What Does Waiting for God Do in Us?

Today, I’m going to explain three further results produced in us by waiting for God.

The first is that waiting for God is a necessary part of the process by which we are made mature and complete. I’ll look, first of all, in James, chapter 1, verses 2 and 4.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

That’s a beautiful conclusion. I’m sure all of us would wish to be mature and complete, not lacking anything. But not all of us always enjoy the process which brings us to that condition of being mature and complete because James says there’s only one way it can come about: through our faith being tested. And he said, as we undergo and stand the tests, that develops perseverance. And out of perseverance comes the maturing and completion of our faith and our character.

So, perseverance is an essential link in the chain that leads to maturity and completeness. And perseverance means holding on, sticking it out. Not merely when we have something to do, but also when we have nothing to do. And I’m inclined to think the latter is often harder than the former. It’s not so difficult to keep going when you’re busy doing something. But it’s much more testing to your faith when you have to keep going and you’ve got nothing to do but just wait. Wait. Wait for God. Wait in silence for God. Wait for God only. He’s the only one who has the solution to your problem. He’s the only one who can meet your need. You can’t do it yourself. It’s vain to get so busy and to rush around and try to do this and that. You’ve just got to wait for God. And waiting for God in that way will strengthen and mature your character.

Secondly, waiting for God produces serenity. And that’s a beautiful word, serenity, one we don’t meet too much of in our contemporary culture. There are some beautiful words from Psalm 37, verses 7 through 9:

“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself, it leads only to evil doing. For evil doers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord— they will inherit the land.”

And we can just as well say, “They will inherit the earth.”

There, the opening verse says, “Rest in the Lord.” How do we rest in Him? By waiting patiently for Him. What is the opposite of waiting patiently? Fretting. So, waiting patiently deals with that tendency in us to fret, to get anxious, to get het up. Wait patiently. Don’t fret. And then it says, “Cease from anger and forsake wrath.” Waiting for the Lord deals with those two problems in the character of so many of us: anger and wrath. You want to know the difference between anger and wrath? I’ll give you my little simple explanation. Anger is the kettle on the stove getting hotter all the time. But wrath is when it blows off steam. So, if you give way to anger, in due course, wrath will come.

So, the only solution is turn the stove off. How do we turn the stove off? The answer is by waiting for God. That deals with fretting. It deals with anger. It deals with wrath. It develops serenity. And then we need to bear in mind that the inheritance is for those who have learned to wait. We can compare the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:5:

“Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Alternative translations of ‘gentle’ are ‘humble’ or ‘meek.’ So, waiting for God develops humility, or meekness, or gentleness. And that qualifies us to inherit the earth. Isn’t that exciting?

I suppose most of us have heard that phrase, “All things come to him who waits.” If we understand it rightly, it’s true, because those who wait are going to inherit the earth. They’re going to be the heirs of God. The third result produced in us by waiting for God is what I would call supernatural transformation. Something supernatural and miraculous happens within us when we’ve met the condition of waiting for God.