By: Akosua O'King
I confess, I hate waiting. Be it waiting in line, waiting in traffic, waiting to get a parking spot, waiting for a text message response or just being put on hold during a call; I HATE TO WAIT. The word “Wait” should be one that never existed, at least in my opinion.
The hardest moments of waiting is when I have been praying about a situation in my life and find myself waiting for the breakthrough…I wait, and wait, and wait…
The interesting thing I have come to understand is that though I hate to wait, waiting is something God seems to enjoy! As a matter of fact, our journey with God will always have seasons of waiting. No one can escape that.
So the question becomes, why will our loving God keep us in a place of waiting? Why doesn’t he just move when we need Him to? What is the purpose of waiting?
Truthfully, I do not know all the reasons why God makes us wait however, in my walk with Him, I have concluded on at least 3 reasons why God keeps us in waiting seasons:
(1) Our Sanctification is His delight: What is in your heart? Do you know? This question is best answered when we are waiting. First, it will be helpful to understand that God’s greatest desire is to make each of us like Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:3, Romans 12:2). Our souls are His priority. So how does God take us through this 'Christlikeness process'? Well, He sanctifies us; we are spiritually transformed during our waiting seasons. God tests the intent of our heart. Of course, God knows all things but He wants to show us, deep down, what’s really in us. Behavior and traits that hinder our walk with God are exposed and God begins to work on our heart.
(2) To set the stage for His Glory: God created us for His glory and ultimately everything about our lives must bring Him glory. God often allows us to come to the end of ourselves before intervening. Billy Graham once said, “When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of God” and this is true. If there is a possibility of you or anyone taking the glory from your answered prayer, God may have you wait. There is this point in our journey where you and everyone who knew what it was you were believing for will say, “This is definitely God at work”. You will not be able to accredit the glory to yourself neither will anyone else claim the glory for themselves.
(3) Faith and Gratitude development: If we never have to wait, we will never learn to truly trust God and appreciate His works in our lives. As we wait on God’s timing for us, our faith elevates from one level to another. The joy of God’s faithfulness fuels our reliance on Him and stands as a benchmark for our journey with him.
When God makes us wait, it also becomes harder for us to take certain things for granted. Imagine you had to wait for 5 years to have a baby or you had to wait 10 years for God to launch you into ministry? Will you appreciate those things differently? I believe so.
There have been many times where I had to wait on God. Actually, I am currently in another waiting period as I write this. Looking back, one thing has remained constant, the joy I feel when the wait is over is nothing compared to the pain of waiting. Whenever God says “Not yet” to us, it is our opportunity to grow spiritually and to see another side of God’s faithfulness.
God may have you in waiting for the reasons I have touch on above, or perhaps for completely different reasons. Know that whatever the reason is, God is never late and he is never early, either — His timing and purposes are always perfect and the “wait” is truly for our benefit!
Be encouraged and encourage someone else.
Hugs