Real Hope: Paradoxes of GodSample

Why Is God Taking So Long?

I‘m not someone who enjoys waiting. Yet I’ve come to realise that if I’m willing to wait on God, He will do something worthwhile in me during that time. I worked for many years as a midwife and would often need to help women understand how important it was for their pregnancy to go to full term to allow their baby to fully form. The discomfort of pregnancy and the excitement of seeing their baby was often coupled with the sense of impatience. The idea of healthy growth within can be a great analogy for many forms of waiting.

It says in the Bible, ‘those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength’ (Isaiah 40:31a). We live in a culture that tells us we’re entitled to immediate answers; however, I’m learning that I become more compassionate with myself and others if I wait with the questions. I can spend my time waiting, ruminating with frustration, or I can seek God. In seeking God, I discover words to pray and healthy ways to quiet my soul. I’ve found walking with the aim of noticing beautiful things in God’s creation helps me as I wait. There’s often a quiet humility that comes with time as I realise the solution I thought best is not what is needed and that God is doing something different in my own heart and in others.

Let me pray for us in our waiting, and be still and know that God alone is God.

Loving God, please help me wait with trust, faith, and hope as I seek you today for my own circumstances and those of others. Help me allow a healthy expectancy to grow as I sit with unanswered questions, so the new thing you want to do can be birthed healthy and strong into this world. Help me know when to wait when to speak, and when to act. Amen.

Written by KATH HENRY