Teaching: Waiting
“Listen to my voice in the morning, LORD. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.” (Psalm 5:3 NLT-SE)
I am an impatient person. I do not like to wait. I believe most, if not all of us, are this way. We work hard to eliminate as much waiting as possible. What if we are eliminating something important? What if by taking waiting out of our lives we are taking away the development of important character qualities?
Waiting helps us become the kind of person we really want to be. Here are six things waiting does for us:
Waiting strengthens trust and commitment.
Waiting clarifies and purifies desires.
Waiting prepares us for inevitable seasons of waiting.
Waiting keeps us looking forward.
Waiting renews our strength and energy.
Waiting sweetens the reward.
Waiting is a reality and while we may be able to reduce it, we will not be able to eliminate it from our life. Embracing waiting begins with recognizing the value of waiting. While in a waiting period, there are 4 things we should do to make the waiting effective:
Serve: Involve yourself in something bigger than and outside of yourself.
Choose joyful gratitude: Find and celebrate the positive things that occur in the waiting regardless of how small and insignificant they may seem.
Focus on being Godly: Keep doing what God has asked you to do and work to become more like Jesus even in the waiting.
Keep waiting: Do not give up on the work God is doing in you during the time of waiting.