As we send up our petitions in Jesus’ name, He at times delights to answer “yes” to our prayers. At other times, He chooses to bring Himself glory by asking us to wait for our requests. His timing is perfect, and it’s possible to wait patiently in His strength.

“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not get upset because of one who is successful in his way, Because of the person who carries out wicked schemes.” (Psalm 37:7)

What is God doing while we wait on Him? He is always moving. 

“In our barrenness, in the unanswered prayer,

we must know that God may be silent but he is never still.”  

Christine Hoover

While we wait, we keep on worshiping and drawing strength from Him. We keep on praying, too. God is pleased when we keep persisting. He likes to be approached with our pleas over and over. That’s exactly what the widow did with the judge in the parable in Luke 18. She kept persisting in her cause, and Jesus told this parable to show His disciples “at all times they ought to pray and not become discouraged” (Luke 18:1).  

We persist in our petitions not with a demanding, selfish motives for, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.” (James 4:3) Instead, we keep waiting and praying with a grateful heart, a heart dependent on Him, knowing He’s not the God who MUST, but He is the God who can if He chooses. In the waiting, our desires can become more aligned with His.

It’s a gospel picture to the rest of us. To keep praying in the waiting is like demonstrating, “I entrust this to You God, even if you don’t solve this problem, I know you’re able, and I know you can. Not my will but yours be done!” 

“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial.” (James 1:12) Waiting seasons provide a beautiful opportunity to practice trust and faith in God.

Often our waiting on God is a trial. We can pray for years and years for a health issue we may have. Or we can pray for politics that feel so out of our control. We can pray for war-torn foreign countries. We can pray for the salvation of a sibling or for a wayward child. We can ask God for our deepest desires, for a husband or a child. And all that waiting is definitely a trial, because we’re feeling the absence of something good. This provides a chance for our faith to be fruitful and genuine.

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.”

I Peter 1:6-9

May our waiting seasons be found to result “in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” We wait on Him. Thankfully. Patiently and with hope. Because He also waits.

“Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,

And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

Isaiah 30:18