Devotionals for the Heart: Waiting on God's perfect timing and answers

He’s in the Waiting
A devotional by Cyndi Staudt

“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.” 

–Psalm 62:5 (NLT)

In 2006 I began a prayer quest to discover what God had created me for.

My prayer mantra I brought to God’s throne repeatedly was simply asking Him, “What is my thing?”

By January of 2007 I had prayed that prayer hundreds of times. One Saturday I sat down in front of the TV to do some work. Being an action movie enthusiast, I scrolled through the channels till I saw FBI and ICE jackets on the screen. Landing there, I put the remote down and began to work. I glanced up at the TV periodically as I worked until the depravity of what I saw on the screen captured my attention so tightly I couldn’t pull my eyes off it. As the movie moved to commercial, national statistics on human trafficking displayed on the screen.

I felt like God had dug His Holy nails into my astonished heart as He clearly revealed, “this is your thing”. It was also then that God spoke to my spirit that one day I would be working for an anti-trafficking organization. I didn’t know how, when or where but I knew one day God would follow through on His promise.

One month ago I stepped away from my full-time job and into my calling as I took a position with a local anti-trafficking organization. It shouldn’t be missed that this was 14 years after God first spoke this calling over my life. Many times over the years I was certain I had heard Him wrong or misinterpreted what I thought I heard Him tell me. But my heart could never shake the conviction that this indeed was the purpose God had in mind when He formed me in my mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

We live in a world where we can send cash instantly, receive same-day delivery, and send overnight mail. Over the last decade or two our society has grown accustomed to, and come to expect, immediate gratification and control. We are no longer used to waiting and we don’t like to wait for anything. We want to reap the second we sow. While society makes every attempt to make our life easier and faster, God works on a very different timetable. In His mind, nothing is wrong with waiting. In fact, waiting can actually be a positive thing that He often uses to make us more like his Son (Jesus Christ).

In the Bible we often see that God made people wait for things. But, because we have the full Bible and we get to look in the rear-view mirror, we also see that in the times of waiting God was right there with those who were waiting, even when to them it probably didn’t seem like it or feel like it. And because He was always with His children in the Bible, we know He does the same for us. Something actually is happening while it appears nothing is happening. God uses waiting to change us. By God’s grace, we can choose to wait as He intends.

“Waiting on the Lord is the opposite of running ahead of the Lord, and it’s the opposite of bailing out on the Lord,” writes John Piper. “It’s staying at your appointed place while He says stay, or it’s going at his appointed pace when He says go. It’s not impetuous, and it’s not despairing.”

It's also important to remember that, according to 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV), in God’s timetable “a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.”

While God has been faithful to answer many of my prayers, it’s often been in far different ways than I would have anticipated and rarely as quickly as I hoped. But His ways and timing are always perfect and never disappoint.

Let’s Pray: Omniscient God, You are always at work and always on time. Help me to have the patience to wait on You, knowing that what You have for me is always worth the wait. Forgive me for the times when the gift has become more important to me than the Gift Giver. I want to order my priorities with You always listed as my top priority and I want to have everything else in its rightful place below You. I don't want to be so busy I think I don't have time for prayer! Remind me that I have too much to do not to pray. In times of waiting help me resist trying to do Your job for You and to search for Your presence in the waiting. In Jesus’s Mighty Name I pray. Amen.

*Note from Cyndi: Today’s devotion was inspired by the worship song “Take Courage” by Kristene DiMarco. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Cyndi Staudt is a Jesus-loving, adrenaline junkie who is devoted to living her life for Jesus Christ until the day she is living with Him.

With a passion for cultivating a craving for God’s Word, her devotions and Bible studies are saturated with faith and hope to stir your soul to connect with God in deeper, more intimate ways.

Through her writing she hopes to ignite your desire to read God’s Word, invite your heart to experience God’s love, and inspire you to live your live life “souled out” to the One whose love has no limits.

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Connect with Cyndi:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/souledoutcyndi/