Patience and the Power of Waiting

How many of us can remember Veruca Salt? She was the one who annoyed me the most because she was so haughty and proudful. The demands she would put on her father, the attitude, the greed…even the way she pronounced “ice cream.”

You better watch this so you can remember: (click on continue reading to see the rest of this post)

“I want the world. I want the whole world…give it to me, NOW!”

Repulsed yet? Ever wonder if this is how God feels about the demands we put on Him? “I want a better paying job, daddy! I want a wife! I want a bigger house” I want! I want! I need! I need! Gimme gimme gimme. Instead of being sons and daughters who believe God has the best in mind for us, we have turned into What About Bob’s and Veruca Salts.

Patience is not waiting until you get something, but it is trusting in the moment. For eighty years, Abraham waited on God for a son. The Israelites were enslaved for generations until God sent a savior in Moses. We get upset with God if we’re not in a relationship when someone younger than us gets married or if someone else gets the promotion we’ve been waiting on.

Could God possibly be waiting to send you your spouse or provide that dream job until we begin to trust Him to a degree you haven’t reached yet? God has been showing me so clearly what patience truly means and how there is power in waiting on Him.

We have been plagued with the same lie since the garden. A deceitful serpent sneaks in beside us and questions God’s goodness and our trust in Him. “Did God really say…” That serpent questions us if waiting on God for a spouse will ever work, if trusting in God will ever produce financial stability.

In the book, “He Loves Me,” author Wayne Jacobsen writes, “One can obey God and yet not trust Him, and in doing so miss out on a relationship with Him. One cannot however trust God and be disobedient to Him. For…all disobedience flows out of mistrust in God’s nature and of his intentions toward us. (page 88)”

When we put unyielding trust in the goodness of God, we are equipped with a power to wait on Him without question. Though the waiting may seem long and there may not seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel, His way always works. He is a good Daddy and He desires to give good gifts to His children. The Scriptures go even further to say that “He refuses no good gift to His children.” So when you ask for a better job, a bigger house, a spouse, He hears those pleas and He desires to give you those gifts.

The question is, who will define the timing? Will we put God on our time schedule and point the finger when He doesn’t deliver or will be wait patiently for His appointed time?

It’s time we stop putting demands on God like Veruca Salt and start believing He is good and He has the best in mind for us. Put your trust in God for He will never disappoint.

Listen to this song as you finish reading this. I’d recommend listening to the song first as the video is a music video for the movie Fireproof. Though it is not easy, faithfully I will wait on the Lord…

I will serve you while I’m waiting. I will worship while I’m waiting. This is my response to my time of waiting.

What will yours be?