Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Waiting.  It’s something we all have to endure at some point.  And it’s not something I do well…at all.  From waiting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office to waiting for God to answer a heart’s cry prayer, all I want is the end result.  NOW.  Fast forward.  Skip the commercials.  Just get me to the end.  {Seriously, the DVR could be ruining our lives with all of this instant gratification!}

But that’s so often not how God works in my life.  So often, I lift a prayer, a heart’s desire, a desperate plea to Him and don’t  get an answer right away.  So often there is a wait.  While God does what only He can do.  In His perfect time.  To fulfill his perfect plan.  But in that waiting I don’t always see what God is working out for me.  I see my frustration, my anxiety, my opinions about how God should move (because surely I know what He should do, right?).  And I let those things guide my emotions, my actions…even sometimes my obedience.  But what if I changed my view?

This past Sunday, our Worship Pastor shared a message that really hit home for me in a big way.  And I think for a lot of others it can hit home, too.  One of the key points was, “Delay does not mean denial.”  It’s so easy to sit in a position of delay (waiting) and assume that God has denied our request.  But they’re really two totally different things.  And our choices in the delay can have so much bearing on how we get through the waiting.

When I wait with an attitude of frustration, negativity and anxiety, first of all I’m just plain miserable.  But more than that, I’m missing the point of the waiting.  I’m missing the treasures that God has for me in the waiting.  I’m missing the beauty in the journey through the waiting.  I’m missing the lessons and the growth He has for me in the waiting.

But when I speak the truth that my Father has a perfect plan for me through my waiting, when I strive to see the blessings in each day, when I look at what I can do for Him while I wait, my perspective is so different.  Don’t get me wrong, sometimes my circumstance can make it seemingly impossible to see God at work.  Things can be so dark and I can feel so abandoned in that wilderness of waiting that I question if God even sees me there.  Even then, when I can’t see Him at all, I  must speak His truth over my life, over my circumstance, over my delay.

Take action in your delay to find everything God has for you in the waiting.  Embrace the growth, embrace the lessons, embrace the season of delay.  God is there.  God is working.  And God has an answer that you couldn’t pull off on your own on your best day.  Trust Him.  Cling to Him.  Speak His truth over your circumstance.  And wait.