Why Does God Make Us Wait?

Waiting for answers to prayers, a miracle, or any form of divine intervention can feel like punishment sometimes. Especially when there is a supposed timeline attached to your request, and the clock is ticking, and nothing is shifting.

Nothing stretches your faith and trust in God as much as when you have to wait on Him. In Proverbs 13:12, King Solomon, in his wisdom, says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” If waiting for what seems like a lifetime makes the heart sick, then why does God make us wait?

In my quest for answers, trusting that God reveals great and unsearchable things to us when we pray, I decided to seek counsel from the Holy Spirit, and I was led to Isaiah 40:31. It reads like this: But those who hope (wait) in the Lord shall renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they walk and not faint.

No matter how difficult waiting on God may appear to be, it is designed by God intentionally to build strength in us. But we also learn in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that in God’s faithfulness, He will not tempt us beyond what we can bear, and even at that, He always makes a way of escape, so that we are able to bear it.

So, waiting on God is designed to be a process of strength building in us by God. It is not a punishment; it is a training. When you wait on God, your ability to trust God to do for you that which you have prayed for, even when you are not seeing it happen, and the clock is ticking, is tested.

The kind of strength that Daniel had in him when he had to enter the lion’s den with an unshakable trust that God would save him is an example of what waiting on God builds in us. James 1:3-4 says, “Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

The reason why God is making us wait is that He has a mission to make us mature, complete, and not lacking anything. Google defines mature as “a state of full physical, emotional, or mental development, often associated with adulthood, responsibility, and wisdom.” I suppose this aligns with what the scripture is talking about in James 1:3-4.

This discovery is a big revelation to me, and it is also reassuring. To know the reason why God makes me wait, as a plan to develop me into maturity, tells of God’s great love for me.

Now that we understand the reason why God makes us wait, the next thing to think about is what we should be doing while we wait. And the first thing that comes to mind is that while we wait, we need to keep renewing our strength.

The waiting season is not the time to give up hope. It’s not a season to conclude within you that God has forsaken you or forgotten you. In Isaiah 41:13-16, we read of God reassuring us not to be afraid because He will help us. He will make us into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. The waiting season is the making season. You are not just waiting; God is making you into something far more valuable than you can make yourself into.

The result of God’s making is always very beautiful. It is those who have successfully waited on God who have the capacity to soar on wings like eagles. They are the ones who have built the capacity and strength to run and not be weary. They have persevered and developed in maturity and wisdom and can weather the storms of life without losing balance. They are complete and lack nothing. So, waiting on God may be hard at that moment, but it comes with great gain.

I have waited on God for many things in my life. I have prayed for one thing from God for more than 5 years before getting an answer. But in truth, my answer eventually came, when I least expected it, and in the dimension that I least expected.

There were times that I had prayed to God for things for days and months and years. I would pray for so long without a response, and when it looked like my faith was failing, I would start to praise Him. For me, praising God helps my trust in Him. I get reassured of His faithfulness when I praise above prayer. And He always comes through.

Waiting on God, even when you are tempted to doubt, is the strength of your trust in God. You are waiting on God because you trust Him, and guess what, God does not toy with your trust. Psalms 25:3 tells us that those who wait on God will not be put to shame.

Waiting on God; trusting God is an act of righteousness, and Psalms 37:25 assures us that the righteous are never forsaken. And the psalmist in Psalms 40:1 tells us that "he waited patiently on the Lord, and God turned to him and heard his cry." Waiting on the Lord is not there to last forever; when the training is over, the reward is earned.  

And the reward always far outweighs the training process. This waiting is like a seed sown that produces a harvest that exceeds what was sown. Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

There is another angle of waiting that I want to touch on as I conclude this blog. Sometimes, when we have to wait, it may be that God is preparing us for the answer to our prayers. But other times, it may be that He is preparing the answer for us.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has made everything beautiful in its time. In Habakkuk 2:3, He tells us that the vision is for an appointed time. If it tarries, we should wait for it because it will surely come. God will not give us a gift that will destroy us. The package of His gift for our lives must be deposited in us at the appropriate and fitting time.

I have been immensely encouraged as I write this blog, and I trust that it will bless you as much as it blessed me. As mentioned earlier, I have waited on God many times and for many reasons. I have developed a strong trust in Him because, despite the wait, He always comes through.

So, when I pray, and I don’t get an immediate answer, I am consoled by the fact that if He did it for me before, He’ll do it again, no matter how long it takes, and that has helped me address my anxiety when my prayers are not answered quickly enough.

But now, I have learned that God is building strength in me while I wait. I am ignorantly learning perseverance while I wait; I am growing in wisdom while I wait; I am maturing while I wait. So, I’ll encourage you not to grumble when God makes you wait, don’t lose faith when He makes you wait, don’t stop trusting when He makes you wait. He is building something in you that you cannot build in yourself. 

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