Purpose of Waiting by Julie Clinton

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

Waiting is hard! Traffic. Long lines at the store. The last family member to get in the car. Test results. Answers to our prayers. Even when things are going good in our lives, we hate waiting for the next positive moment to happen.

But waiting is part of God’s plan. God has many reasons to let us wait, none of which we see until after the fact. For instance, God may want us to wait until: we gain more knowledge, more favorable circumstances arise, we have the support of others, financial provision is available, we are emotionally prepared, etc.

Often we don’t even know why we are waiting. But God does.

He is an all-knowing God. He knows when you sit and when you rise; He perceives your thoughts from afar. He discerns your going out and your lying down. He is familiar with all your ways. He knows the purpose for any waiting in your life. Your job is to trust Him. You can either wait patiently and learn what you can in the process or wait impatiently and miss whatever refinement the delay holds for you.

Pray as you wait. As you do, you’ll discover the value of letting things come in God’s time. You’ll also find the beauty in waiting—the possibility that God’s dream for your life is just on the other side.
    

 Julie Clinton, M.Ad., M.B.A., president of  Extraordinary Women, has spoken to hundreds of thousands of women as host of EWomen conferences all across America, and is author of Extraordinary Women: Discovering God's Dream for Your Life, the devotional Living God’s Dream for You, 10 Things You Aren’t Telling Him and A Woman’s Path to Emotional Freedom.   A woman of deep faith, she cares passionately about seeing women live out their dreams by finding their freedom in Christ. Julie and her husband, Tim, live in Virginia with their children, Megan and Zach.