When the Lord Asks You to Wait
Walking with Purpose Series — Discovering God’s purposes and learning to walk in step with Him
Written by Michelle Grenfell with Chantelle Kate
As we continue in this Walking with Purpose series, it’s important to recognize that in any journey there are times of waiting. Times to pause, to rest, to listen, and to be sure of where we are going.
This is especially true in our walk with the Lord.
So often in the Kingdom of God, we are asked to do things that feel the opposite of what we would naturally choose. The last are first. A gentle answer turns away wrath. And here, too, we are called to move forward… and yet, to wait.
The Bible calls us to press forward toward the prize, but not in a striving or forcing way. It is as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus that we move forward. And at times, He calls us to wait.
In the kingdom of God, this can feel upside down. But when we wait on the Lord, it is often the very way He moves us forward, and we may be gaining more ground than we realize.
To wait on the Lord is to have trust in Him. Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” And earlier in the psalm we read, “Trust in the Lord and do good… Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him” (verses 3 and 5).
It is never an easy thing to “wait on the Lord” or to “trust in Him” when we want quick results.
When We Stop Waiting
When we look at the story of Moses and the Israelite people in Exodus 32, we see that Moses was up on the mountain where God was giving him the Ten Commandments. But the Israelites, who had seen many supernatural signs and wonders, still did not trust God enough to wait. Verse 8 says, “they have turned aside quickly.”
They took things into their own hands and produced an idol.
We see the same thing in Genesis 16, where Abraham took things into his own hands to produce the promised heir. The result was Ishmael, Hagar’s son.
The Bible is full of testimonies of people who were tired of waiting on God. So they did their own thing, but that never works for God’s glory.
How often do we take things into our own hands and do things our own way as we become impatient with waiting on God?
Perhaps we did not get that business breakthrough we expected. So while we have not forsaken God, our eyes have moved from the eternal purposes of God to the temporal. We are now focused on building our business our way.
Or consider the person who senses their time in a place is coming to an end, but instead of seeking the Lord step by step, moves ahead in their own timing and misses what God had prepared. Or those who have been holding onto something the Lord has promised, but as time passes, they grow tired of waiting and quietly lay it aside.
The day-to-day examples are endless.
What It Looks Like to Wait Well
Yet we also see in the Bible those heroes of the faith who waited patiently on God for His way, His direction, and His intervention.
Look at David. Anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s king to succeed Saul, he waited twenty years before he became king. He did not do his own thing. He waited on God and became probably the greatest earthly king of all time.
He might have become king anyway had he taken things into his own hands, but it would have been a very different picture. We might have read: David became king for five years. He did not walk in God’s ways, and so God raised up another king.
Instead, books of the Bible are written about David. His name will live on for all eternity. He became a man after God’s own heart.
Why did he wait on God?
I believe he waited on God because he trusted Him. He trusted who He is. He trusted God’s plan and purposes for him and the nation. He trusted God’s ability, certainly over his own. He trusted God’s timing. He trusted his life completely to the One he served.
As David waited on God for the time when he would be crowned king, he did not wait passively. He gave his attention to all he did. He shepherded his sheep well. He grew in intimacy and skill in worshiping God. He developed his warfare ability and his leadership.
He did not sit passively and grumble at God, saying things like, “You said I would be king. When will that happen?” No, he gave himself fully to what was in front of him, all of this preparing him for his great reign.
We see over and over in Psalms that David speaks of trusting God even in dire circumstances.
How did he accomplish this?
Because his trust was so complete, his waiting was not marked by anxiety or frustration. He waited. He praised God. He waited. He worshiped. He waited. He served and honored Saul. He waited.
He did not lose hope, because he had grown in his trust of God. He was real about his soulish struggles, but always, in his waiting, he chose to trust God and praise Him.
Psalm 28:7 says, “My heart trusted in Him and I am helped.”
David had to make his choices in his generation; we must make similar choices today.
How will we respond?
Do we want to be Christians who live this life eating the crumbs of what God purposes for us, focusing only on this earthly life? Or do we want to be those who are willing to wait with patience and endurance and inherit all God has for us?
Let us take the higher road.
Those who choose to trust God in every aspect of their lives will wait on Him with patience and endurance. God always gives His best to those who wait on the Lord.
So let us wait with eager anticipation, joy, and peace, listening for God’s every word, ready and prepared, patiently trusting the One who gave His all for us, Jesus our King and Lord.
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31
Let us wait with Him, trusting His timing, His ways, and His heart toward us.
He is faithful.
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This is part of a journey we’ve been walking through in the Walking with Purpose series.
If you’ve missed the earlier parts, they lay the foundation for what we’ve shared here:
God’s Word for This Season — on hearing what the Lord is speaking right now
Little by Little — on how His purposes unfold in the small, steady steps of obedience
Forward is the Way — on moving on from the past and fixing our eyes on Him
Next time, we will continue with the series.