Who likes waiting? I don’t. As a culture, we have become ‘wait avoidant.’ If we need to wait for someone, we wonder if the time we agreed on is right. Is this the right place? Did they forget? Or, why is the doctor delayed for this appointment? Should I be doing something while I wait?
We wonder a lot.
Think about just this one example. We’ve gone from having to hook up a modem (that cut off any phone calls to the landline), and waiting several minutes for the sound that indicate it was connected – to now opening up our internet-ready computers, fussing if we ever see the circle going round and round.
And yet Advent is known to be a time of waiting. Between God’s last word through Malachi and the announcement of Gabriel to Mary were 400 years. And the wait for a Messiah to rescue us was promised even centuries before, way back in the Garden of Eden.
So what happened to bring that time of waiting to an end?
It was the fullness of time, the time appointed for God to reveal Himself.
So much of life requires waiting; we are either anticipating something to look forward to, or dreading something ahead:
Children can’t wait for Christmas
Waiting 9 months for a child
Waiting for a marriage proposal (the the response to one)
We need to wait in traffic, on Christmas lines, and I may have heard (maybe more than once) “Wait until your father gets home.”
Waiting is relative, maybe depending on which side of the bathroom door you are on, lol.
There are at least 116 scriptural references to waiting (like ‘waiting on the Lord’) and numerous examples of Biblical heroes who endured some form of waiting.
When God repeats Himself and even provides illustrations, He wants our attention.
Noah – over 100 years between the warning and fulfillment
(and of course waiting on the ark for the rain to end, and for getting off the stinky ark!)
Abraham – 25 years between promise and fulfillment
David – 15 years between anointing and appointment as king
Hannah – each month a sad recognition that her desire for a child was delayed. And on and on.
And of course, God Himself is long-suffering, deeply desiring our turning to Him.
And now we are waiting for Christ’s return.
But waiting is not passive, sitting and tapping our fingers.
During these last 13 years of Don’s health journey with leprosy, we traveled to Louisiana, Hershey, Baltimore and Philly. For Philly we would often take the train. Standing on the waiting deck, we would be listening intently for the train’s whistle and all those waiting would have our eyes on the curve where the approaching train would soon appear.
We were anticipating it would arrive according to the expected time.
But sometimes in life, we have no idea of the timetable (except our own desired one).
Sometimes we are looking for the answer to come from one direction, and it comes from another.
I have found waiting, not just FOR God, but abiding WITH God, has been a sifting process as well as a strengthening process.
I asked a few people what they thought the benefits of waiting on God are. Here are the key spiritual benefits (some are my own, some are offered by a friend who asked AI and sent them to me). There are so many more. You can take the time to ask God to reveal more.
1. Waiting grows deeper trust in God. It causes us to review His promises and grow in intimacy, leaning into Him
When you can’t see the outcome, you learn to lean on the character of God instead of your circumstances. Seasons of delay often become seasons of deeper prayer, reflection, and dependence.
I have found the closest times with God occur while waiting. Abiding becomes more than a byword.
2. Waiting develops spiritual maturity and endurance and teaches us to live in God’s timing. Endurance is never built in ease—it’s built in delay.
- “The testing of your faith produces perseverance…” (James 1:3–4)
- The Teacher is often silent during the test. Present always, but often silent
3. Waiting aligns our desires with God’s desires
Sometimes God delays because He’s transforming what we want.
Lord, this is MY will to “Thy will be done.”
4. Waiting creates space for God’s best, not our rushed version
When we slow down and linger, we’re more likely to recognize the right door instead of the first door.
God often protects us through delay.
5. Waiting reveals what we rely on and (who) we truly worship. It reveals our heart and things we might not normally consider true of ourselves. It supplies the opportunity to meditate and linger in what is revealed, and ask for Him to change us. He reveals so He can heal.
Impatience exposes idols—control, approval, speed, comfort.
6. Waiting positions us to witness God’s faithfulness
When the answer finally comes, you know it wasn’t your strength—it was God’s.
This becomes a lifelong testimony of His goodness.
We count on His faithfulness, and waiting is what also deepens our own faithfulness. It’s easy to be ‘faithful’ short term, but is proven when testing arrives. (Think marriage)
7. Waiting prepares you for the answer
Sometimes we’re not ready for what we’re praying for.
God uses delay to develop the strength, character, or capacity required to carry the blessing.
8. It helps us to be present – not languishing over the past or yearning for the future. “Anticipating is the soul of enjoyment” Elizabeth Gaskill. It invites me to be a lady-in-waiting, so aware of the desires and activities and whispers of God in the moment. A time to use my senses to look around for evidence of God. Listen. Lean in.
Wait on the Lord, and He will strengthen your heart.… Who doesn’t want their heart strengthened?
Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, mounting up with wings like eagles... The word, wait is interchanged with ‘hope’ and expectancy.
As expectation sets our eyes on a particular desired outcome, one of my own mind’s picturing,
So expectancy sets our hearts on looking for God and however He will answer. It requires leaning in, listening, eyes set for looking wherever He is moving.
Seriously, who expected the Messiah to arrive as a baby in a manger, heralded by shepherds?
What are you waiting for?
Let’s go from wondering to worshiping by opening our hands and intentionally place whatever we are waiting for, and then as an act of worship offer it to God.
We choose to wait with expectancy of what He will exchange in its place.
Waiting worshipfully.
Worshipfully waiting.