Waiting on God📍

But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness Galatians 5.22 (AMP)

Waiting on God. Waiting. Just waiting. Sitting still in His presence. Not being in a hurry to rush off to somewhere. Just sitting still with Abba. The ability to wait has been something I've been working on for the longest time. Being patient is one of the rarest traits in humans, even in Christians, because everyone is always in a hurry to rush off somewhere or something else. Worse is when we have to pray. For some Christians (I've fallen into this category a couple of times too), praying has become a routine rather than an intimate communication as it should be, whereby we are in a hurry to let the five minutes we have pass by so we get to other things, or we will be too quick to 'finish saying everything we have to say fast fast' without actually waiting to hear what God wants to or has to say to us.

When we fully understand that prayer is communicating with God, not just talking to God, and communication is a two-way thing (talk and get a response or feedback), we understand why we need to wait on God. With this understanding, while we pray, we don't pray with the mindset that we are going to do all the talking. We talk, then listen to God for Him to speak to us. We begin to normalize situations just sitting in His presence and waiting for Him to speak without saying anything, or just worshipping, without throwing in a million requests, but just sitting still, worshiping Him in the beauty of His holiness and loving Him for who He is and not only what he gives or does for us.

The Amplified version of Galatians 5.22 gave me a different perception of patience. For the most part of my life, working on being more patient especially with God has been about learning to just wait for His response to my prayers. The Amplified version taught me that being patient doesn't end in just waiting, but my attitude even while waiting. The day I read that verse with the AMP version, the direction of my "patience journey" changed. God is more interested in your attitude while waiting than He is in you just waiting. Your attitude in your waiting season defines the content of your character and the level of your trust in God.

Waiting on God can be one of the toughest decisions to make especially in hard times. Waiting on God is not trusting God's plans, but yielding to His plans. Yielding to God is submitting to God and trusting His plans without having a backup plan. Waiting is a process, and the benefits of the process can only be gotten when you don't just wait, but you yield, when you submit wholeheartedly to the process, letting God work in your heart and mind and work through you.

What attitude do you put up while waiting on God? Are you complaining and throwing tantrums? Are you cursing God and seeking 'better' solutions? Did you leave God with the intention of coming back 'when He's ready to answer your requests'? Are you actually submitting to God and trusting Him completely without trying to think for God or help Him fix your life as Proverbs 3.5 says? What are you doing while waiting? That's the question to ask yourself. Stop trying in your own strengths. Stop trying to figure things out without God. Stop excluding God. Stop trying to consider and reconsider things because the wait is too long. Stop calculating the time, efforts, results. The question should rather be "what should I do while waiting"?

What should you do while waiting? Worship, darling. Keep worshipping and praising, and stop complaining. Make worship your lifestyle. Minister to God and minister to His people. Stay in God's presence, and even while you are waiting for God, allow Him to use you to bless others. Sit in His presence and wait for Him to speak. God's timing is never late. Two hard lessons I had to learn while waiting on God are trusting His timing and submitting to His will when it is the direct opposite of your desires. Waiting on God in such situations is one of the most difficult 'stages' of waiting, but don't fight it. The results of waiting on God are always beautiful. Rather than trying and striving in your own strength, wait on God. Ask God for the staying power, the grace, and the power to wait, to just sit still and not try to hurry away.

Staying is never easy, especially maintaining the right attitude while waiting for God. God gives the empowerment to stay. Understanding this at a different level makes me realize that it is honestly impossible to be in the right standing with God without God because there are so many demands that we cannot fulfill on our own. God gives the grace and the empowerment to do all that, so trying to do it all and figure it all without God is a waste of effort because, in the end, you still won't get it right without God!

Benefits of waiting on God:

But 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; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40.31

While you wait on God, your strength is continually being renewed, God's grace is consistently bestowed upon you even in the times you become weary or tired of waiting (2 Corinthians 12.9). Most importantly, there is the promised beauty of the turnout, "...for the glory of the latter house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Host, and in this place, I will give my peace and prosperity. (Haggai 2.9)". When you wait on God, you get stronger. There comes empowerment to face and fight the even tougher battles, and because of the lessons you picked from waiting on God, you become wiser, and your ability to discern increases.

Waiting on God isn't always easy. For the most part, it is very difficult. However, having the right attitude in the waiting makes the waiting easier. It is not something God can do for you, it is a decision you make yourself, making a firm resolve to wait, but not just, to worship and yield while waiting. God will only ease your efforts by giving you the grace to push through. You have to make the choice, to either wait or not, and that is not in God's hands to decide for you. The process isn't always easy, but it is always worth it!