God’s Waiting Room

My eyes strain to see your rescue, to see the truth of your promise fulfilled. I am your servant; deal with me in unfailing love, and teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:123-124

If you are straining to see God’s promise fulfilled, you are not alone. The Scripture is clear: God ordains waiting periods.

The most difficult part of the process of prayer can be waiting on God. When we fail to recognize the waiting time as an indispensable ingredient in the process, it becomes a time of discouragement and frustration. At those times, many people drop out of the school of prayer. Not receiving their answers as they expected, many conclude that prayer doesn’t work, at least not for them.

While the waiting time is the most difficult part of the process, it is also the most important. Our waiting time gives God the opportunity to redefine our desires and align our purpose and vision with his. What appears from the earthly perspective to be a delay on God’s part is really the time when God is working in the spiritual realm, beyond our senses. “Faith . . . gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1). During the waiting time, we are operating by faith.

Even though it sometimes appears that prayer isn’t working, that God is delaying, the truth is that God is acting in “fulfilled time.” God does not act in elapsed time but in fulfilled time. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15, NASB). The word “fulfilled” means “filled full.” God says, “I am filling your waiting period full. When I have filled it full—when I have done all that I need to do with it—your wait will be over and my Kingdom will be revealed.” When the time is ripe, when all the pieces have been put in place, God’s answer will be revealed. His concern is not time but timing. Everything has a ripe moment: “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). God’s timing is perfect.

Father, I settle in to this waiting time, trusting your work in realms that I can’t see. Thank you for the times you schedule for me to walk by faith.

The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise.

Alexander Maclaren(1826–1910), British preacher and Bible expositor