In the Waiting

Waiting is hard business. The uncertainty it brings and the way we feel out of control is not easy to handle. Life is full of times of waiting whether it is waiting for the cycles of lockdown to end in Melbourne where I live, or waiting for a test result, a hospital report, a bank approval, in traffic, for a response, a breakthrough, for the big day to arrive, to feel alive again and so on. Perhaps you are tired of waiting and you feel like kicking and screaming because life is not going the way you want it to. How do you break out of this cycle of negativity and stop feeling drained? Is there something to learn in the waiting? Is there such a thing as waiting well?

Perhaps you have heard the wise saying, “The best things come to those who wait.” Just like a pregnant lady who is about to give birth, we need to learn to wait with expectancy and joy instead of lethargy and worry. The Bible teaches us to wait well, with expectancy and with quiet trust and hope in the Lord. In our natural minds, we think that waiting is wasted time, precious time that is lost when something spectacular could instead happen. However, just like waiting does not diminish a pregnant mother but she is enlarged in her waiting, we too need to wait in expectancy and joy for this enlargement to come through in our lives!
Romans 8:23-25 (MSG)
The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

God is so amazing, so glorious, so unsearchable in wisdom, so inexhaustible in goodness, so majestic and yet so loving, caring, attentive and gracious towards us! We think our waiting, the in-between times are somehow lost. His expansiveness actually means that each of us are the object of His love and purpose and therefore nothing gets lost, nothing is missed, nothing slips through the cracks! God redeems the times of waiting and He is growing and enlarging us if we keep our eye on Him and wait with quietness of trust and peace.
Psalm 36:5-6 (MSG)
^5-6 God’s love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks.

Times which are ordinary, times of waiting, times when we have run out of ideas and options have the potential to become the extraordinary and the miraculous in the Master’s hands. We have a Savior, a Redeemer, a Restorer who can turn ordinary water to extraordinary wine, a normal crossing of the sea to show astonishing power to still the storm or walk on water, a young boy’s simple lunch to be multiplied marvelously to feed five thousand and so on. Every miracle, every extraordinary event happened when the people involved were present before their God. Are we present before God to witness the turning point and see God weave all our ordinary, broken, waiting times into something good and glorious?
Romans 8:26-28 (MSG)
^26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

When we get tired of waiting and shift the focus on ourselves and have a pity party, the Holy Spirit is right there to shift our focus back to God and recharge us! We need to consciously make this shift by asking the Holy Spirit to help us! We need to be enlarged in our thinking, in our praying, in our inner spiritual being to be more full of God and faith in our times of waiting. It is not a time of withering, losing hope and faith, and shriveling. A pregnant mother displays growth and life while waiting for her new born! This enlargement has to be within us before it can be manifest on the outside. Are we allowing the Spirit of God to work within us, awakening, preparing, expanding and enlarging us to the grand purposes of God as we continue to wait on Him?

Yes, it’s been hard for you lately. Waiting for your breakthrough is a trying and grueling time of testing that drains you. We need to lean on the Holy Spirit and learn to shift our focus back on God through this time. Nothing is wasted when we have God in our lives. Times of waiting is precious time where growth, expansion and enlargement happens for all that is ahead of you. While you are waiting, position yourself for this growth, life and enlargement in your Spirit as you keep in step with the Holy Spirit! God is waiting on you even as you wait on Him for He has great plans and purposes for you!