WHEN THE WAIT SEEMS TOO LONG
BY: PROMISE NWANKWO
When it seems that you have prayed and waited for too long for a thing and the answer is not coming or insight.
I want to start by asking a few questions?
Have you experienced waiting or are you currently waiting for something?
How long have you waited?
Have you waited to the extent that you are almost losing hope?
Are you even discouraged and tired of praying?
“God when” is a phrase commonly used nowadays. It is used when we want something or wish to have something good.
Waiting seems to be one of the hardest and most frustrating things in life especially in a world with a microwave mentality.
Whether we recognize it or not, waiting is a constant thing in our lives. At any given moment we’re all waiting for a process, something or someone. Sometimes in life, things don’t always happen when we expect, wish, or want them to happen.
When it doesn’t happen the way we want it, we are tempted to ask,
“When, God, when?”
You might have to experience delays as you navigate through life and you’ll think that every other person’s life is perfect except your life. You will be wondering why you differ from Sis A, B, C, X, Y, and Z. You become tired, discouraged, and frustrated, and you are tempted to take an alternate route to end the wait. My dear, I want to tell you that you are not alone in the waiting room. We are all waiting for something.
But this night we will be learning from a father and mother of Faith.
Abraham and Sarah waited for Isaac for 25 years. After 15 years of waiting for the promise, God visited Abraham again and assured him that the promise would be fulfilled in due time. It took another 10 years after the reassurance for Abraham and Sarah to give birth to a son. Genesis 21:5
Like Abram, we can get pretty tired of waiting for that something to happen. Ten years after God had promised Abram that he would be the father of many nations he was still childless and he lamented to God about his situation. When it seems that the waiting was too long, they ran ahead of God, trusted in their resources/plans, and Sarah sort for an alternative. She gave Hagar to Abraham and Ishmael was conceived and given birth to.
I know that we are blaming Sarah for what she did but the sincere truth is that period of waiting is not easy. It comes with different things from people asking different questions, advice, and suggestions. Some people go as far as mocking those who are waiting.
In waiting periods, we must wait the right way and with the right dispositions. Our disposition while we wait determines what we will get after the wait. God is not interested in how long we wait because He is not bound by time, He is interested in our dispositions while we wait.
God is not interested in the challenges we go through but He is concerned with what we become after the challenging and waiting period. Waiting period is not meant to destroy us but to build our character.
God uses times of waiting to stretch our faith in Him and to bring about change and growth in our lives.
Waiting on the Lord is essential to growing in our faith journey.
Waiting period increases our trust and dependence on God. It also us build up patience in us.
SOME HELPFUL TIPS FOR WAITING PERIOD.
Trust more in God: The best time to trust God more is in waiting periods. We must need to grow in the area of trusting God instead of focusing on the “when” question. When we focus more on the when question pretty soon we will begin to lose our peace and joy then worry and anxiety take over our life. We cannot be worried and trust God at the same time. We prove that we trust God when we refuse to worry. Trusting God often requires not knowing how God is going to accomplish what needs to be done and not knowing when He will do it.
Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. [6] In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Wait with patience: We spend a lot of time in our lives waiting because change is a process. Many people want change, but they don’t want to go through the waiting process. But the truth is, waiting is a given—we are going to wait. The question is, are we going to wait the wrong or right way? If we wait the wrong way, we’ll be miserable; but if we decide to wait God’s way, we can become patient and enjoy the wait. It takes practice, but as we let God help us in each situation, we develop patience, which is one of the most important Christian virtues. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit. If God did everything we asked for immediately, we would never grow and develop.
Accept God’s timing: God gives us hopes and dreams for certain things to happen in our lives, but He doesn’t always allow us to see the exact timing of His plan. Although frustrating, not knowing the exact timing is often what keeps us in the program. There are times when we might give up if we knew how long it was going to take, but when we accept God’s timing, we can learn to live in hope and enjoy our lives while God is working on our problems. We know that God’s plan for our lives is good, and when we entrust ourselves to Him, we can experience total peace and happiness. Joseph knew that he had a dream but he never knew how long he has to wait for the dream to be fulfilled. It took him seventeen years for his dreams to come to pass.
Wait prayerfully: The waiting period should be a time of prayers. Even when it seems that our prayers are not heard, we must continue to pray. Prayer gives us strength in waiting periods. We seek for grace to wait in the place of prayers. We must pray until we breakthrough.
Avoid comparison and murmuring. Waiting periods vary from person to person.
I pray that the Lord will give us the grace to wait for our breakthrough in Jesus’ name.
The Lord will give us the strength not to take alternate route that is against the will of God in Jesus name.
