One of the hardest words in the English language is also one of the best words: wait.
Psalm 27:14 says, “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”
Great verse, makes a wonderful refrigerator magnet, almost nobody I know lives by it… including the author (insert sigh of desperation here).
But, the benefits of waiting are reflected in the receiving.
When we wait we get what is almost always better for us. In waiting we allow God to do His work. When we wait we are ready to receive the bigger, better, righter (yes, I know it’s not a word) thing that God wants us to have.
When we don’t wait, we move too quickly, too impulsively, too selfishly, and we tend to get the cheap imitation of the thing we really need or want. We too often get less than what God wants for us. We get what we can get a hold of, not what He wants to give.
For example, how many marriages have dissolved because two young lovers just wouldn’t wait? They forced a marriage that was never meant to be.
How about finances? How many of us have ever bought into the “greatest deal ever” only to live in total regret within a few years, months, weeks or even days?
It’s a pattern that’s all too clear. It’s just weird that we don’t learn from it. It’s like a dog who keeps going back to the same human for a good scratching, but every time he goes there he just gets kicked. Yet, he keeps going back.
We’ve got to learn to wait. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of getting kicked!