Isaiah 30:18 “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait on him!

1 Corinthians 1:7 “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.”

Galatians 5:5 ” But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.”

Hosea 12:6 “But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.”

What do all these verses have in common? If you answered waiting, you are correct. All through scripture we are told to wait, there are so many verses that speak about waiting and how we are to wait. Never do we find where we are told to throw fits, be loud, make our agenda at the forefront, drag another down, be angry, be resentful, be sinful, to love the world and all it holds.

We want life to operate like a microwave so that we have instanious grativication. But all through scripture the Lord tells us to wait. I wonder why? What happens when we wait?

I recently went on a trip, and on our way back home we had a layover. When it was approaching the time that they would normally start lining you up to seat you by sections, we instead were informed that there was an issue with something electrical in the cockpit. So we waited, about thirty minutes later they came over to the speaker to tell us they knew the issue, it was being addressed, but would take time to download the data. So, again we waited. At this point, you could see people walking up to the desk to talk to the airline workers. I am not sure what they were hoping to find out because we had already been informed what the issue was and they had no real time for it to be resolved.

After about another half hour the man came over the speaker and informed us that they had found another issue that had caused the problem and now they would need to find us another plane, gas it up, and get it prepared. And again people went forward to speak with the airline workers trying somehow to get them to go faster, or get more answers when we had been informed already throughout the process. I found this slightly amusing. Why bother harassing people who could not change a thing? They simply were the messengers. After a while longer we were told to go to another gate and wait there for our flight.

Now I was very thankful that I did not get on a plane that was compromised and possibly would have had an inflight issue. I was grateful for the information given and felt it was enough for me to understand. I was thankful for a plane with no problems that brought me home safely.

This is just a small example of how people get easily irritated and demanding. How they get impatient with the waiting and want all the answers right now!

God has given us everything we need as we await his return. Every word in the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and every word has life in it. When life runs us over we can run to the word and find all that we need to carry on, and instruction as to how we are to do it. And one of the things we see is waiting. So, often what we need is not instantaneous, God makes us wait. During that waiting He is growing us, molding and shaping us, revealing things to us, and so on. And we are to live a life that pleases him while we wait. We are to love our neighbor, do good to those who have wronged us, forgive, give, be humble, be kind, be gracious, and be Jesus in this lost and dying world.

As we wait for him we are never told to get even, pay back wrong for wrong, be selfish, or any such thing. All that we do needs to be Christ-like. God’s word tells us that we have all we need to live in this world as Christian’s maintaining our witness and being salt and light. If you are not of what to do or how to act, open your bible and read it!

Don’t allow yourself to get so caught up in this ball called earth and all of its drama that you lose sight of what you are waiting for. We as Christian are awaiting Christ’s return. Be ready! Make sure your lamp has plenty of oil in it. God tells us that He will return in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, there will be no time to prepare then, there will be no running to find oil and no time for questions. As fast as you can blink you will be with him if you are one of his sheep.

We are always going to have time that we wait. Traffic lights, hospital ER”s, doctors’ offices, the grocery store….why not be light as you wait rather than the one complaining or trying to find another way?

Open God’s word, see what he says about how we should wait, and maybe this time we have will be more fruitful and purposeful.