Waiting for the light to change to green. Waiting in the queue to pay for my groceries. Waiting for school to end. Waiting for the kids to go to bed.  Waiting for the coffee to brew. Waiting for prayers to be answered. Waiting for the bus to come. Waiting for a visa. Waiting for the water to boil for a cup of tea. Waiting for direction and guidance for the next steps.

A lot of our time is spent waiting. How is your waiting? Are you waiting patiently?

Some waiting is easy. It isn’t that hard to wait for the water to boil for tea. It is easy because I know it will just be a minute or two. It can be harder to wait when we don’t know how long we will be waiting. Waiting for God to answer prayer, that is the uncertain waiting. Uncertain of how long we will be waiting. That is when we need patience.

Patience implies suffering, enduring, and waiting. Patience is about how we are in the waiting. God has shown his patience with us. He gives us time, time to repent.

What do you do during those times of waiting? Are you tempted to do things you way instead of waiting for God’s way? Abram was given a promise from God. A promise of a great nation, blessing, and a great name (Genesis 12). Time when on and Abram was still waiting for God to fulfil his promise. God specifically tells Abram that, “your own son shall be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4).

Time continues on and still the promise is not fulfilled, there is no son. So Abram and Sarai decide to do it there way. It gets a bit messy but that is often happen when we don’t wait for God to work and try to do it our way. You can read all the bits in Genesis 16.

Abram did not have patience. He rushed ahead.

So what do you do when you are waiting?

Trust God – Trust that God is working even if you do not see what is happening. Keep trusting he is the God of the impossible and he has a plan. Do it God’s way. Refuse the temptation to do it your way.

Reflect on God’s faithfulness – How have you seen God faithful in your life? How has he worked in your life in the past?

Rejoice in God – Focus on what God is doing and rejoice in that. Keep your focus on God. Spend time knowing God deeper.

Worship God – Worship in the waiting. Praise God for who he is and what he has done both in your life and through the Bible. Give him glory. He is worthy of our worship.

One of the times of waiting for us was waiting for our visa. We were ready to go but needed some paperwork to be filed and then we needed to complete our paperwork. In August we were thinking it would be November that we would have the visa. We were in temporary housing and had been since February. November then became January and finally in April we had everything. It was a time of waiting.

We had to trust that God was working. That his timing was perfect. We reflected on all that God had done getting us to that point. Now four years later looking back. I don’t know why we were waiting but I do know that I have confident that we are where God wants us know. We waited for him and it gave confidence.

How is your waiting? What are your waiting for at this time? Are you worshipping God in the waiting?