Learning to Wait or Being Gifted Faith?

I’m a spontaneous person. If I get an idea I’m on it instantly, there’s no messing around! As often as I get an idea (they are endless…) I run into situations where my enthusiasm has to throttle back for others to catch up and I end up having to WAIT. Waiting is probably one of the hardiest things for me.

Have you noticed that one of God’s favorite ways to deal with us is to have us wait? Does He enjoy seeing me weep and squirm or is there a bigger picture here?

The waiting game started in Eden. You can’t blame Adam and Eve for thinking their son could be the promised child. They waited… Noah had to wait for rain… What about Abraham and Sarah waiting for Isaac? The deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. Oh ya and another 40 years wondering around in the dessert waiting for the promised land. Methuselah holds the record of the longest wait, he lived 969 years waiting and watching for the Messiah who never came in his lifetime. If you sit down and recall the Bible stories when people had to wait and also the incidents in your own life, your list will be long!

In Hebrews 11, which is considered to be the faith chapter, it says in verse 34, “Their weakness was turned to strength.” One of the biggest common threads in the background stories of these faith heroes are stories of waiting. Could it be that times of waiting aren’t just annoying speed bumps but actually valuable gifts? Did God need them to be broken, to be weakened, to be able to be made stronger? In their waiting did they realize God was changing them?

It hit me on the head. We ask God to change us, then we find it odd to go through a long wait. God’s number one way of changing someone has been to make them wait, let them be disappointed then their eyes will no longer be filled with imaginations of what they think they need but rather eyes of faith looking to Jesus.

“…Blessed are those who wait for Him to help them.” Isaiah 30:18 NLT