W...A...I...T

WAIT. A four letter word that sounds so simple and effortless. It is part of our everyday life. Wait in line to get on a bus, wait in line to get checked out at the grocery store, wait to be served by a waiter at a restaurant, wait for your appointment at the doctor’s office. An average person spends hours just waiting each week.

Waiting seems to be a popular topic in love stories. I just watched the movie The Lake House where the leading character had to wait on and off for four years to finally get together with the love of his life. I would consider his love for her genuine for the fact that he waited. When a man is willing to wait for a woman or vice versa, it shows his or her virtues. In fact, waiting for your true love is so precious that ministries such as True Love Wait appeals to so many young people.
Besides romance, prolonged waiting can also be seen in family relationship. Waiting for reconciliation with your children, waiting for a prodigal child to repent and turn around, or waiting for someone to call you mom, in the case of infertility, often occur to an average person. Nonetheless, no amount of waiting could trump how long God has been waiting for us. Isa 30:18 says, “Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

Ever since the fall of men, God has been waiting for us to repent and come back to Him. Not only has He been waiting to show us his grace and mercy, He is also holding his wrath back. Isa 48:9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off” Holding back His wrath is another way God waits for us. God is continuing to wait even to this day. If you count the time now from the time Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, it IS a very long time indeed. Yet because of His mercy, He keeps on waiting for us to turn to Him. The moment we turn back to God, however, does not mean there is no more waiting Philippians 1:6 says “that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” God is working on us and waiting for us to become “perfect” in His sight, which is the day when Jesus Christ comes again.

God waits for us, but often, we wait for God as well. God knows the future and He knows how His waiting for us would result. Nonetheless, we certainly are not wise enough to know the future. Thus, our waiting for God takes faith. The prime example of waiting for God is Abraham. He waited for the birth of Isaac until he was 100. Hebrews 6:15 says “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” Abraham kept on trusting when his aging body told him otherwise; he waited for God to do His work. Other grand examples of waiting from the Bible are: Jacob, who waited fourteen years before he could marry Rachel, and Joseph, who suffered for years before he was finally discovered and promoted by Pharaoh. Though they did not wait for God directly per se, yet they waited for God’s guidance and deliverance. Even Jesus waited thirty years before it was the right timing for Him to start His ministry according to His Heavenly Father’s plan.

Like waiting in a doctor’s office, sometimes all it takes to wait for God is to have some patience. Psalm 46 reminds us that “Be still and know that I am God.” Being still sounds easy enough right? If you think it is easy, think twice. Ask my four year old boy to be still for you for one minute, and you know sometimes how hard it is to “be still” for a pro-longed period of time. It is especially hard to be still and wait for God’s deliverance when His deliverance seems no where to be found. In such circumstances, we often resort to act instead of to wait. Even the Father of Faith, Abraham, acted unwisely (the birth of Ishmael by Hagar) before he finally yielded to God completely and willingly waited. I have learned a great deal about waiting for God this summer. No it is not easy and yes sometimes it is downright tormenting. I have pleaded with God so many times but the words of this psalm seem to best elicit my sentiment at those tormenting moments. It is from Psalm 88:13-14

"But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?"

It is as if God has turned His face away from me and no longer hears my cry. “Why God, are you not here to get me out of this?” At those moments, I actually feel like I am the most cursed person in the world and no one, not even God wants to hear my plea. Yet, God is still listening for “He will never leave you, nor forsake you (Deut 31:6).” God will answer, but it is up to us to wait. In His perfect timing, He will provide His answer for us. We have been so misguided by Hollywood movies that often deliver near-perfect ending to life situations in a time span of approximately two hours (length of the movie). Though the main character waited for four years in the movie The Lake House, yet it was only about two hours of movie time before he finally got to meet the girl of his life. Don’t we all wish sometimes our wait could pass by just in two hours?

Of course, things in real life don’t usually just change in two hours. In this culture of instant gratification, we have been so “hollywoodized” that we want to see the rainbow when the rain has not even started. But if we do take the time to wait, to take in God’s guidance, protection and strength DURING a storm, we could get so much more than just being delivered from the bad situations. Although I am not much for the Hollywood versions of reality, I am however very much in agreement of what Morgan Freeman in his role of “God” said in the movie Evan Almighty, “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”

Sometimes a bit of waiting through a trial is the exact opportunity God has in mind for us to develop such virtues.For those of you who don’t know this God I am talking about personally, He is waiting for you. For those of you who do know Him, WAIT for Him. “Blessed are those who long for Him.”