“I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.”
Psalm 130:5

Waiting simply means delaying action until a particular time. Many of us relate the word “waiting” to worry, anxiety, impatience, etc. The truth is no one enjoys waiting; it makes us feel stuck and unable to move ahead.

It is like this- every time we buy a new equipment or gadget, it comes with an instructional manual, and most likely, we skip reading the manual and start using the product because “we just can’t wait.” After a while, though, we find ourselves going back to the manual because we have either messed it up or can’t figure it out.

We often feel that our waiting is in vain and feel the need to act on it quickly. I call it the “just do it, let’s see” syndrome, where we tend to act and then wait for the result, thinking it will somehow work out.

But here is what I realized lately: living on this principle of “just do it, let’s see” means that we have no clue what the future holds and that the only way to live is to take whatever comes your way and work with it.

Ouch! It might seem cool initially, but it usually brings heartbreak, pain, and a feeling of failure. And this feeling of failure will also affect your confidence in decision-making in the long run. And at this point, if someone tells you to wait, you would roll your eyes and say, “No, thank you, it has never worked out.”

Well, it did not work out because we did not wait patiently to read and understand the user manual before we acted upon it.

Our waiting is valuable, not vain!

Genesis 7:24 says that the waters prevailed on earth for 150 days when Noah was in the ark, and if we continue reading Genesis 8, Noah was still waiting. Some say Noah was in the ark for a little shy of a year.

Now, for a second, imagine the end of the story where Noah could not wait anymore and got out of the ark looking for dry land. We would all be fishes, I guess!

What was different in Noah’s waiting?

He knew how the waiting would end; Noah remembered God’s covenant with him.

Girl, can I say this: Noah was not sitting in the ark thinking if he was ever going to see dry land. Because he knew that dry land was a promise, that is why he kept sending a dove out to find if dry land had appeared. His waiting was not in worry, and his actions were not in anxiousness but in rest that there will be dry land.

The Bible says in Isaiah 40:31, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Recently, I caught myself anxious and worried about waiting for something. At that time, I was reminded that I already knew how my waiting would end (according to God’s word).

Coming to an understanding that I am not waiting clueless for the universe to throw something at me at random, but knowing the victory is mine made me change the way I started waiting.

Here are 2 things I started doing to change my waiting from vain to valuable:

1/ Replace worry and anxiety with declaring the Word of God

When I get thoughts about the future and worry starts to take over, I quickly remind myself that the waiting is temporary and that the God I serve is good. He has a great plan for me and is faithful to finish what He started in me. Isaiah 35:4 (The Message version) has become my daily reminder to encourage myself that my God is not done with me yet:

“Energise the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, “Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here,on His way to put things right and redress all wrongs. He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”

2/ Wait in preparation and not hopelessness

The parable in Matthew 25 about the 5 wise virgins and 5 foolish virgins tells us that in our waiting, we must be prepared for the day of our breakthrough. In my understanding, the difference between the two sets of virgins is that the 5 foolish virgins were waiting in hopelessness, basically taking a chance.

They were waiting with an attitude, “If it happens, great; if it does not, I will go back to my old life.” I believe they knew very well how long their oil would last, but they did not believe the waiting would end well.

The Holy Spirit reminds me constantly that I need to add value to my waiting.

A few years ago, I desperately wanted a promotion. Someone told me if you want a promotion, then dress, talk, and act like you have already got one. Let me tell you, this change did not happen overnight; I did not just wake up the next day differently. That is because I hardly had any information about the role I wanted. I had to invest time knowing the skills required for the position and then start to learn and apply them until one day I fit the job perfectly. And that is when I got the promotion.

In the book Silent Season, the author Heather Lindsey shares a powerful key. She says, “I learned something very valuable in a silent season and that is that I shouldn’t be trying to build something when I was supposed to be cultivating my spirit. I was supposed to use that season to spend time with God, grow, and rest in Him – not step out on faith and try to do something out of His timing.”

So girls, if you have been waiting, can I encourage you to retrospect on your waiting? Knowing that we, the daughters of the Most High God, are born with a purpose to soar high, let our waiting not be without any faith.

Let our actions and plans during the waiting season not be random based on feelings but be strategic. Let us use this time to cultivate our spirits and grow. And when the day comes, we will be perfectly ready.

Let us add value to our waiting.

XOXO,
Sheryl Gadre

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