SITTING IN GOD'S WAITING ROOM

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14

            I’ve been doing a lot of waiting lately. Our whole family has been sick so we’ve been to the walk-in clinic and the doctor’s office numerous times in the past month. It’s getting to be very wearisome.

            Waiting is a real test of my patience. I try to fill that waiting time by reading a good book, checking emails or perusing my Facebook account. I even bring my Kindle with me when I go shopping in case I have to wait in a long checkout line. That’s how boring I find the waiting process.

            Sometimes life itself ushers us into God’s waiting room; prayers that haven’t been answered, dilemmas that haven’t been resolved, crises that push us to the brink of despair, special needs or physical challenges that don’t seem to move in the right direction.

            But time spent in God’s waiting room is never wasted. Instead of fretting, we ought to be asking God to show us why He’s placed us there. It’s not because He’s too busy to deal with us right now and we just have to wait our turn. God is never too busy.

But He is busy; He’s busy working in our lives even though we can’t see it with our human eyes. He’s busy moving all the pieces into place so He can work a miracle. He’s busy working out His plan in our lives.

So the next time we find ourselves waiting on God, let's use that time to seek God’s face. That is the time when we ought to be delving into the Scriptures and asking Him to show us what He is trying to teach us. We just might discover that the changes that occur in our lives as a result of the waiting process are far greater than the very thing we've waited for.

I waited patiently for the Lord;

He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,

Out of the mud and mire;

He set my feet on a rock

And gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,

A hymn of praise to our God

Psalm 40:1-3

About the author
I grew up in France, the daughter of missionaries with The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). I attended Emmaus Bible College in Switzerland and graduated with a degree in Bible and Theology. I now live in the Ozarks with my husband and three sons, one of whom has been diagnosed with Asperger's. I am a member of the Ozarks Chapter of American Christian Writers and a founding member of the Jerry Jenkins Writers' Guild.