One Sunday my husband, Jim, was preaching a sermon on patience and I was teaching my Sunday School lesson on the topic of grace. He and I laughed about that and decided we should both be calling in sick! Jim has a lot of grace, but neither of us is very good at waiting. In fact, few people are. 

Waiting on the Lord is the most difficult wait of all. I’ve rarely known God to hurry things along. As I’ve often said, “Waiting is often the most important part of God’s answer.” 

When you have been waiting on God for something you know would be his will to answer, be encouraged. One of the best ways to recognize the hand of God is at work is the wait.

We need to become spiritually patient because that is a great strength in our lives. It shouts to the world, “I trust God’s plan and I’m willing to wait for it.” Waiting gives us the chance and the inclination to seek after God and his thoughts. The more we learn about God in his word, the more likely we are to trust his perfection.

The psalmist could have said, “Enjoy the wait because you will grow stronger and your heart will be encouraged by all you learn during that time.” Even as I consider my own words, I realize explaining God’s word is much easier than following God’s word in my own life.

We are human beings and we want what we want as soon as we want it. God often makes us wait until we are willing to want what he wants and wait for his work in our lives.

Yielding to God is spiritual wisdom. Yielding to the wait of God’s perfect timing is wise. His solution is about our salvation, our eternal reward, and quite possibly about the eternal lives of others as well. Wanting his answers makes it well worth our wait.