When waiting on God hurts.
I have recently read an article that on average, we spend 50 to 60 minutes a day waiting on something. It could be you falling line to pay for the house bills. It could be you while being stuck on a horrible traffic. It could be you waiting for someone’s reply. It could be you waiting for the sour cream & cheese, mega-sized Potato Corner fries you ordered. It could be waiting on anything. So imagine how much time we spend on waiting our entire lives!
If we pour much thought on it, all kinds of waiting have an equivalent pain. Maybe it’s not just that obvious but underneath our usual flat facial expressions is pain almost seething. Because, hello? Who wants to wait, right? We want things instantly. Our idea of immediacy now is so triggered because of technology. With gadgets in hand, we can get things almost instantly — so that when we don’t get things right away, we get so irritated and impatient.
This also applies when we are praying for something and God tells us to wait.

Often times, when we’re praying for something, God rarely answers immediately. What God does is He brings us to strange territories to have our faith exercised. That’s how He creatively answers us. For He knows that it is when we are in those unfamiliar places and uncommon experiences that we usually realize how insufficient our own strength is and how much we are in constant need of a Savior in the form of Jesus Christ.
“Yes, I am already saved!”
This is how we usually respond when someone asks us if we’re already saved. We respond in past tense. We respond as if that’s it — as if that’s the end of God’s redemptive power. But the truth is, being all the flawed human that we are, our need for saving is unceasing. We are going to need God’s redeeming until the end of our lives — especially that we are living in this chaotic, messed-up world.
This world is not our home so it’s going to do every effort that it can to make us feel that we do not belong here. We’re going to suffer. We’re going to experience pain, almost every day. We’re going to get rejected. We’re going to feel empty. We’re going to cry — a lot. We’re going to get discouraged. We’re going to triumph over a lot of things that our work experiences in our resume turn from page one to three and still feel unaccomplished after all our ‘human’ efforts. We’re going to get sick. With all these being true, we’re going to need His grace every single day of our lives. Every — Single — Day. There’s no end to our need of Jesus. That’s just not possible.
There are no explanations to our sufferings in this world except that God is God. Imagine if things happen the way we wanted them to happen, then that doesn’t make Him God. That’s not a god who is sovereign over all things. He will always long for a deep and affectionate relationship with us. He is so desperate for this that He has made a special way of communication called “prayer”. Being the Sovereign God that He is, He didn’t have to do this actually. He can make us talk to Him if He wanted. But obviously, He doesn’t want that. He wants to have real, two-way conversations with us. See, God is so desperate like that. It’s crazy!
He answers us “Later” so that in the waiting process, we would also be granted by the fullness of Him. So not only do we get what we prayed for but we also get to have Him for all the He is. His “Later” doesn’t just mean “not now”. It also means, “Listen while you wait.”
I wish we all have David’s attitude in waiting. He said in Psalms 62:5–7,
“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.
On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.”
Here’s a really great song about that passage.
You may be waiting for something for so long: a lifelong partner; a loan approval; a job; a petition; your graduation day; a work promotion; a new career opportunity; a new phone to replace the one you lost; an additional way to earn; a license to be a doctor; a registration for your business — I do not know. Waiting for these things will surely hurt — because these are short-term, temporary things of this world. The only certain thing we could ever have in this world is the love of God. It is the only thing that won’t ever hurt us. God is our only solid ground in this world full of uncertainties. With Him, we are safe and sound.
So when waiting on God hurts, that’s okay!
It’s okay because we are waiting on Someone that is definite — Someone who is eternal. Someone who we are going to see and be with forever when we’re already in Heaven — in that place where pain is nonexistent.
So hold on, my friend. Don’t lose hope! Everything’s going to be okay. Know that God is with you always. Face the mirror, wink at and tell yourself, “You got this!”
Originally published at www.zeynafuang.com.
