How to wait on God

This very minute, I’m standing in a long, long line to renew my car tags. Boy, it’s an exercise in patience. I’d rather eat unseasoned spinach with a toothpick! 🙂 Well, as I wait, I’m reminded of how we often have to wait for most everything in which we pray. Sure, sometimes God just blesses us instantaneously, but most times we simply have to wait.

No way around it.

Waiting is rarely the real issue….

I’m not so sure the problem is in the fact we must wait or more in HOW we wait. I think how we wait for things plays a very significant part and how soon God answers our prayers and even in how favorably he answers them.  

I don’t know…but, here is my logic.

If you have been a parent for more than two years, you know very well how difficult it is to endure a whining, impatient child. It can drive you absolutely insane! The truth of the matter is their incessant asking and begging sometimes plays a role in how quickly you respond to them at all.

 In other words, if a child is patient you’re more likely you will quickly respond with a yes.  On the other hand, if you have a child annoyingly tugging your pant leg, begging, and crying while having a heated tantrum, those are the times you are more likely to deliver a speedy, gruff “NO!  Now, be quiet!” I think God does the same with us sometimes, don’t you?  

Especially since faith is such a huge part of our Christian walk.  

A personal example.

I remember vividly back when my desires had shifted towards wanting to be married. I begin to pray that God would send me my husband.

During the seasons of waiting, if I saw a couple I might pout in my heart and wonder when my time would EVERRRRRR come. Or worse, if a girlfriend of mine got married, I would be so sad and grief her loss as if she had died. Don’t judge me, I was in my twenties!

So many times, I felt passed over.

I wondered if my time would ever come.  *sigh*

Honestly, I’m not sure either way of handling my waiting season propelled God to move any faster, and maybe not any slower either.

I just suspect it does.

In my mind’s eye, the whining likely revealed to God I did not have the maturity to be a wife. As any married woman would tell you, being a wife requires LOADS of patience and even more maturity!

Anyhoo, I had endured a lengthy season most women would call a drought. Girl, I couldn’t buy a date. Then the season shifted after a while and ushered in a time when I had too many Christian men interested in me.

And I mean good Christian men, not the dogs we so often hear about.  

Genuinely in my heart, I believe it was because I stopped pestering God in such an impatient way and allowed Him to do the work in my life that he needed to do. That’s when the doors began to open, so to speak.  

Anyway, I seriously think it was when I stopped thinking about it so much and focused more on other things that God begin to drop the fellows into my life. I never needed to chase, to beg, to connive, He just brought them to me. Literally.

Still at the DMV, Girl!

As I wait in this line I could do so with a bad attitude and in a bad headspace. All that does is make the time seem longer and even irritate those around me. What good is that?

All this to say there’s a good way to wait and a bad way to wait. And again, I believe how you wait often correlates to the length of time you wait. What do you think?

@godsygirl Pray with me during my first TikTok vid! #christiantiktok #christianblogger #prayer ♬ original sound – Godsygirl Godsy

 How to wait on God

One of the beautiful ways to wait is to do so being faith-filled. This means staying positive as we trust God.

We have to wait with an expectancy from God knowing that he hears us and that at the very right time we will have what we want.

Now some people may say “ what if God doesn’t want me to have this or that?” To that question, I say just leave the outcome to Him., but you stay trusting and hoping in Him.

Your job is to ask and secondly, your job is to wait with a hopeful, good attitude.

It means instead of treating you’re waiting season like the inconvenience it often feels like, treat it like a training ground.

 As I  stand in this long line, I’m thinking to myself “God is teaching me to be patient.” 

Frankly, I have not mastered the scope of waiting at all but I’m learning.

I’ve walked with the Lord long enough to know if I don’t learn a lesson at the moment it will reoccur in my life in various forms and at various times. Who has time for that? I don’t. 

No. It’s better to learn how to wait maturely and patiently rather than having to repeat the “test” over and over again. Think of it as a spiritual discipline and come as close to mastering it as you can!

 I even have something on my calendar that pops up sporadically and reminds me to wait the right way – with patience and expectation.

Yeah. I’m still in line at the DMV.

Some people are waiting with relaxed smiles knowing soon they will be at the front of the line. They have enough faith and experience with the system to know their time is coming eventually. Do you have enough faith in God’s system to know your time will come soon too?

Then there are those nugget heads. Grunting, rolling their eyes and one person is even complaining as we wait!

Gee, like those of us behind her, needs to hear all that.

I’ll bet she will have lotsa waiting to do in her lifetime.

Ummm… pass the test early and learn how to wait. It will make waiting easier when you have to do it and who knows…you may not have to do it as much because you’ve “passed” that class.

My Prayer for how to wait on God…

Give me the discernment to know when to wait being still and when to wait in productive diligence.

Lord, teach us how to wait on that spouse, job, deliverance, move of the Spirit, ministry direction, provision, etc.

Lord teach us to wait to know we can count on your system and soon we’ll be at the front of the line.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Well, lookie there! I’m next in line to get my tags! Go figure.

Joyce Meyer has a great take on this “waiting” think too.

OMG! After I wrote this, I searched for a video to help you drive this home. I found one from Joyce Meyer and it says a lot of what I’ve already written! Yayyuh! Check it out below!

GodsyGirl is a Christian lifestyle blog featuring Christian faith articles written by an ordinary Christian woman blogger, Christian inspirational podcaster, and a pastor’s wife. GodsyGirl is about Christian inspiration and living your fullest life as a fabulous Christian woman. Explore GodsyGirl.com to find articles on everything from daily Christian living to hair, makeup, and living your absolute best life!