The difficulty lies not just in the wait itself, but in our innate desire for clarity. We yearn to know how long this waiting will last, hoping that our waiting will bear fruit. Yet, amidst the anticipation, there’s a subtle dance of doubt – are we waiting for the right thing?
Waiting is a spiritual discipline with great potential to build our character, help us to get to know God better, and allows our faith to grow. Waiting also has the potential to be the battleground for discouragement, confusion, jealousy, and discontentment.
Waiting exposes the unbelief and the insecure areas of our lives. It also causes us to face self-preservation head-on and either choose it or trust God!
There are many benefits for waiting upon God and His timing:
Waiting Protects Our Integrity
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You. Psalm 25:21
Sometimes, we will be tempted to take a shortcut to get our way; however, as followers of Christ a shortcut can jeopardize our integrity.
For example, when a famine came, Abraham quickly rushed to Egypt, but that wasn’t what the Lord had asked him to do. Then, he was faced with the possibility of getting killed because Sara was so beautiful. So he asked her to lie about him and tell the king that Abraham was her brother. Not waiting upon the Lord opened new dangers for him that caused him to compromise his integrity and made Sara fall into sin as well.
If we resolve to be people of integrity, it will often keep us from making hasty decisions because haste decisions can pressure us into lying or telling half-truths!
Waiting Helps us Overcome Fear
Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! Psalm 27:14
There are times when fear tries to press in. “Fight or flight” is the natural reaction, but waiting is the supernatural response. Every time we take matters into our own hands and fight or flee, we abort God’s process! We may relieve fear, but the opportunity to grow in courage and strength is taken away.
Sometimes, the Lord may lead us to fight or flee, but many times, it comes from our natural and familiar mode of operation and not from the Lord! When we wait on the Lord and don’t react by fighting or fleeing, we can get delivered from fear in that area! Fear is overcome by waiting on the Lord and allow him to give us courage.
How are you doing with waiting? Has waiting tempted you to take shortcuts or compromise on your integrity? Have you stopped waiting out of the fear of missing out on something?
Image by Pham Trung Kien from Pixabay