The Mystery of Waiting

Waiting is one of the most challenging experiences in our walk with God, and the inability of one to grasp the Lord’s expectations while in the waiting room may prolong the season of waiting.

Gabriel Idowu

I have discovered that the Lord uses the waiting period to refine His beloved and prove their love for Him. It’s a season when your faith will be put to the test by the Almighty. For this reason, the devil will stir the heart of men to provoke and discourage you because he knows that the Lord is working in you to bring out the best.

More importantly, waiting time is a period of preparation for something more significant that the Lord has prepared for you. I often say waiting time is one of the schools of greatness you must attend before ascending the throne of greatness. Abraham, Joseph, David, and other great men in the Bible passed through this school before they became great. But unfortunately, many are dropping out of this school because they don’t understand the purpose of their waiting. Sadly, the devil is delighted because he’s robbing them of the blessing the Lord has prepared for them.

As far as God is concerned, preparation is inevitable for whatever He intends to do through you. If the next assignment He has for you is enormous, He will ensure you wait until you are equipped for such an assignment because He will not commit the work you cannot handle into your hands. So, in every preparation, you must learn the act of waiting because God does not serve uncooked food to people. If He purposes in His heart to use you, He will take his time to work on you, for the Lord uses the waiting time to prepare His beloved for the work and glory ahead of them because He’s not interested in their failure.

One pathetic story in the Bible is the story of Saul. He aborted destiny because he never learned the act of waiting. Samuel told him to wait in Gilgal for seven days till he came and told him what to do. Saul needed this time to prepare for what the Lord wanted to use him for. However, the camp of Saul launched an attack against the philistines before the completion of Saul’s waiting time. This became the foundation of Saul’s problem.

Surely, we can argue that Saul made the mistake of not fully waiting on Samuel to offer the sacrifices because of the pressure that was mounted on him. But the truth is, when you fail to focus on what the Lord expects of you while waiting, the pressure of this world may force you out of God’s plan.

This is the main problem in our generation today. We have not fully and sincerely learned the act of waiting on the Lord. As a result, many don’t understand what the Lord expects of them.

• What exactly does the Lord expect from us anytime He’s asking us to wait?
• Does He expect us to fold our hands and set our gaze at the clock?
• Does He expect us to visit family and friends just to waste time? Obviously, No.

God is not a time waster. Anytime he keeps you in the waiting room, He’s waiting on you to do the needful before opening the next chapter of your life. His expectation is clearly stated in Isaiah 40:31:

“But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

Anytime God asks you to wait, what He is indirectly telling you is to renew your strength. It may be that the journey ahead of you is far, and He knows that your current strength is not enough for the journey. Therefore, he will delay you until you are fed with spiritual food to complete the journey, just like He did to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:7.

And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”

Are you trusting God for career promotion, and it seems God is delaying you? You may lack the power to attain and sustain your desired heights. So, God will gracefully delay you until you are empowered to attain and sustain your desired heights. He wouldn’t want you to attain a height and eventually get killed because of your powerlessness.

Are you trusting God for the fruit of the womb? If the child God intends to give to you is a glorious child and your current spiritual strength will be at a disadvantage to that child, God will delay you until you are equipped with the power to conceive, deliver, and take care of that child. Hannah was barren for years until she took her walk with God seriously. Finally, she reached the point where she needed to face God squarely, and the Lord settled her.

How about the case of Sarah? The Bible says concerning her:

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised”

Heb 11:11

For years Sarah and Abraham were kept in the waiting room. Before the time that the angels visited her and Abraham, Sarah wasn’t operating in faith. At one point, she resorted to common sense by asking her husband to sleep with her servant. But all she needed was faith to receive strength to conceive because it takes faith to receive the promise; that is why the Bible admonishes us not to become sluggish but to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises (Heb 6:12).

Abraham’s faith alone was not enough to receive the promise meant for both of them and for the Lord to intervene; He had to visit them so that Sarah could hear a word that would strengthen her faith, for scripture tells us faith comes by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17). In the like manner, many families today are also in the waiting room because only one of the parties is operating in faith, and God is patiently waiting for the other person to be strengthened by faith. If Sarah had faithfully operated in faith before the angelic visitation, her breakthrough might have come sooner.

Beloved, what are you doing in the waiting room? Nagging, complaining, playing, or renewing your strength. Know for sure that how long you stay in the waiting room heavily depends on your response to the Lord’s expectations of you. A lackadaisical attitude will prolong your waiting time, but getting busy with what the Lord expects of you will shorten the time.

In conclusion, you must remember that “while waiting on God, God is also waiting on you to renew your strength and obey whatever instructions He has given you before He opens the next chapter of your life.