This post is an excerpt from my eBook: 7 Words Your Soul Needs In a Waiting Season. The end of the post tells how you can get your FREE copy.

We hate to wait. We squirm when God answers our prayers with that dreaded word. But what if when God says, “Wait,” we hear one of its synonyms? What if wait were pronounced expect?

expect [ik-spekt] : to look forward to; regard as likely to happen; anticipate the occurrence or the coming of

When I was a kid, our family had only one car because my mother didn’t drive. If I had to stay after school for extra-curricular activities, I often had to wait for my father to pick me up on his way home from work. Sometimes the wait seemed very long, but I always knew that he would come. I never doubted that Dad’s car would pull into the school parking lot. I waited with expectation.

King David also waited with expectation. He wrote:

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. (Psalm 5:3).

The Hebrew word for wait in David’s psalm—qavah—can mean “to wait or look eagerly for.” I am certainly not eager to wait. But I can look eagerly for God’s answer to my problems. Just like I was always sure my dad’s blue sedan would eventually stop in front of the school door, I can be positive that my heavenly Father has a solution to my waiting dilemma.

At times, it may feel like that answer will never appear. We wait on and on. Hours, days, months, years pass by.

And it’s true, God’s solution may not look exactly like we envisioned. But we can still bring our requests to Him, place them in His hands, and then sit back and watch what He will do. We can wait with the sure hope that the Father has our best interests at heart. We can expect His love and peace in the middle of the delay. We can count on His presence to guide us. We can anticipate blessings that we can’t even imagine yet.

When God says, “Wait,” hear:

Expect

Don’t imagine for even one minute that God has forgotten you.

Don’t doubt that He is working out the best plan for your life.

Don’t fear that He has abandoned you.

Expect

Lay your requests in God’s hands and watch what He will do.

Anticipate a better outcome than you can imagine right now.

Rely on the Father’s immeasurable love for you.

Next step: Pray: 

Father, sometimes when I’m waiting, it seems like You will never show up. I keep watching. I keep looking for a sign that You have heard my prayer. But through the promises in Your Word, I know that You always listen for my voice. You always have a wonderful plan for my life. So I bring you this yearning in my heart. I place it in Your hands. I am waiting expectantly. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This post was an excerpt from my new eBook: 7 Words Your Soul Needs in a Waiting Season. 

In it, you will discover seven words that can mean wait. Seven words that can give hope and purpose in the middle of delay. Seven words your soul needs in a waiting season.

It’s FREE! Just sign up for my encouraging monthly newsletter and you will receive this devotional eBook with seven lessons on waiting, plus beautiful graphics of my favorite waiting Scriptures that you can print and frame.

Sign up below!

I hate to wait. I complain when I have to stand in a long line. I gripe when the service at a restaurant is slow. I grumble the answer to my prayer is delayed.

I want life to move along at my pace.

But recently, I was reading a book titled Waiting on God by Andrew Murray that changed my perspective on waiting. Murray, a South African pastor at the turn of the twentieth century, wrote:

If salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and highest duty is to wait on Him to do the work that pleases Him.

When I first read that statement, I had to read it twice to totally take it in.

Waiting is our first and highest duty?

Ah, Lord. Just a minute here. I don’t like waiting.

But after I thought about it, I realized Murray was right. We can’t come to Christ on our own. Psalm 62:1 says:

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

God gives salvation. We receive. God acts. We wait.

And thankfully, God does not make us wait long for His saving grace. We repent and admit our need for a Savior. Christ responds immediately.

Daily Waiting

Okay. We wait on God for salvation. However, my issue is with daily life. I balk at daily waiting. I often rush ahead, trying to accomplish tasks and solve problems on my own. How can I learn to love to wait?

Andrew Murray writes that daily waiting on God is indispensable. He insists that it must be “as continuous and unbroken as the breathing that maintains natural life.” Maybe if I realize this kind of waiting is an essential part of trust in a loving God, I can embrace it. Maybe if I remember continuous waiting is the key to a deep, perpetual fellowship with the Father, I can learn to love it.

Unbroken Waiting

Unbroken waiting. That’s the waiting I want to learn. Waiting day to day for joy in God’s presence. Waiting moment by moment for His guidance. Waiting second by second for reassurance of His love.

I know these are available because God promises these in His Word.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:5)

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14).

I only need to go to Jesus to receive them. I only have to stop long enough in my busy life to connect with the Savior. I only need to wait in expectation of His grace.

Next step: Take a moment to ask God for the ability to love to wait. Pray something like, “Lord, you know I balk at waiting. I want the answers to my prayers now. But I want to grow in trust and faith of Your goodness and wisdom. Help me to learn to love to wait on You.

If you want to learn more about waiting on God check out my book Waiting: A Bible Study on Patience, Hope, and Trust. In this book you will find:

• Eight chapters of readings that can be read straight through without doing the study guide
• Study guide that takes you deeper into the topic
• Ability to choose the amount of time you invest in the study.
• Questions that take you into Scripture
• Guidelines to help you apply the content to your life
• Hands-on projects to help you internalize the lessons
• Maps, timelines, and historical backgrounds to help you visualize the time period of each woman

Get it on Amazon or CPH.org.

Waiting is never our favorite activity. We squirm when God seems to press the pause button on our lives. How can we learn to wait well? We can turn to the examples of women in Scripture.

Sarah is famous for her long wait. She and her husband Abraham waited decades for the child that God had promised.

But Sarah is also infamous for her rash actions when she grew tired of waiting. She abandoned her trust in God and put her confidence in her own ingenuity.

Been there. Done that. I could have a hundred T-shirts commemorating my tendency to step ahead of God and try to fix things on my own. I’ve attempted to repair a relationship with my own comments instead of turning to God for the right words to say. I’ve said yes to a new volunteer opportunity before first asking the Father if those plans fit into His. And regrettably, I often follow my own DIY project until it falls apart in my hands. Usually, I don’t tap into God’s grace until my self-sufficiency has proven useless.

You too? We probably all relate to Sarah. Our long waiting periods often drive us to try something—anything—that will heal our pain or fix our problems. Discouragement multiplies. Frustration escalates. Anger intensifies. We fall into First Commandment sins: doubting our loving God and questioning His timing. Trust runs dry and we think, If God won’t, then I will.

But we can learn from Sarah too. We can learn that nothing is too hard for the Lord. We can realize He specializes in coming through when everything appears hopeless to us.

When I read Sarah’s story, I wonder if God included it to demonstrate that when life seems to be nothing but a dreadfully long wait, we need to change our perspective. Instead of viewing a pause in our plans as an inconvenience or as a disappointment or as an excuse to step out of God’s will, He wants us to interpret it as an opportunity to grow in trust. A time to relax and watch the Almighty work. A chance to grab on to the Lord’s rhetorical question “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” and respond with a resounding “No!”

Isaiah 26:8 says:
In the path of Your judgments, O Lord, we wait for You; Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

This verse gives us 3 secrets to waiting well–teaching us the what and how and why of waiting.

What are we to do while waiting? We are to follow “the path of [God’s] judgments.” We are to observe God’s laws. Obey His Word. Trust in His provision. Don’t try any DIY projects that are contradictory to Scripture. Do what God has already instructed us to do—and no more.

How do we wait? The New American Standard Bible translates Isaiah 26:8 as “We have waited for You eagerly.” I don’t know about you, but I am not eager to wait. I’m not wild about waiting for a loved one to return to the fellowship of a Christian church. I don’t choose extended periods of uncertainty when I’m searching for purpose. I don’t jump at the chance to languish in pain if my health suffers. But when I looked up the Hebrew for this verse, I was relieved that the word eagerly doesn’t mean to be excited about waiting. Instead it means “to look eagerly for.” We are not to wait with feelings of hopelessness or impatience. We aren’t meant to dwell in a pessimistic attitude, thinking, God will never come through for me. Waiting well means enthusiastically anticipating what God is going to do—even if He chooses a different plan from our own. It means praying, “Thy will be done.”

Why do we wait? We wait because what we want more than anything is for God’s name to be glorified. His “name and remembrance are the desire of our soul” (Isaiah 26:8). When we attempt do-it-yourself projects, we are flaunting what we can do. But when we wait for God to act, we are giving God a chance to show us what He can do. Waiting until the age of ninety to have a child wasn’t easy for Sarah. But certainly God received all the credit. God allows “in-between times” to give us opportunities to trust. To demonstrate there is nothing too hard for Him. He wants nothing more than for us to let go of our projects, our schemes, and our self-sufficiency and allow Him to work.

What DIY project have you been attempting in your life? Demanding your way in your marriage? (Ahem. I resemble that remark.) Ignoring God’s leading and insisting on your own life plan? (Yep, I’ve done that too.) Relying on your own energy as you pursue your career? (Sorry, Lord.) God is asking us to let it all go.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord. He longs to demonstrate that in our lives.

Next step: What DIY project have you been attempting in your life? Remember God’s words to Sarah in Genesis 18:14: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Give your desire to the Lord. Trust Him to come through with the best plan for your life.

This post is an excerpt from my book Waiting: A Bible Study on Patience, Hope, and Trust.

Check it out! The book studies the lives of:

• Sarah
• Hannah
• The Widow of Zarapheth
• Esther
• Anna
• The Woman with a 12-year Hemorrhage
• Martha
• Ten Virgins

Through their examples, we find hope for the delays in our lives. We learn how to wait well.

Find the book on Amazon or CPH.org

That word is not one I want to hear.

The barista says, “Wait at that counter.” But I want my latte now.

The customer service person says, “Wait right here.” But I want my problem solved now.

God says, “Wait a while.” But I want my prayer answered now.

You too?

Even though wait is a word we usually detest, it seems it is one God often uses.

Think about it. How many times did God ask His people to wait in Scripture? Jonah waited three days in the belly of a fish. Esther waited a year to meet the king. The Israelites waited four decades to enter the Promised Land.

Maybe wait is an important word.

Although our hearts squirm at the sound of it and our souls try to wriggle away from its grasp, maybe it’s a word we need.

But, perhaps we need to reframe it. Look at it from a different angle. Hear it in a different context.

What if when God said, “Wait,” we heard one if its synonyms? What if it were pronounced “pause”?

Or “Expect“?

Or “Abide”?

Would it make a difference?

I think it does. Although the word wait almost always has negative connotations in our culture, I don’t think God necessarily intends waiting to be gloomy and punitive. Sometimes waiting is meant to be restorative. To give us a season of rest. To draw us closer to the Father. To help us abandon our own puny efforts and rely on the almighty power of God.

Isaiah 64:4 says:

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

This is so reassuring! As we wait, God acts!

If you want to learn more about this concept, check out my new eBook. 

In it, you will discover seven words that can mean wait. Seven words that can give hope and purpose in the middle of delay. Seven words your soul needs in a waiting season.

It’s FREE! Just sign up in the box below for my Soul Rest newsletter and you will receive this devotional eBook with seven lessons on waiting, plus beautiful graphics of my favorite waiting Scriptures that you can print and frame.

Sign up below!