Waiting On God Well

I'm at a place in my life where all I'm doing is waiting on God. Waiting for instructions, waiting for insight, waiting for answers to prayer to manifest, and waiting for the desires of my heart to be granted. Anyone who has been walking with God for any considerable length of time will know that waiting is a critical and non-negotiable part of the Christian life. It must be so because we serve an unseen God whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and who requires us to walk by faith in His word and not by sight or what we perceive with the natural senses or reasoning.

I've realized that how we wait is an important determining factor in the outcome we receive so as I was wondering what a successful wait would require of me, all the things I've been taught and heard up until now came back to mind. Everyone of you has probably read and heard a lot about trusting God in the unknown and holding on to His promises, and this is what came to my mind as well but it brought up another issue for me. How then do we wait on God in such a way where there is not a constant battle or tension to yield to temptation to try to 'help God' or to revert to natural reasoning, or worse of all, to yield to deception or rebellion in trying to manipulate people, and circumstances toward what we want?

I thought of Abraham and Sarah's lengthy wait for the promised heir and how they yielded to natural reasoning which caused several layers of complications and pain and only produced Ishmael, who was not and never became God's chosen one (Genesis 16-18). Their decision is the root cause of a global issue we're all familiar with...all these millennia after the act.

Then I thought of David and his approximately 12-year wait, filled with hardship, warfare and loss, for entering into a calling he had not even volunteered for. But David waited for God to establish him in the promise and never removed the corrupt king Saul even when he seemed to have Saul's life in his hands for the taking (1 Samuel 18-31). David had waited successfully and doubtless gained God's favor for entrusting His life's times and seasons into the hands of the Lord God.

I saw that I needed to wait in such a way that I was secure in God and not merely going through the motions while inwardly thumbing my fingers, fidgeting and being preoccupied with the things I've trusted God for and about. As I was pondering these things the Holy Spirit said:
"Jacob waited seven years for Rachel and they seemed like a few days because of the love he had for her" (See Genesis 29:20).
 Immediately I understood what God was saying to me. If anyone waiting on God, turns their attention to loving Him more, nurturing their relationship with Him more, setting their heart on Him more than anything or anyone else, the time of their waiting period will be like only a few days. In the same way that Jacob's love for Rachel smoothed and softened the seven years he waited for her, so that he was preoccupied with the promised outcome and not with the day by day labor that made up the outworking of those years, we can wait on God to grant the desires of our heart and wait securely by being preoccupied with Himself. None of the things I'd been taught before were wrong - they indeed make up the steps to waiting - but unless they're understood in the context of deepening relationship with God for the purpose of loving Him more, they are going to become a list of frustrating methods. These will lead us to temptation to doubt God's wisdom and faithfulness by our actions and thoughts - and all the more so if our wait is a longer than we ever anticipated.

God can be trusted with all the details of your life. Everything will probably unfold differently than you planned, but you can take pleasure in the wisdom of God's ways as you stand still and wait and watch Him work things out. The secret to waiting on God in quietness of heart that smooths the path you have to travel is being preoccupied with loving Him more.

Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.

Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
Psalm 37:3-8, NIV