Learning to Wait

I don’t know about you, but patience is a spiritual fruit that I don’t recognize on my tree very often. When impatience settles over me like a late spring freeze, the tender blossoms of patience quickly disappear. I need to return regularly to God’s Word, allowing his promises to warm and nourish those branches so that I might bear the fruit he desires to produce in me.

The Apostle Paul strikes me as someone who learned to wait. But I suspect it didn’t come easily. He was a man with a mission, driven by passion and zeal to share the Gospel. Yet look at where his journey took him: imprisoned, stranded on an island, flogged, stoned, and shipwrecked. His plans were interrupted. His dreams were delayed. More often than not, Paul found himself unable to do what he wanted to do.

But through those experiences, Paul learned to trust God’s providence and rest in his promises. He discovered that God’s timetable doesn’t always match our own. It wasn’t simply a matter of waiting for the right time. It was learning to trust the One who determines the time.

I have always enjoyed dreaming big when it comes to ministry. I like to imagine what might happen, make plans for what could be, and anticipate the blessings God might provide. Not because I trust in my own abilities, but because I believe God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. Yet when those prayers go unanswered and those dreams fail to materialize, my patience is tested.

That’s when God reminds me to wait.

Sometimes he allows the shipwrecks to happen. Our plans crash against the jagged rocks of disappointment, and we are left wondering what went wrong. Perhaps our agenda wasn’t his agenda. Perhaps our understanding of the mission was too narrow. Or maybe, if we’re honest, our motivation had become more about our own accomplishments than giving God the glory.

Those moments can be difficult, but they can also become opportunities to recognize God’s hand at work. Waiting isn’t necessarily wasted time. It can be a time of learning to surrender our plans, examine our hearts, and trust God’s direction.

Jesus once stood before the crowd and proclaimed:

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (John 7:37b-38)

Living water is provided to those who thirst. Perhaps that’s one of the blessings hidden in seasons of waiting. When our own plans and expectations fall short, we are reminded of just how much we need what only Christ can provide.

I thank God for the circumstances that have taught me to wait with patience and endurance. Not because waiting is easy, or because disappointment is pleasant, but because those seasons continually draw me back to the source of life.

Sometimes the greatest thing God accomplishes while we wait isn’t moving our dreams forward. It’s deepening our thirst for him.