“God’s Way”, wait on the Lord… “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” (Ps 5.3)

We live in an age when instant gratification is promoted by retailers and pursued by consumers. The communications revolution has made it possible to achieve in seconds what would have previously taken days. The demand and expectation of faster delivery and immediate satisfaction applies to everything from ready food to doctors’ appointments. People just don’t want to wait.

Reading the Biblical account of “God’s plans and purpose’s for creation it is clear that the timing of events is not left to chance, neither is God’s timing measured according to our understanding of time “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (2 Pet 3.8). God’s timing is neither fast nor slow, it is simply the right time “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecc 3.1).

In seeking to do his Father’s will, Jesus was acutely aware of God’s timing. When his mother approached him at the wedding feast at Cana he responded, “My time has not yet come” (John 2.4) and when others were going to the feast in Jerusalem he said, “You go to the Feast… for me the right time has not yet come” (John 7.8). Perhaps most poignantly, when he got the message that Lazarus was sick, Jesus did not go but waited two days, obedient to the Father’s prompting rather than human instinct. Waiting is not an idle state but is actually a time in which there is hidden activity, just as a tree waits for the right time to flower and bear fruit or a soldier waits to be called up for active service. The period of waiting is usually a time of preparation, of nourishment, growth and development. Paul describes the whole of creation waiting for God’s plans to be fulfilled as being like a pregnant mother. He declares, “That is why waiting does not diminish us… We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.” (Rom 8.22-25. The Message).