Sitting in The Waiting Room of His Promises

I’m sitting in the waiting room. Not in a hospital, not in a doctor’s office. In God’s waiting room of His promises. I’ve been here before. Many times. And though I know His promises are sweet and sure and true, I still don’t like the waiting.

I hate waiting. Really. I scan the check out lines in grocery stores, trying to gauge the fastest line. I have been known to cruise (much too fast) in the passing lane of the highway, wanting to be in the fastest lane, getting to where I need to go quickly. Now. If I see a long line of folks anywhere - the movies, the drug store, a department store, I’ve been known to ditch my stuff, and head for the door. I’ll sacrifice the new stuff instead of waiting. I avoid crowds of all kinds because. I hate waiting. And my family knows, I abhor traffic. Empty waiting time, stuck. No movement forward, car standing still. Inertia at its finest.

I really hate waiting.

And God, with His fine sense of humor, often brings me to that point of waiting. Waiting in His waiting room, waiting for His promise. Waiting for His blessing. Waiting. And I’m learning that when God calls me to wait, there are beautiful, amazing and wonderful things in store for me. On the other side of the waiting.

So I’m learning to wait.

Sitting in waiting rooms isn’t easy. My mind wanders. I think of the laundry I need to do; the meals I need to plan, the house that needs cleaning, the endless daily chores that need doing. I ponder the work of work, with meetings and calendars and reports and projects. All left undone because I’m being called to sit here and wait.

And of course, waiting for the promise to come, to be-come. That’s the hard part; not only the waiting for the promise, but the wondering - will the promise come? Did I hear the Lord correctly?

But I’m learning. Waiting forces me to abandon the urgency of the moment, to slow down and focus on the promise. The promises of what God will bring in the fruitfulness - after the waiting.

I’ve been in His waiting room enough times now in my life that I’m coming to welcome these times of quietly waiting. And I’m getting better at the waiting; the silent watch of His eyes upon me, upon my heart and soul. I’ve come to learn that waiting for God, in God - changes me, blesses me, brings me closer to the very core of my being, and what I’m becoming.

God calls us to wait when He is growing something in us. The metaphors of waiting as an expectant mother for her child to be born is not without parallel here. The waiting for the birth of a child, its wondrous growth hidden away in the womb, nine months of quiet waiting while the miracle of what God is growing continues without benefit of human action, save for conception. God takes responsibility for the growing, and we reap the benefits for a lifetime.

Such is the blessing of waiting, whether in the natural, or as a spiritual reality of growing into a new and renewed being, blessed by Him.

God has breathed into my heart many promises in my lifetime, and almost without exception, each promise requires waiting for the promise to unfold, to blossom, to be born. In the pregnant places of promises to be, I’ve been called to sit at His feet, listening to His gentle voice, breathing in the perfume of His love, experiencing the peace of His Spirit. It is in this sweet place of waiting that the promise comes, and I find that I’m transformed by Him. Yet again.

God promises that in the waiting, there is blessing. “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.” (Proverbs‬ ‭8:34‬ ‭NASB‬‬).

When God whispers a promise into our hearts, let’s not be discouraged in the waiting that almost always follows. Rather, let’s be encouraged that God is patiently preparing us, not only for the promise to come, but also for the blessing that will surely happen in the waiting. Let’s give faith the room and grace to grow in the womb of that waiting time, as we longingly look to Him for the promise to be born into our lives.