I set the timer for the the dough to rise, and thought, we spend so much time waiting. I could’ve picked up a loaf from the store, but homemade bread is better; the smell overwhelms you when the crusty loaf comes from the oven; it’s too hot to slice, but you slice it anyway and you slather on the butter and watch it trickle down. Baking bread requires waiting, but that’s what makes it special.
It’s been said of our generation that we’re impatient and accustomed to instant everything. We use microwaves because we don’t want to wait. We drive up to a fast food window when we don’t have time to prepare a meal.
Can you imagine a time when “fast food” was served only inside? I remember when McDonalds came to Mobile, Alabama in the sixties and what an occasion it was. Our family of four sat by a window and watched cars drive up, and hungry passengers spill out. I savored a hot juicy hamburger and my favorite, fresh-from-the-fryer French fries, with ketchup, of course.
It seems like we’re always waiting; at the Post Office, Christmas packages bulge from our arms. We wait for the long traffic light to change, or for the DMV person to call our number. We wait for Christmas.
I’ve yet to meet a person who likes to wait.
I can hardly wait to be with our daughter Dawn. She lives in a group home and the strict Covid-19 restrictions have prohibited us from spending time with her in the last ten months.
After so many years, I still pray for Dawn to be able communicate with us. How I’ve longed to hear her speak! I’ve prayed other specific prayers for thirty years or longer. I watch in anticipation for something to change. What if the next time, my prayer is answered? Anything is possible with God.
Wait:
To stay in place in expectation of: Await
To remain stationary in readiness
To look forward expectantly
What are you waiting for today? Do you long for God to finally answer the prayer you’ve prayed for years? Do you beg Him for a miraculous healing? Do you sometimes want to give up?
A mama carries a baby for nine months until birth. The parents bond with baby and God prepares the family for their new member. Adoptive parents carry a child in their hearts for many months and wait for him to come home. They too are prepared in the wait.
God uses our waiting- time as currency to change us. We learn to be patient and the value of our desire increases. The length of the wait is commensurate with our joy when the desire is fulfilled. Our faith and hope in Him deepens and changes us.
As I studied eight variations of the word “wait” in the Bible, I learned that wait is an intentional action. It’s as if I patiently watch and wait confidently, in expectation, for my desire to be fulfilled. It’s a posture of living by faith.
- Be honest with God; He knows what you’re thinking.
- Pour out your longings to Him.
- Thank Him for His faithfulness in your life.
- Wait in patient anticipation; never give up.
- Live fully and richly in the life you have today.
The Israelites’ life on earth was a continual wait. They cried out to God for release from the Babylonians. They prayed for protection from Assyrians and other enemies who continually attacked. Time and again they laid out their fears and complaints to the Lord, then finally acknowledged their hope in Him. They lived with fear while they anticipated deliverance.
We wait for you; be our arm every morning, our salvation in time of trouble.
Isaiah 33:2
- Noah worked on the ark 75 years before rain came.
- Joseph was enslaved thirteen years before he became governor of Egypt.
- Sarah was 75 years old when God promised a son, and 90 when Issac was born.
- David waited fifteen years from the time Samuel anointed him to when he was crowned king. Those years were filled with continual abuse from the jealous King Saul.
For God alone, O my Soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress, I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 62: 5-6
Between the Old and New Testaments, the Israelites waited to hear something from God, but heard nothing.
We knew that He would save us! This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited. Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.
Isaiah 25:9
A baby’s cry broke the silence of 400 years.
Jewish people in the New Testament had waited their entire lives for Messiah to come. Anna, an 84- year-old prophetess, was deeply devoted to the Lord and worshipped in the temple for many decades before she laid eyes on the Baby—the long awaited Messiah.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12
Simeon, a man in touch with the Holy Spirit, anticipated the liberation of Israel from her troubles. When he saw the child Jesus in the arms of His parents, he took Him in his arms and blessed God.
Now, Lord and King, You can let me die in peace. He is the light; your freedom, who reveals your message to the other nations. He is the shining glory of your covenant people, Israel.
Luke 2: 29-32
Don’t give up, my friend. God hears and He cares. His ways are higher than our ways; He works in ways we can’t see, and does more than we can imagine. What if God transforms us and deepens our faith while we wait? What if He gives us something better than the perfect life we’ve planned for ourselves? Will we believe in Him even when we can’t see?
Faith calls us to believe God can do the impossible. God often allows us to calculate the impossibility of what we face and quantify insufficient human solutions. Only then do we understand how desperately we need God—Jesus never says figure it out. He says follow me.
From BSF study: Abraham
Faith is the assurance of things you have hoped for, the absolute conviction that there are realities you’ve never seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Our Savior has come! Anything can happen.