Years ago, I wasn’t chosen to be a part of an amazing opportunity. I was hurt and confused. I had worked hard to qualify, and more importantly, it was a good and righteous thing I’d wanted.
I asked God why I hadn’t received this desire of my heart. The answer was slow to come, but when it did, I was caught completely off guard. It was a quiet but firm whisper, You’re not ready.
He wanted me to wait. And waiting places can be hard places.
A Waiting Place in Scripture
I mean, remember Jairus, whose daughter was extremely ill? He pled for Jesus to heal her. As they walked back to Jairus’s house, Jesus was stopped by the touch of a woman with an issue of blood. While He talked with her and healed her, Jairus waited.
In his waiting place, his daughter died.
Sometimes in our lives, we feel like we’ve petitioned the Lord to help us, to heal us, to save us, to give us opportunities and righteous desires, and then we don’t see or feel Him. We feel like He isn’t near. It can feel like we have to wait our turn for His attention and help.
We feel like we are in a waiting place.
That place can be hard. It can be confusing. It can be lonely.
Here are three truths that helped me in my waiting place, and I hope they can help you too.
1. God is in the waiting place.
One of the miracles of waiting places is that we can choose to wait with God.
As Jesus knelt with the woman, Jairus could have lost faith in Jesus. He could have gotten angry and left. But Jairus waited with Jesus as He healed the woman, then stayed by His side as they walked to his home.
When we wait with Him, we continue to look to Him, hear Him, and follow Him. That’s comforting, especially in times when it may seem like the blessings we long for are being received by others—when others are getting married, getting the jobs, raising kids who stay in the Church, teaching lessons we can’t teach, and so on.
God knows what it’s like to wait; He’s still waiting for all of His children to return home. The beauty is, no one—neither God nor us—needs to wait alone.
2. The waiting place allows God to work in our lives.
Sometimes the miracle of our waiting spaces is to create the opportunity for us to truly see Him in our lives—like Jairus did. His daughter died while he was waiting on the Lord, but the Lord went on to raise his daughter from the dead (Mark 5:42).
Because Jairus waited with the Lord, the Lord used that waiting time for not just one miracle (healing the woman) but two miracles (raising his daughter).
3. The waiting place allows us to work on ourselves.
After I received the unexpected answer that I wasn’t ready, I began to wait for the time I would be. It didn’t take long for me to realize that it was my responsibility to get ready. There was more I needed to learn, more ways I needed to grow. I needed grace and patience and so many other things God gave me in my waiting space. He gave me the gift of time to improve myself with His help. And I was, and am, better for it.
It's been ten years since I was told to wait. The opportunity I wanted hasn’t presented itself again. But ten years later, I am not the same person. And as it turns out, I’m OK with not getting that specific thing.
Maybe God asked me to wait so I could discover that I never really wanted that in the first place. I can’t say.
But what I do know is that our waiting places aren’t time outs or even quiet time. They are times of growth and realizations, miracles, and God.
So, if you’re in your waiting place right now, remember the three truths, and you might be surprised to find out that maybe, just maybe, you’re not waiting at all, because He’s already giving you something else.
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