Hello, everyone. I’m Ty’Ann Brown, encouraging you to keep the faith.
Waiting. During this time of coronavirus, many of us are doing an awful lot of waiting. We’re waiting to hear if we’re going to go back to work in the office, we’re waiting to hear if school’s going to open up in September, we’re waiting to hear if our loved ones who are sick, if they’re doing better. And sometimes our waiting is just trying to wait to get a haircut. It’s a very, very confusing time of limbo for many of us.
Even in pre-coronavirus times, many of us were in a hurry. We had our life plans laid out and we were ready to get them rolling. But God is not so much in a hurry. He works according to His own time frame. And usually He works more slowly and more methodically.
The Bible is full of people waiting on God, and some people waited a really, really long time. Moses, he waited 40 years—40!—in Midian before returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites. And Abraham and Sarah, they waited 25 heartbreaking years before finally having baby Isaac. And then even Jesus, He waited several years before he began his ministry, which didn’t begin until the age of 30.
But here’s the thing: Waiting is not usually because God is so busy and He just hasn’t gotten around to something. No, God knows that waiting is a critical part of life. And that oftentimes He’s using that waiting period to develop a person spiritually and to strengthen their character. And the things that happen to all those people in the Bible during their waiting time, God used that so that when the waiting time was over, they were better prepared for the blessings that God had ready to bestow upon them.
Look, waiting is not easy. I get it. We all get frustrated and want to throw up our hands at some point. But I do want to encourage you to hold onto the idea that waiting is an integral part of God’s plan. Pastor John Piper has stated that “waiting on the Lord is opposite of running ahead of the Lord. And it’s opposite of bailing out. It’s staying at your appointed place when He says stay, and it is going at your appointed pace when He says go. It is not impetuous and it’s not despairing.”
And the reward of waiting as patiently as you can without losing your faith or turning away from God, priceless. Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
So keep the faith no matter how long the wait, God bless you.
