“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. My eyes have seen your salvation…” (Luke 2:29)
“I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.” Psalm 40:1
Not everybody may like the idea, but waiting plays an important role if we are to live a victorious life. Why is this so? For one, waiting reminds us that only God marks the times and the seasons, and, as such, only God has sovereign power over the unfolding of events in our world and the world around us. It confronts us with the basic reality: we are not really in control! The ability to wait endows us with an opportunity to perceive things under the rein of God, and that is exactly where victory comes in- when you have resigned to the fact that only God can bring about His promises is when you have actually trusted His control.
But a world of “instants” diminishes our ability to wait. Somehow, the long queues, the routines and tedious processes we go through everyday make us become more impatient. And when fully grown, impatience triggers us to again struggle for control resulting to wrong decisions, miscalculations and eventually a life of wreck. How many times did we end up shaking our heads in an embarrassing admission that we have missed God’s turn? How many times did we almost call it “quits” simply because we have gone ahead of God’s direction and leading? These could have been avoided, if we only waited on the Lord.
Waiting is a gift. It is a reminder that God is not really in a hurry! We have moments to seize, alright, but we have a God who challenges us to move according to His pace