Reflecting on life can prove good and bad. The good comes from how God has helped you stand strong and wait on Him when you thought you’d sink. The bad comes when think you’ve waited long enough.
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Life reflection proves a major challenge when you realize your feet are still stuck in the same muck you stood in years ago. After hundreds of hours of prayer and searching the Scriptures, you still see no change or improvement.
When God has yet to make a way for us to move ahead, it’s tempting just to chase what we want ourselves. We’ll issue God an ultimatum, and if He misses the deadline we’ll assume He approves.
Here’s what happens when that happens.
An Entitled Faith
We begin to make decisions based on feelings of entitlement—as if we’ve waited long enough. We deserve to move ahead. It’s time, right?
When we face such moments of discouragement, a number of emotional triggers can kick in. Like being angry with God, or being tempted to sin, or coveting someone else’s life. Happiness becomes our top priority.
We want to take what promises “the happy life” without thought of consequences.
- David did that—and His one-night stand with Bathsheba caused Him to endure a lifelong, agonizing sword that never departed from His family (2 Sam. 12:9–10).
- Gehazi did that—and His conniving to get money that wasn’t His caused Him to live out His days as a leper (2 Kings 5:20).
In moments of unguarded impatience, we’ll sacrifice our honesty, our financial security, or our integrity—thinking that anything seems worth what we’ll gain in this moment. We want to give our mind, ego, and reputation what God refuses to give them.
We have waited for years for the Lord to improve our situation with no hope it will ever change.
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The lack of results scream to us to sidestep our values, since waiting on God seems to accomplish nothing. It seems all academic and impractical.
When an All-Wise God Seems Unfair
In the courts of human opinion, it seems God plays unfair. He fails to keep His promises when we define His faithfulness in terms of us getting our ideal life.
Our problem? We only have human brains. Limited. Shortsighted. Impatient. Self-focused.
We set up the standards by which God should rule the world, and then we crucify Him when He lets us down.
Trapped in the corner we’ve painted ourselves in, we search for another place without pain—one we’ll never find. It’s a vicious cycle. When we always take the path of least resistance, we always find ourselves running. But God sends us back so that we can face the challenge, discover His sufficiency, and find the life He wants for us.
When You’ve Waited Long Enough
One reason many people never see God working in their lives is because they never hang in there long enough for God to show His power. If we always quit when life gets hard, we live as if it’s all up to us.
Today you’ll face the temptation to exit God’s path and to believe the lie that you’ve waited long enough. A shortcut will take you where you want to go.
It won’t.
Keep on the path with God, even though the muddy road is a long and winding one. You’ll discover at its end it proved to be the shortest path to what you really want.
You’ll know you’ve waited long enough when you see the face of God.
Tell me what you think: What are you waiting on God to change? To leave a comment, just click here.
Like This Post? Get the Whole Book!
This post is adapted from Wayne’s book, Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing.
• What do you do when the life God has promised you looks nothing like the life he has given you?
• If you find yourself waiting on God—or if you don’t know what God wants you to do next—this book offers a wise and practical guide to finding hope and peace in life’s difficult pauses.
You will discover what to do when it seems God does nothing.