Our culture doesn’t like to wait on anything. Whenever we need to know something or ask someone a question, we have the internet and our phones readily available. We get annoyed when we get stopped by a red light on our way to work… God forbid we get stopped by multiple ones. We also get upset when the McDonald’s drive-through takes longer than expected. Waiting is not built into who we are, yet many things in life seem to require us to wait on them. Not only do we have to wait for little things, but we also wait for big things too: a spouse, a better job, healing, or resolution in a personal matter.

During your seasons of waiting have you ever asked yourself, how do I honor God in my waiting? Now you might ask, what does how I wait for things have to do with my relationship with God? It has everything to do with your relationship with God. If you have grown up in church, you have heard and read Romans 8:28 and Jeramiah 29:11 a million times. In our times of waiting, we cling to these truths because they comfort us by reminding us that God is good and has a plan for us. Even though, waiting can be one of the hardest parts of life and God still makes us wait. When confronted with a season of waiting, we are offered a choice: we can choose to wait well according to God’s desires, or we can do things our own way according to our desires.

David – An example of waiting well.

King David is an example of someone who waited well. 1 Samuel 13:14 says that God had found a man after His own heart, this was David. If you’ve been around Church for a while, you should already know the story of King Saul and David. To put it shortly, after Saul did not wait on the Lord’s timing and transgressed against God, God had the prophet Samuel anoint young David as king. But Saul does not truly recognize this and many times he tried to kill David. Though the Lord said he would be king, David had to wait on God’s timing for his impending kingship to come to pass. His time of waiting was not easy, and he is subject to many hardships because of it.

Twice David had the chance to Kill Saul and take the throne. The first time is found in 1 Samuel 24:1-7 and the second is in 1 Samuel 26:7-11, 23-24. David had multiple chances to claim what God had said was his. In both these circumstances, David’s men recognized the unlikelihood of these events and claimed that God had finally handed Saul over to David. The Lord had decreed and anointed David as king, so he was well within his rights to kill Saul and take what God said was his… right? No. David would have been acting outside of the Lord’s timing if he killed Saul himself.

This caused much turmoil for David, but he was made ready for God’s plan in the process. God would one day bring David’s words in 1 Samuel 26:10 to fruition, saying it would be the Lord who strikes Saul down. In chapter 31 you can read the death of Saul, in 2 Samuel 1 you can read David’s lament over the death of Saul, and in the next chapter David is appointed King. David truly was a man after God’s own heart, he did not take matters into his own hands, and through his obedience, he was drawn closer to God and made into a man worthy to be king over Israel.

David’s reward for his waiting was not merely kingship, it was a deeper relationship with God. Read these verses from Psalm 27, a psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
whom should I dread?…

¹³ I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness
in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart be courageous.
Wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:1 & 13-14 – CSB

This attitude towards God was accomplished because David kept the Word of the Lord and obedience to God as his focus throughout his waiting.

Application – Why do we wait? How do we wait well?

How should we apply what we learn from David’s story? I think an application can be made by answering these two questions: “Why do we wait?”, and “How do we wait well?” I think these questions can be answered by this “Theology of waiting.”

Theology of Waiting

The first three points are truths that answer the question of why we wait, and the last four tell us how we can wait well:

1. We appreciate what we wait for. Psalm 27 is a psalm of gratefulness to the Lord for what he has done and what he will do in David’s life. We understand through waiting that everything is a gift from our good Father.
2. Our waiting here on earth will make eternity that much sweeter. David wrote this Psalm in anticipation of seeing the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living (v.13). Without his hardship, this Psalm would not have been written, or at least have the same weight. When we wait well on the Lord we are being prepared for a sweet, sweet eternity.
3. God makes us wait to mold us into people who know him intimately. Psalm 27 shows us that David’s reward through his waiting was that he knew God even closer and trusted him more. Seasons of waiting should draw us into further dependence on God and should deepen our relationship with Him.
4. You are not alone in your waiting. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.Paul tells us that our God is the God of all comfort and that he comforts us so that we may comfort others. If you want to wait well, remember that are not alone in your waiting. Bring your troubles to God and each other so we can care for each other with the comfort that God has given us!
5. We serve a good, sovereign, and trustworthy God. Isaiah 55:8&11 This is the same God speaking whom Romans 8:28 says works everything together for our good. We have a righteous and sovereign Lord whose will is what is best for us and will not harm us. When we find ourselves struggling in waiting, we need to remember that God is good. We can trust that his plan is good for us, even when his plan is not our plan.
6. We wait well when we rely on God’s Words and obey him as he has commanded. David’s story in 1 Samuel is an example. We must rely on all of the Lord’s Word, not just what we like. We must understand that all his promises are true and his plan for us is that we would know him more intimately. Rely on God’s word to know that if your plan never happens, God is still working for your good to bring you closer to him and ready you for eternity in the land of the living.
7. God wants to give you eternal life. His plan is for our salvation and sanctification. Jesus prays in John 17:3: “³ This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent..” Do you have eternal life? In Jesus’s words, do you know God? If you do, then his plans are to prosper you and to give you a future and hope. That hope is a relationship with the one true God of the universe.