When God Says “Wait”: A Christian Perspective

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:9

I have long joked that out of all the Fruits of the Spirit, as described in (Galatians 5:23-24), the one I have always struggled the most with is patience. When it comes to timing, I often find myself lacking. I have long heard a saying among Christians: “Lord, give me patience, and give it to me now!” I cannot relate to this sentiment more.

In my relationship with Christ and walk with God over the last ten years (basically the better part of my life), I can handle when God tells me “no” to specific requests. I can accept that what I wanted will not happen, dust myself off, and keep moving forward. Of course, I am always thrilled when God gives me a “yes” to my requests, even if the yes looks slightly different from what I had been expecting. But the one answer I do not know how to deal with is “wait.”

Table of Contents:

Examining Worldly Timing

I am not one to whine and moan about “the good old days,” mostly because I didn’t exist in those days. However I admit that in 2024, we are addicted to instant gratification. As long as we have the money to rush delivery, we can have whatever we want almost instantly. Usually, we don’t have to sacrifice product quality in the rushed process. From Amazon Prime to instant streaming, we believe we can have it now if we want something enough.

This have-it-now philosophy applies to tangible things of this world and more abstract concepts like success and wealth. The prevailing belief is that there is always a shortcut to achieving or acquiring what we want. We have sayings like “you have to work for anything worth having”. I generally agree that this is a good sentiment. However, we still rejoice whenever we get something we want without having to work or wait for it.

Examining God’s Timing

I know that as kids, we all did this: an exam was coming up that we hadn’t studied for, and the morning of the test, we whispered prayers to the Big Man, usually along the lines of “Dear God, if you let me get a good grade on this test, I will never talk back to my mom again or cheat on an assignment”. And if we do get a good grade, we forget about this promise, and if we don’t, we assume that God must have just not been listening. I refer to this as “vending machine praying,” as it’s like punching a combination into a vending machine and expecting the snack to drop into the bottom bin. We want prayer to be a give-and-take situation, but prayer is not that.

But that is a topic for another post, perhaps. For now, we are back to looking at God’s timing.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, it’s stated that God functions in a VASTLY different way from how we function. As a purely divine and holy being, of course, God won’t act or think in the same way as we do as sinful, compulsive people. We cannot put ourselves in God’s shoes or try to get “inside of His head” as we try to do with our fellow humans when their actions baffle us. As finite, Earthly creatures, we cannot completely comprehend the actions and intentions of an infinite, divine Creator.

Expecting Something New

As we know, we are not going to turn God’s “no” or “wait” into a prompt “yes,” no matter how we try to twist His response into one to justify us doing what we want to do anyway. Instead, we need to change our expectations about our prayers. Instead of sending a “give me a yes or no” prayer, consider: Could “wait” as an answer be better than an instant, definitive response?

It reminds me of when I was little, and I would beg my parents for something from the store. It could be candy, a toy, or whatever shiny thing had caught my eye that day. My parents would often offer me a deal. I could buy that cheap candy or toy right now, or I could wait, and my parents could use that money on the big gift for my upcoming birthday or the holidays. Often, I chose the instant gratification option. I am unsure if my parents ever detracted that money, but you get my point. My parents, in their knowledge and wisdom, knew that flimsy toy or tiny bag of candy couldn’t satisfy me. They had a better plan for me if I could obey when they said to wait.

Practicing Waiting on God

You might be convinced that God might have a reason to tell you “wait”, but that doesn’t make it any easier to do. Impatience is not an uncommon emotion, even among Christians. Many impatient people were in the Bible, so this is not a problem unique to our century. We can, however, take a page out of their book regarding how to deal with impatience in our walk with God.

First and foremost, to combat the impatience of the flesh, we need to be surrounded by His Word. Meditating on the Bible and being in continued prayer can keep you from feeling like God is silent while He tells you to wait. Even in seasons of waiting, He is still active and working, and taking comfort in this can help combat impatience. By focusing on what he is saying “yes” to, we can feel less frustrated when He says “wait”.

Secondly, we need to seek wise counsel from other believers. Hearing “wait” from God can feel incredibly isolating, especially when you think He is giving wholehearted “yes!”s to everyone around you. By fellowshipping with others, you can remember that God tells everyone to wait at some point, and this doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong in your Walk with Him.

I know that this post is rather unlike my usual content. But it’s what the Lord had placed on my heart to write about. Even if you were not expecting to read about this, I hope that it was a blessing to you anyway.

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Until next time!