What Am I Waiting For?

Waiting is the one thing I hate more than any other. I know this. I can't stand it. Whether it's waiting in line at the store, waiting for class to be over, waiting for an exciting event, or waiting for God to give me direction in my life: waiting stinks. I often find myself asking the question "What am I waiting for?", followed closely by the question "Why can't it be NOW?" I never understood for the longest time that waiting can have a purpose all it's own.

The Bible is full of examples of waiting. Abraham waited for years to have a child. Joshua waited through forty years(!!) wandering in the desert before he could enter the promised land. Jacob waited through fourteen years of hard labor and being hoodwinked before he got Rachel. Moses spent years as a shepherd before he led Israel out of captivity. On and on there are examples of waiting in the Bible and in every instance there was a purpose. Joshua and Moses both learned important leadership skills they would need as leaders during their respective times in the wilderness. Jacob may have got Leah before Rachel and worked all that time, but God had a purpose for Leah and Rachel being married to Jacob (bearing twelve sons between them). Abraham's faith was strengthened by his long wait for a child and God's miraculous provision. All of them came out of the time of waiting with an understanding that it had not been purposeless: God had used that time to make them what He wanted them to be. God always had a purpose to His saints waiting.

It's no different for God's current saints. We may not find ourselves wandering in a physical wilderness or shepherding on a mountain for forty years (or maybe so), but we often find ourselves waiting. We may find ourselves in a very real emotional or spiritual wildernesses. Times when it seems that we're simply waiting on God and He is very quiet or silent. We question and pace back and forth, wondering what in the world we are waiting for. The answer almost always is to look in the mirror: you. Nobody ever said waiting was fun, but if God has you waiting then He is working on you. He has a plan for who He wants you to be. If you're waiting, it's because there's something on the horizon that you're not ready for yet. God won't just leave you to it: He is taking that time to gently mold you. Make you everything you were created to be. Make sure that when the next big things come you face it completely prepared for it. Along the way be thankful for where you already have been, and that God knows where He plans to take you.