If we knew what God knows, we would choose to wait for His timing rather than push Him to act now. God created us to live in dependence on the Creator. As such, we wait for His wondrous will and provision.
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Insisting on instant gratification (even for good things) minimizes and overlooks the infinite worth of God’s sovereignty—a wisdom that sees beyond the next five minutes. Or the next five years.
Are you waiting for the Lord to do something in your life?
If you knew what God knows, here’s what you would do.
Active, Not Passive
Patience seems passive. It feels like we’re sitting in the ash heap, like poor old Job, doing nothing but scraping ourselves with pottery shards and bemoaning our lousy lot in life.
On the contrary, waiting is a very active part of living. Waiting on God, if we do it correctly, is anything but passive.
- Waiting works its way out in very deliberate actions, very intentional searching the scriptures and prayer, intense moments of humility and self-realization of our finiteness.
- With the waiting comes learning. I can’t think of much I’ve learned that’s positive from the times I’ve plowed ahead without waiting on God.
Waiting for His Wondrous Will
How necessary it is for us to remain in God’s will while we wait on Him. Otherwise, how will we recognize His voice if we have through impatience wandered out of the bounds of His wondrous will?
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Even if we were to hear from God during this time—when He finally leads us—we wouldn’t have the confidence in His leading. Scripture reveals that a commitment to a renewed mind is precursory to recognizing “His good, perfect, and pleasing will” (Romans 12:1-2). If we abandon that part of His moral will of which we’re certain, we will have little confidence in His leading in the unrevealed direction we’ve been waiting for.
God often keeps quiet about why He allows what He allows in our lives (we wouldn’t understand it anyway). But He does promise His presence—a need far greater than understanding.
Although we lack understanding, we do know that He understands, and that’s enough—because He is with us. His wondrous will is wonderful because it is good.
If we knew what God knows, we would choose to wait for His timing.
Tell me what you think: Do you think knowing what God knows would make a difference? 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.