Waiting on God Is Not a Waste of Time

Are you in a season where you're waiting on God for something?

Maybe it's an answer to prayer? Or maybe it's a new job? Or maybe it's a new relationship or a renewed relationship? Or maybe it's a physical or emotional healing? Or maybe financial provision and help? Or maybe it's wisdom and guidance? Sometimes we enter prolonged seasons of waiting.

I don't know anyone who likes waiting. (All it takes is looking at the faces of people in traffic or a checkout line; not a lot of smiles.) Like me, you may want to end the season of waiting as soon as possible! It doesn't seem productive. It feels like a waste of time. It seems inefficient. But . . .

God often ordains waiting in our lives.

That is not new; he ordained waiting in the lives of many people in Scripture. Why does he ordain waiting? Well, God could simultaneously do ten million things at once when he ordains waiting (and he probably is doing many things at once to work out his sovereign plans and purposes). But while we wait, it seems like he's often working on our own character. When we wait he's working on us. He's sanctifying us to make us look more like himself.

And, surprisingly, there is a lot of waiting in Scripture. Here are just a few examples:

• Abraham and Sarah - They waited 25 years for the birth of Isaac after God's promises (Gen. 21:5).

• Joseph - He waited 13 years from the time he was sold by his brothers until he was released from prison (Gen. 37:2; 41:46).

• Moses - He waited 40 years while the Israelites wandered through the wilderness (Deut. 2:7).

• David - He waited over 20 years from the time he was anointed to the time he was made king (2 Samuel 2:1-5:5).

• Elijah - Elijah prayed for rain, and he waited for three and a half years before it rained (James 5:17).

• Jesus - Jesus waited 30 years before he began his ministry (Luke 3:23). (Not to mention how many thousands of years the Son of God waited before he came to earth!)

• Holy Spirit - The first followers of Jesus waited 50 days after the resurrection day for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3; 2:1).

• Early church - Various leaders in the early church were thrown in prison and waited.

• Second coming of Jesus - The church has been waiting for a couple of thousand years for the second coming of Jesus (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Speaking of the second coming of Jesus, it is in the context of Jesus' second coming, that Peter writes:

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 
-2 Peter 3:8-10 ESV

I, for one, am glad that he waited two thousand years. Otherwise, I would not have been born, and I would not have repented and come to saving faith. (I imagine you feel the same way.)

God has purpose in waiting.

God is not most concerned with efficiency and productivity (at least as we define it!). God can make things happen and solve every one of our problems instantly. But sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes we wait.

God is most concerned with his own glory and your joy in him. Some character attributes take time to develop. He is doing something in you and through you. So, waiting on God is not a waste of time. In fact, he has ordained that we wait. That feels unproductive and inefficient to us, but he has purpose in waiting. He is working.

Waiting on God is not a waste of time. Keep waiting and watch for his faithfulness.