Nobody likes to wait. No matter how fast our computers process information, they are not fast enough for us.  We want our mass transit systems to get us to our destinations more quickly. We shop online, talk on the go, find love on the internet, etc. 

Based on the current trend of things, I can only imagine what the pace of life will be like ten years from now. Successful businesses cater to this lightning speed market. Those who don’t won’t survive or be a competitor for long.

When it comes to our dealings with God, however, learning to wait on the Lord is a must. Because we don’t like to wait, we may choose to not wait on God but to seek faster avenues. The problem is that there are some things that only God can do for us. 

And no matter how long and humiliating our waiting on the Lord may seem at times, we won’t be sorry that we did. Rather, it’s those believers who chose not to wait on the Lord who often regret the results they get. So the Bible tells us to “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart” (Psalm 27:14, KJV). 

Really, it’s hard for us today to grasp the God we are dealing with. We tend to think of Him in contemporary terms. But He is the same God who promised Abraham a son, not long after God had called the patriarch at 75 years old, but his son Isaac was not born until Abraham was 100 years old. 

At about the age of 85 Abraham took matters into his own hands by going into his wife’s handmaid to get him a son (See Genesis, chapter 16). But this turned out to be a disaster for him and his wife Sarah.

Then fifteen years later, God fulfilled His promise by opening Sarah’s womb and she conceived a son. So we see that even Abraham, who is referred to in the Bible as the father of faith, struggled with waiting on the Lord. 

I didn’t share the Abraham experience to suggest that God is out of touch with the time in which we need Him to respond to our needs. Rather, my intent was to put things in a biblical perspective. 

You see, sometimes when we count God out, it’s because His rate of response is too long--we say. I am convinced that we live in a culture that does not know what serious waiting is. If you are that kind of person, this will be a problem in your dealings with God. The bottom line is that not only do we need faith, but also we need patience if we are to expect to receive from God. 

The idea that God is supposed to immediately respond to our prayers is just not founded in the Bible. Finally, waiting on the Lord is not something we are born with the ability to do, but it is something we must learn. Those who do will make better decisions and have less regrets.

Frank King is pastor of the English-speaking congregation at the Hinesville Korean Full Gospel Church, 758 Tupelo Trail, Hinesville, GA, 31313.