Why Wait?

I don't like to wait, do you? Whether it is in a doctor's office, the line at Wal Mart, or an answer to prayer, waiting is not my strongest point. I inwardly fume (and sometimes outwardly) as I stand behind someone in the check out line as she balances her checkbook. And David and I became very upset as we were waiting for our dinner at a restaurant and saw a couple who were seated after us, get their meal before us; can you imagine, the very idea......we were here first.

Is it "the times we live in" with fast food and gadgets for everything, or are we just so caught up in wanting it now, that we have to have it now and we refuse to wait?

Maybe you're like me and there are things that you've been praying for, for a long, long time. You may even be discouraged and have given up, thinking, "what's the use, if God hasn't answered by now, maybe He won't answer at all."

Waiting isn't a new thing. Sarah waited over 75 years. Rebekkah waited 20. Rachael waited, Hannah did too, and Elizabeth knew what it meant to wait on God. And you may waiting. And you may have heard it said many times from well meaning friends, family, pastors and teachers; "Don't stop, don't give up, keep praying, keep believing, keep waiting, God will answer." And I believe He will. I know He will because He has promised. And He keeps His promises.

2 Peter 3:8; "But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day."

Of all the important things we need to remember, Peter tells us to remember this one thing; one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day. I've read that verse many times, but today it was as if I read it for the first time and I realized with a new awareness:
God, the Creator of the universe, does not run this world on my timetable. What seems like a long, long time to me, is not a long time at all to God. So why does He make us wait for something we need, something we are desperately seeking?

To deepen my faith, to enlarge my world and expectations, to teach me to trust, to teach me the truth of Luke 1:37;
"For with God nothing is impossible."

While you are waiting, praise Him.
While you are waiting, trust Him.
While you are waiting, forget about time and remember His promise:

1 Peter 3:9; "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Penny