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Waiting on God is Hard.
One of my favorite children’s books (often quoted in my house, even with a teenager and pre-teen) is Mo Willem’s Waiting is Not Easy. The title pretty much says it all, but in case you need a synopsis, Elephant has been promised something AHHH-maze-ing by his friend Piggy, only he has to wait
all.
DAY.
long.
for the promised surprise.
Elephant is not good at waiting.
Piggy is non-plussed.
The surprise cannot … will not … be rushed.
Elephant is whiny. Grumpy. Discontent. Almost gives up.
Piggy convinces him to stick around.
In the end, he does, but only because Elephant trusts his friend. It’s worth it – the surprise is awesome.
(if you want to know what it is, you’ll have to buy the book. I’m not spoiling it!)
The common refrain throughout the book, though is this: Waiting is HARD.
100% with you on that one, Elephant. Waiting IS hard. Just ask the Israelites!
We may think about going to seek counsel from the spiritual leadership God has given us, or we may even turn to God’s presence briefly through prayer or reading our Bibles.
However, when we don’t receive the response we want in the time frame we want it…
we respond just as the Israelites did:
we decide that God’s response isn’t worth waiting for.
Why are We so Impatient?
Exodus 32:1 (NIV)
When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Sometimes we get tired of waiting for God.
We think, “Surely He’s busy doing something else, working on world peace, or solving the world hunger issue. He doesn’t have time to be worrying about little ol’ me.”
We start to place other things in God’s spot in our lives, believing that if God is too busy for us, we should try to fix our problems ourselves. At that point, we are just as guilty as the Israelites for putting idols in our lives. We may not have handed over our earrings to melt down and form into a physical golden calf, but within our hearts we’ve erected our own “sacred cow.”
Now, you might be pushing back a bit at what you just read.
“I would never say that God’s response wasn’t worth waiting for, Lindsey!”
Hold on, friend. I would never say that either. But… if we’re being honest here (and true discipleship requires honest exploration of thoughts, actions, and feelings), then I have to say that I have definitely had some actions that spoke that sentiment in the past.
Think with me for a few minutes. When was the last time you had to make a decision that you knew God needed to have a say in? Did you wait on His full clearance, or just “go with your gut” and call it the Holy Spirit?
The last time you didn’t wait on God, why didn’t you wait?
Was your reason for not waiting legitimate, or was it a cover-up for your own impatience and frustration – or even eagerness to move forward in the direction you sensed God leading you?
Impatience, Frustration, Eagerness... emotions can drive our Desire to Rush
When we allow our emotions to take over the decision-making process, then it’s harder to hear the Holy Spirit’s voice. Even in our eagerness to do God’s will, we can mis-step.
Think about Abraham and Sarai, so confident that they had figured out the way that God would work to bring about the promise. Their eagerness and impatience resulted in heartache, jealousy, and a broken family.
Frustration can cause problems when we are waiting, too. Imagine Moses’ frustration when he returns from his time with God. He’s just had this literal mountaintop experience with God. The word pictures God has painted for Moses, the result of being in the Presence of God for an extended period of time – Moses has caught the vision of what God wants to do. Then he returns to find that the people have taken their eyes off the mountain, and turned to their own evil ways. No wonder he throws the tablets down in frustration!
In life, we often experience moments of frustration, or mis-steps because of eagerness that steps ahead of God’s plan.
When we are in leadership, we sometimes feel this way with the people we are discipling or leading. We can see the long term vision, but they haven’t caught it yet, or they are so excited about it, they can’t see the path from A to B. When we are in the middle of our own deserts or times of waiting between God’s call and the fulfillment of that call, we have the same struggle.
All we can see is the difficulty staring us in the face or the goal hovering ahead in the distance.
How much easier is it to go back to old habits than it is to build new ones?
How much easier is it to jump ahead of the thousand tiny steps it takes to get to the goal by taking a giant leap forward?
Surely the giant leap is better than the tiny steps, right?
Focus & Trust the Waiting Process
If only the Israelites had kept their eyes on the mountain
…to watch like God had asked them to as He spoke to their leader. Instead, they became afraid – afraid of what would happen to them, what they would have to give up to be that close to God.
They were more concerned with their present troubles than they were with experiencing God’s Presence.
They had seen God’s Presence on the mountaintop when Moses went up, and had determined that it was too much for them to handle. They figured Moses was already dead, because who could survive a God like that? (Ex. 32:1)
If only Abraham and Sarai had trusted God’s timing
…waiting for the promise to come in God’s way, with God’s direction, instead of taking matters into their own hands. Instead, they thought they knew what God wanted to do. They were taking action when God had asked them to wait. God had given them a promise, they were trying to help God along in the fulfillment of that promise. They had already waited a long time for the promise – surely God didn’t want them to continue waiting? (Gen. 16:1-10; 21:8-13)
We do the same things.
We see how God is moving in mighty and powerful ways in the lives of those around us, and we are content to watch for a short period of time … and then we begin to get uncomfortable, because we realize the danger that level of commitment requires. So we turn away, instead of drawing close. We are scared to give up what God has called us to give up. We are scared of losing the things we grasp so closely, not realizing if we will just open our hands in offering to Him, His response will be to fill our hands with the things He has for us.
We are hesitant to trust with open hands, letting go of what is old and waiting for what is new.
Or perhaps we get so excited about how God has promised to bless us that we jump ahead of Him, running full force in a direction that we think He is pointing. We fill our time with plans and busyness, acting and reacting, but not doing the one thing God has asked us to do: wait and listen.
We are hesitant to trust the waiting process, too eager to get into the action.
Why do we hesitate to trust?
Why do we think that our plans are so much better than His? Why are we so afraid of the smoke on the mountain?
Perhaps because it’s the unknown that frightens us. Doesn’t that go all the way back to the beginning? The serpent tempting Eve with the unknown – “But you don’t know it all – and you won’t until you eat from this tree. There’s more to know and understand, and if you just have some of this fruit, you’ll know everything – just like God does.”
The unknown is so … uncertain.
The Israelites turned away from the unknown in order to embrace the “safety” of the known – even though that “known” involved pain and suffering. How different would their story have been if they had kept their eyes focused on the mountain? Or even if they had allowed Him to speak to them directly instead of sending Moses up to be their intermediary? (Ex. 20:18-21)
The author of Hebrews reminds us that we have a mediator who is even greater than Moses, and it is because of that mediator that we should respond differently than the Israelites did when faced with temptation to return to their old habits:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
~ Hebrews 10:19-25, NIV
This passage gives us some excellent reminders of how we should respond when we are tempted to be like the Israelites in our “waiting” periods. They are core elements of discipleship, regular rhythms and habits we should develop with the help of the Holy Spirit and a believing community of faith:
- Draw near to God
- Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess
- Spur one another on toward love and good deeds
- Don’t give up meeting together
- Encourage one another
Notice that three out of the five of those involve community?
We aren’t meant to wait alone.
When you are in a “waiting zone” for life, surround yourself with faith-filled believers. Share your story, and stay in a posture of discipleship. Keep your eyes on the mountain, and your hope fixed on Jesus, who will be faithful to complete the good work that he began in you. (Php 1:6)
Develop habits of spiritual disciplines, and remember that waiting is part of discipleship. How we walk through seasons of waiting determines our success in the next season of our lives.
Will you step into that season knowing that you have waited faithfully on God’s timing, or will you be questioning whether you missed hearing God’s voice clearly?
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