Waiting. Such an ugly word- especially for Americans! We want everything now. But sometimes God makes us wait an intolerably long time. Perhaps he is working on our character. Or perhaps he is doing things in other people and setting the stage for our future- and He is glorified by our patience while we wait? The Bible is full of examples of people that God made wait.
In Genesis 37, favorite son Joseph is 17 years old and has two dreams of his father, mother, and brothers bowing down to him. (He made the mistake of telling them at the dinner table - BAD move.) Pro Tip: Not everything God shows you or tells you should be shared. It may be just for you. In anger, his brothers sell him to slavers and he ends up in Egypt as a slave, and then as a royal prisoner. Thirteen years pass, and then he is released from jail and suddenly named Prime Minister. But ANOTHER seven years goes by before seeing his brothers bow to him. That makes 20 years. TWENTY YEARS from when God gave him the dreams until the fulfillment. I wonder, did he doubt God during that time? Did he question whether the dreams were really from God? Did he think maybe God changed his mind, or worse-- that he has screwed up some how and so God wasn't going to do that for him after all? Those are all human responses to waiting when God has promised us something and we don't see it happening.
God has made promises to some of us. But how long has it been? Three years? Five? Ten? God is still faithful. Jesus told his disciples in Acts 1:7-8 "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business." Our job is to Trust His Timing. Sometimes He says to us when we are asking about timing "That I have promised, I will be faithful to perform." In other words, don't sweat the details. Trust Him with the outcome. The details are on Him. Once God showed me a beautiful engraved old fashioned pocket watch, with the cover cut away from the 12 o'clock position to the 2 o'clock position. And the hands weren't visible. It was Acts 1:7-8, visualized. "You don't get to know the time. Timing is the Father's business." Okay God... (sigh.)
Sometimes God makes us wait in the absence of further instructions. So what should our response be? To keep doing the last thing He told us to do. To keep plugging... Here are some examples:
Elijah (I Kings 18:1)- "A long time passed. Then God's word came to Elijah. The drought was now in its third year." God had told him at the beginning of the drought to go to a certain stream, where he would be fed by Ravens. After that stream dried up, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath, who fed him. But then it says, "A long time passed. THEN God's word came to Elijah..."
Paul (Acts 18:9-11) "One night, the Master spoke to Paul in a dream: 'Keep it up, and don't let anyone intimidate or silence you. No matter what happens, I am with you and no one is going to be able to hurt you. You have no idea how many people I have on my side in this city.' That was all he needed to stick it out. He stayed another year and a half, faithfully teaching the Word of God to the Corinthians."
Other times, God makes us wait for answers themselves. In Jeremiah 42, Jerusalem has already fallen to the Babylonians. The Babylonian governor has been assassinated and the remainder of the people want to flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of the Babylonians. They come to Jeremiah to ask for guidance from God. Interestingly, they identify Him as Jeremiah's God (as opposed to their own God), and he is quick to correct them:
"Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do."
"I have heard you," replied Jeremiah the prophet." I will certainly pray to the LORD your God as you requested..."
...
Ten days later, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah...
Notice that God made Jeremiah, one of his premier prophets, wait for an answer? Who am I to demand immediate answers from God to my questions? Yet sometimes He graciously answers anyway, sometimes before the thought is fully formed in my head or the sentence completed in my journal. Isaiah 65:24 tells us:
Before they call I will answer:
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Often God has us waiting, whether it's for fulfillment of promises, answers to questions, or simply for further instructions. It's a normal part of our faith-walk, and needs to be embraced and not cursed. Is it easy? Nope! It's just necessary.
May we each encounter God in our Waiting.
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