The Great..... Wait?
I hate waiting. I know, I know. We all do. Some of us do it better than others. I like to control most situations and waiting, to me, feels like someone else is in control of my life aaaaand I don't really like that. ha!
When I was 18 I thought waiting for something meant like a couple months. Now that I'm 33 and have waited for some time for some stuff I realize it's much longer and has the potential to be longer than I ever, EVER thought or wanted. Apparently, waiting is quite the biblical theme. Case and point, Abraham and Sarah. Did you know that from the time the Lord promised them a son (Isaac) and the promise being fulfilled was 25 years? 25 YEEEEAAARRRSSS!!! They were both already out of child bearing age and Sarah was considered "barren" when they received this promise AND THEN they had to wait another 25 years. Why? WHY??
"Why?" is the wrong question. I've resolved in my heart that I will never understand the "why" of waiting. I could come up with a bunch of stuff that sounds good like, "He's preparing me" or "His timing is perfect (which it is but I think sometimes we say this stuff without thinking)." Do you think Abraham and Sarah ever understood the why? Probably not. I mean, 25 years is a ridiculous amount of time to wait. There's no reason to wait that long other than God deciding that was their "wait." Good news is we don't need to know the "why" to wait. And not just wait but wait well.
The bottom line is when you're waiting, you don't have control. The DMV is a great reminder of this. Your life is 100% controlled by the DMV for however long a time they decide you will spend with them. It's the same with the Lord...haha! Obviously, He's much nicer, more gracious and waiting on Him isn't at all like waiting for the DMV. But, ultimately, we cannot control God. He controls the situation. He has a specific time for the things He has promised us to come to pass. Wrestling with Him over this is not going to help us. What we can do is ask, "How do you want me to wait?" or "How can I wait well?" I know that sounds ridiculous. Wait, well? I believe you can with the Lord. The bible says about Abraham in Genesis 15:4-6,
"Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness."
I believe that as we wait we can increase in our faith in God. Like Abraham, I believe that as we continue to believe in Him he credits it to us as righteousness as well. Romans 4:18-24 says,
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness."
Abraham was "strengthened" in his faith in the passage above. That means he increased in strength as he waited. That sounds opposite to how we actually feel sometimes, right? We can and do feel a lot of emotions in the "wait" but the bottom line is God is going to do it when He decides. We can either wade around in those emotions or rise above those emotions and increase in strength and faith in God. The fact is the longer you wait the closer you're getting to the fulfillment of that promise. You're only moving towards it not away from it.
Trust me. I am not good at this waiting thing but I have realized I am not in control of the "when" or the "why." I am only in control of how well I wait. That's it. I want to wait well. I want to increase in strength, as I wait, not decrease. There are realities of waiting. There are very real doubts and fears but, like Abraham, in the face of all his realities, I want to be fully persuaded that God has the power to do what He promised. I want to increase in faith as I wait.
Here are some scriptures to hopefully encourage you in your "Great Wait."
