“WAIT!” THAT’S NOT WHAT I DID

When God says WAIT, He means it. “Wait, because I’m not yet done with what I’m doing in your life.” “Wait, because the best is yet to come.” Our God is a perfect God. He wants everything to be in place in His perfect time. Hindi pwede ang pwede na.

For us humans, waiting is one of the most difficult to do. We easily get impatient when we are asked to wait, because most often than not we want to be prioritized. The word wait is like the equivalent of NO for some; the only difference is that there is hope of getting what we want when we wait. The problem is, we want things to happen in an instant and if they don’t, we enter into the picture, we trust our own instincts, and we force things to happen, sometimes caused by the fear of losing something or someone.

For God, waiting means the opposite. Waiting does not cause delay nor does it mean a loss. Rather, waiting prepares us to our destination. When God says “wait,” you don’t have to worry because He will take you there on time. Waiting doesn’t mean NO; God is simply telling us that the time has not yet come. It will come, but we need to be patient because everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Just as everything happens for a reason, everything happens in the right season.

When we talk of patience and waiting, I cannot think of a better character to emulate than Abraham. The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation, I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2) God promised Abraham everything we would want if we were living in his time: a great nation, a long line of descendants, a famous name, and the whole land of Canaan.

Abraham was seventy-five years old when he started out for the land that God promised. He obeyed God’s commands with no hesitation, and as he moved from one place to another, he built an altar and worshipped the Lord. Many times (eleven if my count is right), God repeated his promise to Abraham, but not even once did Abraham ask God, “When?” He never questioned the time or year that he will receive God’s promise. Instead, Abraham kept obeying the Lord and for over 50 years, he waited. Abraham did not fail in doing so because he has what it takes to endure the wait – he has faith. God gave Abraham a child when he was a hundred years old, and his wife Sarah was ninety at that time. When God told them about it, He said, “I will keep my covenant with your son Isaac, who will be born to Sarah about this time next year.” (Genesis 17:21) God’s promise was clear and He told Abraham when it would happen. This tells us that when God wants to do something in our lives, He will do it in His time, never on the time we choose or we think is convenient for us. God did not say, “I will give you a son. When do you want him to be born?” Abraham did not set the time. He waited, and the boy was born at the time God had said he would be born. (Genesis 21:2b)

God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His plans are better than ours. Our Lord is an expert in schedule. He can manage our time much better than we can. If we want the events in our lives to be in their perfect timeline, we need to consult the One who has already seen it from beginning to end.

I’ve been very persistent in asking God a lot of questions. I am eager to know His purpose behind bringing people into my life, to understand why they come and go. Today, God answered my questions and He even made me write about it. Yes, God was trying to teach an impatient girl about waiting. He wanted me to realize that I am not the author of my own fairytale, and most definitely, I am not the one to determine when the story will begin. Maybe I was overwhelmed by my feelings. I was walking a step faster, I was just looking ahead that I did not notice the signs along the road and I ignored some people along the way. My impatience resulted to disappointments; I neglected God’s time and followed my own. Now I know what it’s like when we put time in our own hands, when we rush things, when we fail to wait. Proverbs 20:30 says that sometimes, it takes a painful experience to change our ways. I know God allowed these things to happen because He wanted to change something in me. He wanted me to have an Abraham kind of faith, the faith that does not ask when.

After reading the story of Abraham, I found my strength and faith renewed. As Rick Warren said in one of his devotions, we should expect God to act on our behalf. We need to trust Him, to obey what He says – even when it hurts and doesn’t make sense to us. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.” (Psalms 3:5-6)

God dares us to wait through faith. When God says wait, it might mean a year, a decade –or like Abraham–a century. But who cares how long will it take? We can be certain that good things will come to those who wait for God’s time.

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Post by Carmela Ann Santos, TLW volunteer. Mel is a lover of written words, kids, and education. She values her faith, family, and her personal time. She dreams of writing a book, doing an interview with Mike Shinoda, and building her bookstore someday. Her favorite topics are faith, love, and others. She finds happiness seeing her loved ones happy. She wants to retire as a mobile teacher and spend the remaining days of her life in Batanes.