we have no time to remain motionless.

Waiting around is always seen in a negative perspective.  During periods of waiting, it seems there is no movement in our lives.  Things seem stagnant and an element of uncertainty looms around us. By waiting around, we feel we are wasting precious time.

Biblical Examples of Those Who Waited

All through the Bible, there are examples of people that had to wait on God.  Moses had to wait for God to reveal his assignment in life.  Abraham and Sara had to wait for God to give them their promised child. Mary and Martha had to wait for Jesus to come and heal their brother Lazarus. Joseph had to wait in prison till the Butler remembered him, and mentioned him to Pharaoh.

Why did God not deliver these people immediately?  Why did he have to make them wait?  Surely, he is God and he can do all things, why waste time and make them wait?

Some Of the Reasons Why God Makes Us Wait

• To develop character in us.
  • During periods of waiting, we tend to examine ourselves.  We have the time to evaluate the wrong things in our lives and plan to correct them. Could there be anything in our lives that is preventing us from getting what we want from God?

• To reveal our motives
  • God always weighs our actions.  Sometimes, we ask for things for the wrong reasons.  During periods of waiting, we tend to separate things we want from things we need.  Waiting would make us look inwards and reveal the true reason why we want something. Difficult times will make us prioritize and only ask for what is important rather than what we want.

• He makes us wait because he considers the bigger picture
  • God sees the bigger picture.  He knows the end from the beginning.  He has the Bird’s eye view. He knows the right time to give us what we need. He sees all the pieces of the puzzle while our perspective is different. We need to trust God during difficult times because He knows the right time to give us what we desire and launch us out.
  • He could be making someone relocate in order to put us in that position, creating opportunities for another role to open, developing us to be able to handle the new role and many other things. We may not understand what He is doing but we need to trust that He is working things out for our good.

• To help us develop Patience
  • Patience is a virtue. It makes you steadfast in the face of adversity.

Impatience makes people do silly things that they later regret.

God is patient with us.  God waits many years to see us change that bad habit and turn a new leaf.  He gives us a long rope to pull.  When we miss it, he does not give up on us, he waits patiently for us to change.

The next time we try to rush into the next position and find ourselves waiting impatiently and worrying, let us remember that God is not slack and no season lasts forever.

Knowing that the waiting period will come to an end, let us keep our eyes on the goal and endure with patience the race that is set before us. Let us remember that if we wait patiently, we would get our desired goal.