Have you ever prayed for patience and found yourself surrounded by situations that did everything to try that patience? I know that there is nothing that can try your patience like waiting. When I was in the Army, we use to say, "hurry up and wait," meaning we would rush to wherever we were going only to find ourselves waiting and mostly without explanation, which led to frustrations. Waiting has many meanings that seem more active than what you may think, such as watching and observing, staying in expectation, and being ready. Again back to my Army days when you were preparing for a maneuver, we were given a command to prepare and then a command for execution. Between the preparatory command and the command of execution, there was a lag or a waiting period to get ourselves in a position to take the next step; the same is true for the Kingdom of God. And the Captain of our souls wanted us to know just how important it was for us to wait that he placed it in the Bible 141 times,
When we are placed in the waiting room of life, sometimes it is not easy, especially when we see others who may have come in after us, and it seems that they were moved ahead of us, and we are left waiting. This waiting can lead us to become frustrated and impatient, and we may even feel that we have been forgotten or overlooked. Waiting takes courage (Psalm 27:14 ESV), Waiting takes trusting in the one who asks you to wait (James 5: 7-8); Waiting produces a reward (Galatians 6:9, Romans 5: 3-6)
So the next time you find yourself in the waiting room, and you are tempted to become impatient, remember that God is up to something in your life.
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