Waiting Well

Like the situation with my daughter, if we move ahead of God and neglect to wait on His timing, there will be unpleasant consequences that we have to face.

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Mopping the floors.

This is one of the toughest chores my six-year-old daughter has to endure — and not because she’s the one doing the mopping, but because it means she has to hang out in her room while I’m doing the mopping!

You see, waiting isn’t really my daughter’s thing. If it were up to her, having to wait for anything wouldn’t even be an option. She’d be able to get what she wanted when she wanted it — no ifs, ands, or buts about it!

But alas, she, too, lives in the real world and is, thus, subject to the awful experience we must all endure on a regular basis called waiting — which is exactly what she’s stuck doing when I decide to mop our floors.

Well, as I was mopping our floors recently, my daughter was in her room and she started asking me over and over if she could come out. I wasn’t finished mopping yet, so my answer wasn’t one that she wanted to hear.

After several minutes of her asking to come out and several minutes of me telling her “no”, she finally got herself all worked up and asked me something that caught me by surprise. She said, “Why are you making me so sad??”

Frustrated myself, I couldn’t help but snap back by telling her, “You’re making yourself sad because you won’t be patient!”

Just as those words came tumbling out of my mouth, God, like He always does, spoke to my heart and reminded me of how often I do the same thing to Him.

Wow. He was so right.

How often do I get myself all worked up, simply because, like my daughter, I’m incredibly impatient?

Far too often, I’m afraid.

Like those moments when I’m waiting on God to work in my situation and make things better, but I get frustrated because He’s “taking too long” and doesn’t seem to be working at all – and He certainly isn’t working things out in my timing.

Or those moments when I know God has given me a passion for something, but every time I try to pursue it, nothing seems to work out and doors never seem to be opened when I’m ready to move forward.

And how about those moments when I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed for a relationship to improve, but my prayers seem to be going unanswered? And rather than waiting in faith, I get frustrated and just want to throw my hands up and throw in the towel?

If you’re anything like me, you probably struggle with the whole “waiting and being patient” thing, too. Am I right?

It’s not always easy to be patient when we live in such a fast-paced society that thrives on quick service and instant results.

If I’ve learned anything about God, however, it’s that His timing is rarely in line with ours. He doesn’t seem to be as concerned with quick results as He is lasting results.

Sure, God could work all of our issues out with a snap of a finger – and sometimes He chooses to do just that! But more often than not, He has lessons He longs to teach us and good works He longs to accomplish in the midst of the waiting. And if we’d just be patient, we could avoid the self-inflicted frustration and sadness that we tend to bring upon ourselves by failing to wait well.

Like the situation with my daughter, if we move ahead of God and neglect to wait on His timing, there will be unpleasant consequences that we have to face.

If my daughter came out of her room before I was finished mopping:

  1. She could slip and hurt herself because the floors weren’t dry yet.
  2. She could make the floor dirty again by walking on the wet spots with dirty feet.
  3. She wouldn’t be able to enjoy the finished work of a clean floor, while also learning to be more patient.

When we fail to wait on God’s timing and for His work to be finished:

  1. We could get hurt and experience pain and more chaos as a result of our disobedience.
  2. We could make the situation messy again by trying to force things to happen that He hasn’t worked out yet.
  3. We could miss out on the beauty of God’s finished work and He wouldn’t receive the glory that He deserves.

The thing about God that we must remember that He’s always working. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts and plans are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9)! Though we may not understand what He’s doing or why He’s doing it, we can trust that He is good – which means that everything He’s doing is also good and will ultimately be used for our good.

It reminds me of the story of Lazarus from John chapter 11.

In this story, Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, who happened to be very close to Jesus, became very sick.

Right before Lazarus fell ill, Jesus had fled from Judea, which was where Lazarus and his sisters were at the time, because the Jews had sought to stone Him.

Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus about their brother’s sickness, hoping He’d drop everything He was doing and come right away to heal him. Jesus loved all three of these people very much, so it would only be natural to assume He’d do just that.

Well, we can see in John 11:6 that Jesus didn’t do what they expected Him to do. In fact, He decided to stay where He was for two more days!

One might wonder why on earth Jesus would wait so long before He traveled back to Judea (which would be a long journey, if they were traveling by foot), when it didn’t look like Lazarus was going to make it.

Jesus answers this question Himself in John 11:4 when He says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

We know by reading the rest of the story that after two days, Jesus finally began His trek back to Judea and Lazarus ended up dying before Jesus made it back. By the time Jesus got back to Judea, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days (vs 17).

Mary and Martha both told Jesus that if He had been there, their brother wouldn’t have died – and they were probably right. Jesus had already healed many people up until that point and surely, He could have healed this man that He loved with a snap of His finger and saved these women a lot of heartache.

But you see, Jesus had a greater purpose for making them wait. He had a greater purpose for allowing His friend and their brother to die.

He allowed it because He was in the middle of doing a great work in their hearts that He knew would bring lasting results.

Not only would they eventually get to witness Jesus raising their brother from the dead (vs 43-44), but they would also get to receive the promise of their own resurrections, as they committed to believing and following Him (vs 25-26).

Jesus said to Martha in verse 40, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?”

Jesus caused them to wait so that ultimately, they and those around them would believe that Jesus was who He said He was and that His Father would be glorified.

Our God is a good God, my friends – and He is so worthy to be glorified in every situation!

Even if He causes us to wait, we must trust that there’s a greater purpose for the delay and that He’s working all things out for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28).

Are you in a season of waiting? Instead of allowing yourself to become frustrated or sad when things don’t seem to be progressing as quickly as you’d like, let me encourage you to remember that God has a reason for the waiting.

Maybe He’s still working out all of the details.

Maybe He’s working in the other person’s heart.

Maybe He’s trying to use this time to grow your faith and strengthen His Spirit within you. Maybe He’s causing the delay for your own protection.

Whatever the reason may be, just know that God’s reason is always a good one!

So, wait well, my friend.

Wait well.

 

 

 

Featured Image by CDC on Unsplash

 

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About the Author

My name is Tarah Peacock and I am blessed to call myself a daughter of the King of all kings! My greatest desire in this life that God has given me is to point as many people to Him as I possibly can. I surrendered my heart to Him as a 7 year old girl, but I didn't fully begin living for Him until I was about 25. I knew all about Him. I went to church on Sundays. I tried to avoid doing "bad" things. But that was where my relationship and my pursuit of Jesus began and ended. Thankfully, God got ahold of my heart through a song called, "Motions" by Matthew West several years ago and revealed to me that I was, indeed, just going through the motions in my walk with Him. I wasn't growing. I wasn't pursuing Him. And as a result, I wasn't experiencing any real spiritual growth or fruit in my life. I made the commitment to start spending REAL time with Him in prayer and in His Word and my life has never been the same! God is so good and if there's any piece of encouragement that I can offer to anyone reading this right now, it's this: God is patient. He is kind. He loves you so much and no matter where you may be today, just know that He has a purpose and a plan for your life! If you'll take the time to get to know Him, I promise you that He will prove Himself to you and your life will never be the same!