Thoughtful Thursdays: Learning to Wait

 Waiting is hard.

Ask Sarah from the Bible if she had a hard time waiting. 

Now to give her credit, she had to wait 25 years after the Lord’s promise before she had a baby. I know that it was hard when I had to wait only a couple of years to get pregnant. Yet she did not wait on God, and she had to pay consequences personally plus there are consequences still taking place today because of her tragic impatience (and Abraham agreeing to go along with her plan).

As I was studying for this Sunday’s lesson on Sarah, I came across some great notes/quotes on what we can learn from Sarah when it comes to waiting on God:

• God’s delays are not God’s denials. Sarai misinterpreted God’s delay as denial (we all have this tendency when God doesn’t answer immediately in our timing) and took matters into her own hands. (Proverbs 3:5-6 is a good antidote for divine delays). from Preceptaustin

If God does not answer right away, it does not necessarily mean that He is denying your request. We need to remember this verse:

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the Lord. 
Psalms 27:14 

• Waiting for God to act in our lives may be the hardest task we ever face. It’s also true that we can become dissatisfied when God’s solution does not match our expectations. Sarah’s life teaches us that when we feel doubtful or afraid, we should remember what God said to Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14)

When we are waiting and feeling dissatisfied with how our life is turning out, we must remember to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on God. He has a plan and He will fulfill it in the way he sees fit. Let His plan be our plan! Turn to this verse:

My soul, wait thou only upon God;
for my expectation is from him. 
Psalms 62:5

• Sarah waited 90 years to have a baby. Certainly she had given up hope of ever seeing her dream of motherhood fulfilled. Sarah was looking at God’s promise from her limited, human perspective. But the Lord used her life to unfold an extraordinary plan, proving that he is never limited by what usually happens. Sometimes we feel like God has placed our lives in a permanent holding pattern. Rather than taking matters into our own hands, we can let Sarah’s story remind us that a time of waiting may be God’s precise plan for us.

We know that God is good . . . all the time. Even when He has us wait. We need to rest in His goodness and trust that He will do us good and not evil. We need to trust that He has worked that waiting period into our life for a reason. When you are waiting, and you don’t know why, turn to these verses to encourage your heart.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him,
to the soul that seeketh him.
Lamentations 3:25 

• Biblical waiting is not a passive response to decision making—it is faith in action. It is active trust in God and what He is able to provide.

Waiting on God shows everyone that is watching that we trust what we cannot see. It demonstrates that we know God is in control and not us. When we are waiting for God to hear us, we can be confident that God will hear us and is trustworthy:

Therefore I will look unto the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation:
my God will hear me. 
Micah 7:7 

• Do not miss the practical lessons here: whenever we run ahead of God, there is trouble. The flesh loves to help God, but true faith is shown in patience (Isaiah 28:16). We cannot mix faith and flesh, law and grace, promise and self-effort . . . A willingness to wait on the Lord is another evidence that you are walking by faith. Wiersbe

If you find yourself in the place where you are having to wait, but you are tempted to run ahead and try to handle the situation in your own strength, then ask God to help you to wait. God wants us to show that we trust Him. Pray this verse to God:

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me:
for thou art the God of my salvation;
on thee do I wait all the day. 
Psalms 25:5

• When we depend on ourselves, people see what we can do and our testimony is, “Didn’t I do well!” When we depend on God, people see what He can do and our testimony is, “Didn’t God do well!” Which testimony will you have today?

When God gives us the strength like Isaiah 40:31 says, then all the glory will go to Him. We need to just learn to wait!

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint. 
Isaiah 40:31 

• Facing an impossibility gives us the opportunity to trust God.

Let this be a verse that is true in all of our lives:

I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait,
and in his word do I hope. 
Psalm 130:5

Here are a few posts I enjoyed reading last week:

• The Value of Colored Pencils from Journey of the Word
• 7 Tips For Effective Evangelism from Purposeful and Meaningful
• Slowing Down as a Family from Sunshine Readers
• Who Is My Neighbor? from To You: Love, Marielle

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