“Wait,” the word everyone naturally despises. If you are one with a chronic illness, you also know that half of getting better includes the very act of “waiting.” Whether it be on a doctor, treatment, test, or simply your body to come around, healing requires time, and passing time inevitably requires lots, and lots, of waiting. Despite its importance, we as humans come to hate “the action of staying where one is or delaying action until a particular time or until something else happens.” We find it pointless, completely meaningless, and tend to never be able to see the good is what we view as “so bad.” It can sometimes even feel as though times of waiting will never pass, and thus they become seemingly unbearable to our physical and mental well being. It is during these situations that we become discontent, fidgety, and irritated with pretty much everything around us. We want this moment, season, or circumstance in life to just be over with already. Yet there is meant to be so much more than frustration in moments of waiting, whether it be a day, week, month, or years, and that is through trust in Jesus Christ.
When we put our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, who died and rose again as a covering for our sins, we become a son (or) daughter of God’s kingdom. It is through this act of surrender that God says He will direct our paths, giving us the very best in our life that we couldn’t possibly obtain on our own. However, in order to completely do so, we must wipe our sense of schedule and business, and realize that when waiting comes, it is not that God has forgotten our request, nor has he left us waiting without a reason. Of course, we as humans aren’t completely helpless, and could very well go right ahead and try and hurry things along. Yet as man can attest to, this only will lead to more confusion, as you simply can’t hurry the perfect will of God in your life. If we go ahead and try to act on our behalf because we think it’s better, it’s what we want, and we can get it faster, we’re not going to get Gods best. We will be left in subpar situations and wonder why things didn’t turn out the way we thought they would or that God supposedly said they would. Yet it all comes back to us and our pride and our need for things to happen right here, right now, when we want them to. Instead, we can commit to waiting, and while this may sound like the act of “doing nothing,” it is quite the opposite. In order to get anything out of seasons of waiting, we must actively surrender everything in our lives. Overall, resting in God’s arms is a deliberate action, not something we can do without any thought or effort. Yet when we learn to position ourselves in a way that is open to hearing His voice, waiting for His timing becomes a time of great blessing. It is when we lay down our own earthly desires, personal opinions, and accept what God is doing even though we cannot necessarily see it, that He is able to work the most through us. Not only that, but times of waiting will suddenly become exciting and beautiful, as we realize God is using it for our best, and truly, there is nothing better we as humans could ever ask, want, or need in our limited time here on earth.
Lamentations 3:25 “The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seek him.”