"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see, that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me. And though oft My answers seem terribly late, my most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."
Waiting is a common experience for God’s people but the virtue of waiting is less common. Although the modern world often characterizes waiting as tedious, the biblical image of waiting for God is a strongly positive image.
Throughout the Bible we see important clusters of passages that address waiting. Some associate waiting with patience, acceptance, and contentment with unwanted circumstances. Other passages show that waiting for God to act requires withholding of human action. Some scriptures join the virtue of waiting on God with hope and expectancy. Finally, certain verses cast waiting for God into an eschatological light, such as when we read about waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ (Chamberlain and Opperwall, 2002).
Overall, waiting on God requires faith in his working in unseen ways. Thus we read: “From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him” (Isa 64:4 NRSV).
What kind of waiting does God require of you in right now? How will you respond to it? Is it producing in you a capacity to tolerate something unfair or forgive someone? Is it testing you to withhold human means or action? Or does it require you to trust even more and wait for the time when God will bring his plans to completion?
References:
G. Chamberlain and N. J. Opperwall. (2002).“Wait” in Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Ed., vol. 4, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised, p. 1003.
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