The Holy Habit of Waiting

And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.  Isaiah 30:18

"We must not only think of our waiting upon God, but also of what is more wonderful still, of God’s waiting upon us.  The vision of Him waiting on us will give new impulse and inspiration [imagination] to our waiting upon Him.  It will give us an unspeakable confidence that our waiting cannot be in vain. If He waits for us, then we can be sure that we are more than welcome—that He rejoices to find those He has been seeking for…

“Look up and see the great God upon His throne.  He is Love – an unceasing and inexpressible desire to communicate His own goodness and blessedness…He longs to bless.  He has inconceivably glorious purposes concerning every one of His children, by the power of His Holy Spirit, to reveal in them His love and power…And, each time you come to wait upon Him, or seek to maintain in daily life the holy habit of waiting, you may look up and see Him ready to meet you.  He will be waiting so He may be gracious unto you.  Yes, connect every exercise, every breath of the life of waiting, with faith’s vision of your God waiting for you.

“And if you ask: How is it, if He waits to be gracious, that even after I come and wait upon Him, He does not give the help I seek, but waits on longer and longer?  There is a double answer.  The one is that God is a wise husbandman “who waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it”.  He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe.  He knows when we are spiritually ready to receive the blessing to our profit and His glory.  Waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will ripen the soul for His blessing.  Waiting under the cloud of trial, that breaks in showers of blessing, is as needful.  Be assured that if God waits longer than you could wish, it is only to make the blessing doubly precious…

"The other answer: The giver is more than the gift: God is more than the blessing.  And, our being kept waiting on Him is the only way for our learning to find our life and joy in Himself.  Oh, if God’s children only knew what a glorious God they have, and what a privilege it is to be linked in fellowship with Him, then they would rejoice in Him!

“Let waiting be our work, as it is His.  And, if His waiting is nothing but goodness and graciousness, let ours be nothing but a rejoicing in that goodness, and a confident expectancy of that grace.  And, let every thought of waiting become to us the simple expression of unmingled and unutterable blessedness, because it brings to us a God who waits that He may make Himself known to us perfectly as the gracious One.”

“My soul, wait thou only upon God!”

--Andrew Murray, Waiting on God

How much, as earthly fathers and mothers, we understand an overwhelming desire to bless our children, to give good gifts to them, to surround them with favor and love!

 

Fellowship with one another can bless our waiting times

Joy and enjoyment can still be found in the waiting times

And getting a bit dirty in the meantime never hurt anyone

Who needs to be entertained?

Joy in the journey

As we seek to bless our children, may we remember how perfectly our Heavenly Father watches to bless us.  As we wait for our childrens' blessings to unfold, may we see an imperfect pattern of how our Heavenly Father waits for our times to come to fullness.  And as we enjoy fellowship in the meantime, share laughter and memories, may we revel in our fellowship with our Heavenly Father who rejoices over us with singing, who wove laughter and delight into His creation, and who lovingly writes all of our stories, remembering us and inscribing our names onto the palms of 

His Hands.