Tired of Waiting? By Pastor Shari Stephens 0

I know that if you are anything like me you get tired of hearing the inevitable phrase “wait on the Lord”.  This is such a difficult thing for us, especially in our modern society.  Everything is becoming faster and faster.  The latest technology never seems quite fast enough.

Where we use to have to think up responses to emails and text, auto fill, provides quick responses for us now.  Television and entertainment provide “on demand” programming so we don’t have to wait each week to see shows.  We can binge watch an entire series, (or two) in a weekend.

Our cars are faster, our food is faster, our lives are faster.

And yet, the Bible remains the same and says over and over, throughout scripture, “wait on the Lord”.

You would think that by now, God would have gotten the memo that we prefer things fast.  We don’t have time to wait.  There are too many things to do, and too much to accomplish, including all the work we are “doing for Him”, that waiting is almost passé.

And yet His word says over and over, things like:

Psalm 27:14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.

Psalm 37:7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him;

Psalm33:20 Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope

There are lots more where these came from.  When you think about it, there are also multitudes of examples of people “waiting” in the Bible too.

Abraham had to wait 25 years for Isaac to be born; The Children of Israel had to wait for deliverance, then had to wait in the dessert; David had to wait on his throne; Mary and Martha had to wait for Jesus to come help Lazarus. There are many more, but I think you get the point.

Waiting on God is a central theme throughout the Bible and it will be throughout our lives. So how do we handle this?

Let’s look at the definition, to wait means,

– stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens.

– used to indicate that one is eagerly impatient to do something or for something to happen.

When I read these descriptions I immediately saw two responses, the first one from God’s perspective and the second one from ours.

For us, waiting is almost unbearable.  We are eager, ready and wanting the promise or the answer without any patience.

But from God’s prospective, many things are occurring.  I don’t know if you always had the though that He was simply being mean, or just holding out on you, or some other sadistic though, but that just isn’t the case.  Let’s look to scripture to see if we can shed some light on this.

Galations 4:4-5 says

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons”

The first reason God has us waiting is for the “Fullness of Time”.  That means it isn’t season yet, things aren’t quite ripe, it isn’t ready, we aren’t ready, or simply there are a series of events that must come first!!!  God is orderly, and he has this thing planed out seasonally until the end.  He is sovereign and knows what He is doing, so trust his time table.

John 11:4-6, 11,

“When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,”

“After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

One of the most contrary statements in the Bible is this, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days”.  He loves them, so He waited!  He waited long enough for their brother’s sickness to kill him, to be buried and be in the tomb for several days!! It would seem that no one would want that kind of love, yet, all of that was the back drop to one of the most astounding miracles Jesus preformed, raising Lazarus from the dead after 4 days!

He purposed and planned that this specific miracle, done right before his own death and resurrection, would be used to draw many to Him and climax His powerful earthly ministry. So, waiting in this case, was so that God could get the greater glory.  He was setting them up for a miracle.

I hope these thoughts help you today as you are no doubt waiting for God for something in your life.  Trust him, he is no doubt setting things up for you and preparing to get the glory.

Be blessed!