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Waiting Patiently on God's Promises
By Ruth Kerr
“You’ll just have to wait.”
These are words every impatient person hates to hear. After all, we North Americans have created an almost wait-less society. We have drive-through banks. We download concert tickets in seconds. We microwave pot roast in 10 minutes. Who needs to wait for anything anymore? We can have everything we want NOW.
So what’s the big deal about waiting patiently? Who needs it!
We do, as it turns out. Much more than we realize.
The Benefits of Patience
If we humans had our way, we wouldn’t have to wait for anything. Sometimes it seems unfair God asks us to wait. Doesn’t God realize how urgently we need things? Doesn’t He understand what we need right now?
Make no mistake; God knows we desperately want immediate results. But perhaps God wants something from us. Maybe He wants us to develop a little patience.
The dictionary says patience is having calm endurance during pain or difficulty. A patient person can wait stoically for the outcome of an adverse situation. Such a person is not hasty or impulsive, which can often make a bad situation worse.
Have you ever noticed the amazing effect a calm person has in a crisis? In a situation where everyone is panicking, the calm person always becomes the leader. He or she focuses everyone’s attention on the task at hand and is able to restore order. Who has not been grateful to such a person in a time of upheaval?
God treasures that quality, and that’s why He wants to develop it in us. Patience doesn’t just help us weather life’s storms; it helps strengthen our fellow man.
Waiting for God
God has made abundant promises to us. Some promises will be fulfilled in His Kingdom, while some will be fulfilled now. Even so, we must be patient. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).
What does this verse mean? Does it mean we grit our teeth and endure our circumstances? Is this the best way to wait for God–to batten down the hatches and wait out the storm?
In a way yes, in another way, no.
The Hebrew word for “wait” in Psalm 27:14 is qawah, which tells us how to wait. The word has a few shades of meaning: to hope in; to wait for; to look for.
In other words, God tells us to not lose hope while waiting for His promises. He also tells us to look for Him, to watch for Him. This means He is faithful to fulfill what He has promised (Hebrews 10:23). God is active here on planet earth, and will show us the way if we are willing to follow.
But we must wait patiently.
When the Going Gets Tough, the Patient Get Going
Waiting patiently isn’t as passive as it sounds. The word patient also has a surprising, often overlooked meaning. It holds the key to waiting for God’s promises.
To be patient also means to be diligent.
A patient, diligent person is a preserving person, a working person, someone who doggedly keeps at it no matter what. A patient person doesn’t give up.
Being patient doesn’t mean we stop all activity and wait for the storm to blow over. Patience means we become diligent stewards. Christ told us as much in Matthew 24:45-51, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge... It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.”
Waiting patiently means we get busy! Just like our Father.
The Patience of God
We are not the only ones who wait. God waits too. He waits for us to grow, to mature and to fulfill our promises to Him. That’s right – God is waiting for us to do what we promised. Did we promise Him we’d stop smoking or taking drugs? Did we promise we would make a commitment to Him through baptism? Did we promise we’d become a better Christian?
Maybe we haven’t made any promises to God. Do we still expect Him to act on our behalf when we refuse to budge? Do we demand He fix situations that are the results of our poor choices?
No matter how patient we think we’ve been with God, how much more patient has He been with us? But, unlike us, He never gives up on us or loses hope in us. He never stops loving us or casts us aside as being useless or non-existent. Isn’t this the kind of patience we should have in Him?
Let us, then, wait and hope in our Lord. i
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