Going Through The Waiting

I believe there are four specific reasons why God allows His children to wait.

The Waiting is meant to help us grow.

The people of Israel had a problem. They had spent their whole lives being slaves and were now called to be warriors. They barely knew how to hold a spear, let alone aim it correctly and hit their mark. God was aware of this weakness that the Israelites had, and it was not a minor one. The people of Israel were not aware of it. Remember Exodus 13:17–18: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearby. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

In other words, God purposefully sent His people the long way to the promised land, not because He didn’t care for them but because He knew something they did not know: their capacity to fight the enemy was still limited. They needed to get stronger. They needed to learn how to fight. They needed to become a strong nation that would override the enemy to claim the promised land.

I usually think I know all the answers to my life problems. I get frustrated when God doesn’t cooperate by giving me what I want, when I want it. Do you ever feel that way? When God called me to a life in full-time ministry, I thought that accepting His call was the biggest step of faith I’d ever take. I naïvely expected God to “make it all happen” for me right then and there. So when the Christian blog that I started for God’s glory didn’t explode and reach thousands of readers by its first year, I was puzzled. Didn’t God want me to succeed? And when the Bible study that I was teaching didn’t catch fire, I accused God of messing with my mind. Didn’t You want me to be in full-time ministry? Wasn’t this Your idea? What’s with the waiting? Why the delays? I couldn’t see then what I see more clearly now: the day that God called me into a life of ministry, I still wasn’t ready to receive all that God had for me. I had to grow into the job that God was fitting me for. I had to learn how to write. I had to learn how to teach God’s Word.

What I forgot in the waiting is that God is the Potter, and I am the clay. He’s the one who is shaping me and reworking me into the perfect vessel for His use. All I have to do is trust Him to finish the work in His time.

The Waiting is meant to protect us.

Read what Deuteronomy 7:22 says: “The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.”

Wait. Wild beasts? I thought the enemy nations were the only obstacle the people of Israel had to worry about. Who said anything about wild beasts?

Here’s something you need to know: God makes a habit of protecting us from dangers we haven’t even imagined or predicted.

A few years ago, I was ready to change jobs. I knew God had called me to full-time ministry, but I was still working in an academic medical center with its rigors and demands. I was anxious to move on. I had a blog that was growing, and I was teaching more and more Bible studies in one of the largest churches in the United States. Instead of worrying about medical grants, I wanted to focus on Bible study facts. I was in a rush to get there.

For two years I thought about changing jobs, until one day I took action. I heard about an opportunity across town that sounded perfect. I applied for it, but the door slammed in my face so hard I can still feel its impact. How could God allow this to happen to me? The next three months were uneventful. I waited. Then one day I got a call. It was from a third hospital across town where some of my friends worked. A position had become available. The call was unexpected; I hadn’t gone looking for it, but the job was perfect for me. The pay was higher, the hours less than anything I’d heard of before, and my partners were idyllic. I couldn’t have crafted a better fit for me if I’d tried. That job would allow me to transition into the women’s ministry director role at my church because of its flexibility. Ironically, I would later be given the chance to moonlight at the hospital where the door had slammed in my face. It turned out that I hated working at that hospital. Every shift that I worked there was a reminder to me of God’s grace in my life. Every shift that I spent there was a reminder that God knows what I need far more than I do.

God never makes mistakes. He knows what’s best for His children. And He sometimes allows us to spend time in the wilderness of waiting for our own protection. Won’t you trust Him in your season of waiting?

The Waiting is meant to test us.

So far we’ve talked about how God uses the waiting to grow our faith and to protect us from unseen dangers. In Deuteronomy 8:2, we’re given the third reason for waiting: “You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”

I’ve taken enough tests in my life to know that I don’t like them. Yet God often uses the delays in our lives to test us. He uses the waiting to see if we will lean on Him in complete dependence or if we will choose our own wisdom instead. The Bible often uses the imagery of refining silver as an example of the way God tests us. In Zechariah 13:9, it says, “I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.”

Refining silver is not easy. It’s fierce work. It involves beating the silver and hammering it in the perfect places to make it as pure and refined as possible. It’s work that takes time. It’s work that involves the searing pain of fire. It’s work that will test you until you feel like you’re going to crack.

But under the skillful loving hand of the Master, cracking is never a risk. God’s plan is not to crack us but to test us.

Remember Peter, the fisherman turned fisher of men? He understood the importance of testing on the road to living out God’s call. He says in 1 Peter 1:7, “So that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Waiting is a test that every follower of Jesus Christ will have to take over and over again.

The Waiting is meant to purify us.

Once in a while, the waiting in our life is extended because of our sinfulness. Malachi 3:2–3 explains this kind of waiting: “For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.”

God’s Word in Ezekiel 22:19–20 is even stronger: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.

Ouch! Sadly, the Israelites became well-versed in the purification process. The Israelites could have entered the promised land earlier on in their journey, but their own sin in the wilderness prolonged their waiting from a long weekend to an extended stay vacation. As you consider your own life, ask yourself whether it is your own sin that is keeping you in the land of waiting.

I’m so grateful for God’s commitment to my purification. I’m so thankful that He won’t allow the dross to accumulate in my life. But I’ve often wondered how much of my time in the wilderness has been caused by my sin and stubbornness.