God Waits

I have been thinking about a particular verse a lot over these last several days. It is Isaiah 30:18, "Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you." Now waiting is a thing for me. I don't like it. I don't like waiting in line, I don't like waiting for the light to turn green and I don't like waiting when I believe that God needs to do something. I get impatient, and the thought that God will wait that He may be gracious to me is perplexing. Why does He wait? Why doesn't He just go ahead and do what needs to be done?

Then I started thinking about this whole 'time thing'. Over these last months I have felt that I did not have enough time. I felt that I was stretched too thin because there were some things for which I was waiting on God. Until He did what needed to be done, I had to do 'more than my part'. (Okay, I know how ridiculous that sounds.) I was tired. I was weary. Then I read this verse and it occurred to me that time belongs to God. He created it. He OWNS it. So, what does that mean for me as a faithful follower? I believe that part of it is that if He owns time then I am to be a steward of it. So, if I am only stewarding the time, then there must be more going on than I can see or understand. As a steward I must remember that He is in charge. So, if He is waiting to be gracious, I have come to believe that the reason He is waiting is so that when the time is right He will do far more than I can think or imagine. He is preparing the blessing. He is preparing the fulfillment of all that He desires and delights to do. That verse goes on to say, "Blessed are those who wait for Him."

So, I am going to work on being better at waiting. The way I will do that is to remember that He is waiting until everything is just right so that He may be gracious to me. I will do my best in the waiting to be a good steward and faithfully do all that He needs me to do. Because when the time comes I want to be ready. I want to be ready to receive ALL that He has to give and be a part of ALL that He is going to do!