Worth the Wait
January 29, 2023
Dr. Paul Cannings
I pray you had a good week. I know it could have been challenging (a nice way of saying overwhelming), to say the least, but the Lord has kept you. Sometimes the more significant challenge is knowing everything will be the same in the coming week. It will be the same at home, our jobs, our money, our health, and where life has us emotionally. We are told to keep hope alive, but we don’t always feel that. That thought is more of an encouragement sometimes than an emotional experience. This is why one of the hardest things
in our walk with Christ is to learn to wait.
When I think of the people in the scriptures learning to wait, it makes them excellent examples. One of those individuals that I admire is Abraham. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be told to leave your family and everything you know to wander through the land of Canaan. You are told you will be the father of a great nation. You will establish a nation with such a large group of people that they will be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore….” (Genesis 22:17). However, God only provides you one child after 25 years, and allows you to face and overcome one issue after the next while away from your people.
Learning to wait is learning to trust God not just for what He says, but because of who He is. He cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), He cannot fail, nothing is impossible for Him (Matthew 19:26), He is love (not just loving; 1 John 4:7-11), His very nature is good so there is no way He can do anything wrong (Matthew 19:17), He is all powerful so no one or nothing can defeat Him (this is why what someone means for evil He can make good; Romans 8:28), and He is the only One who when He blesses you nothing can tear it down (Psalm 128). If we commit to walking with Him, He will build a hedge of angels around us (Psalm 34:7-9; Hebrews 1:14) because He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. So waiting on Christ is more about who He is and His reputation than what He promises to do. This mindset empowers us to trust Him because we can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13), we are more than conquerors because of Him (Romans 8:37), and the Holy Spirit empowers us to find God’s strength to make it through
everything we may experience (1 John 4:4). So waiting, because we believe in His character is our victory (Isaiah 40:28-31).
Not learning to wait is to miss your season. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9; NIV)