I’d like to share a few of the personal lessons I’ve learned from writing about and considering waiting. My hope is that you’ll resonate with most of them. Feel free to add your own. Learning to wait on God has been a surprising journey. Along the way, I learned five lessons.
1. Disdain for Waiting Is Connected to Desire for Control
Why do I dislike waiting? That was a significant question for me as I thought about both my experience and writing this book. It was fairly easy to identify the emotions and responses: frustration, fear, anxiety, or anger. But I needed to unpack what lies underneath. I’m now convinced the issue is control. Waiting confronts my desire to be in charge of my life. Understanding what is happening, knowing the timing, and assuring an outcome make me feel secure and safe. Vulnerability is unnerving. This has helped me see gap moments as opportunities to trust in God, to embrace the safety and security of who he is and what he’s promised.
Embracing waiting confronts my desire for control.
2. Waiting Isn’t Getting Easier, Culturally or Personally
There’s a gravitational pull away from valuing waiting, and it’s not getting any better. There are significant incentives for things to happen faster, and I feel the conditioning of speed and efficiency.
Without even knowing it, my expectations have changed, and it’s hard not to allow this to creep into nearly every area of my life. What’s more, life experience can fuel anxiety because I have more painful examples of what could go wrong. However, realizing this tendency around me and inside of me created an empowerment to treat it like white noise. I’m able to see the struggle with waiting more clearly and not hitch my wagon to the lure of quick answers or fast solutions.
Embracing waiting requires resisting external and internal allurements.
3. Waiting on God Is Not Optional for the Christian Life
I began this journey with a desire to improve in a particular area of deficiency, but I soon discovered that waiting on God is a critical aspect of being a follower of Jesus. Andrew Murray, toward the end of his book, writes:
Dear Christian! Do you not begin to see that waiting is not one among a number of Christian virtues, to be thought of from time to time, but that it expresses that disposition which lies at the very root of the Christian life?[1]
Waiting is more like abiding. It’s closer to trust and faith. It describes a normal and central element of discipleship that I cannot neglect. To be a Christian is to wait on God. Understanding this added fuel to my desire to grow in this vital area. It’s transformed how I think about and value waiting.
Embracing waiting facilitates spiritual maturity and intimacy with God.
4. Daily Waiting on God Helps Tame Reactions and Embrace Peace
I’ve noticed a connection between intentional waiting and my responses. You see, I still don’t like waiting, and I’m not sure I will. But I’ve experienced a level of freedom through this journey that I want to continue. As I’ve embraced waiting on God as a daily discipline, it’s produced some wonderful results. Taking a few minutes to focus, adore, seek, and trust has produced notable fruit. Delays are less surprising. Uncertainty is more tolerable. I’m less inclined to speak or respond quickly. I’ve welcomed God into many more moments of my day. I just feel less worried and stressed. My load seems lighter, and I sense a greater closeness with my Savior. I’ve come to see waiting as much more than a reaction to a gap.
Embracing waiting creates a path for flourishing.
5. God Works As I Wait
I’ve witnessed specific divine intervention through my exploration of waiting on God. It started inside me first. As I’ve waited on the Lord, I sense a rising level of patience, joy, and gratitude. I’m less focused on what I don’t know and more intentional about reflecting on what’s true about God. So I’m the same person, but I sense that God’s doing something powerful in my soul. I’ve also been stunned at how God has worked as I’ve waited on him. By giving God time and resisting my need for quick action, I’ve seen problems solved, solutions surface, people convicted, and conflict resolved. I’ve marveled at specific answers to prayer as I’ve waited. While I knew that God works for those who wait for him, I have firsthand experience that it really happens.
Embracing waiting provides an opportunity for God to work.
Content taken from Waiting Isn’t a Waste by Mark Vroegop, ©2024. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org.
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Source
[1] Andrew Murray, Waiting on God! Daily Messages for a Month (New York: Revell, 1896), 116.