A Time to Wait
"...All of us at some point in our lives are waiting for something whether waiting for God to answer a prayer, waiting for the next job, waiting to get married, waiting to have kids, or waiting for Heaven. Hannah had to learn to wait on God and His timing. When God answered in His time, Hannah was greatly blessed. She just had to trust God that He knew what was best. Even the Lord has to wait. Isaiah 30:18 says the Lord will wait for judgment so He can be gracious to you, be exalted, and have mercy. We are thus blessed when we wait on God. Verse 19 says He will then be gracious when you cry to Him and will deliever you. If the Lord can have patience to wait, so can I... In Isaiah 33:2, Isaiah asked God to be gracious to them, for they had waited for Him. None is ever ashamed that waits on God - Isaiah 49:23."
Thus reads a journal entry of a young lady who has been learning to wait. Is still waiting actually. It is not an easy task. Sometimes the wait is hard and long, but we just need to remember that everything is beautiful in His time. The beauty comes through waiting.
What are you waiting on? What are you waiting on God to do? You probably guessed that the young lady who wrote that journal entry a couple years ago was me. I am not a patient person, so God often sees fit for me to wait so He can teach me patience. The waiting is different for everybody. When the Lord asks us to wait, it is not because He loves to leave us hanging. No, He wants what is best for us, and His ways are not ways, neither His thoughts our thoughts. The same is for His timing.
The wait sometimes changes.
At times, I have waited for God to answer a prayer. At times I have had to wait for a package to come in. Recently, my sister and I had wait for God to provide us a car. It took weeks for us to find the right car. We checked Craigslist and Facebook marketplace many times. We checked dozens of used carlots, but nothing popped up. We wondered if we would ever get a car. Weeks later, we found the one for us. Then we had to wait again for it to get fixed. God knew the right time for us to get a car. The man who sold it to us first wanted a thousand, but then he learned Dad was a preacher and dropped the price down to $800. There were a few problems with it, but not compared to some of the other cars we looked at. Thankfully, there was a man in our church who was able to work on our car for us. It took over a week because he had to do it on top of other projects, and he also wanted to make sure that the car was in good working condition for his preacher's daughters. I do have to say though, it was worth the wait for our car. It runs great, and it is a pleasure to drive. I could not imagine what would have happened if we had settled for a different car sooner. We would not have gotten God's best for us, I can tell you that.
His timing is perfect and beautiful.
He is never late and never too early. Like one song title says, He is "In Time, On Time, Every Time." One of my favorite hymns is "In His Time." It goes with one of my life's verses from Ecclesiastes - "He has made everything beautiful in His time." Several years ago, I was struggling to wait for God's time. I wondered why God had not brought a special someone into my life when other girls around me were already in a relationship with a young man. (Which seems so silly to me now that I am 23 and still single :) That was not the only thing I was struggling with at the time. I have noticed that when my relationship with the Lord has not been where it needs to be, those are the times that I struggle with other relationships. I needed a good long talk with my parents. They sat me down, probably in their bedroom, and we had a good talk. They gave me a verse to remember - Ecclesiastes 3:11. God often reminds me of that special verse. It helps me during periods of waiting.
The Teacher called Wait
God uses the waiting time to teach us things - patience, trust, faith - but the end result is always beautiful. Lamentations of Jeremiah says, "The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." The verse before says "Great is thy faithfulness." Sometimes the wait is to remind us that God is faithful, even when the wait seems long and pointless. No matter what you are waiting for, remember that the wait is worth it, for when it happens -- whatever you are waiting to happen -- it will be perfect and beautiful.
How about you? What are you waiting for? Remember that God loves you and wants what is best for you. Just trust Him, and wait patiently. The wait will be worth it. No matter what you are going through, remember another favorite hymn of mine - "It will be worth it all when we see Jesus." All trials, troubles, and times of waiting will be worth it when we meet the Creator of time - Jesus.
Keeping my heart while waiting for Him and praying you will do the same,
Elisabeth Kristine
