The Waiting Room

What do you picture in your mind when you feel like you are waiting on God? Do you picture yourself sitting in a chair and waiting? Are you in your car or at church? What are you doing while you are waiting to hear from Him? Could it be that God is the one sitting and waiting for you? Are you even aware that He is trying to get your attention? Could it be the busyness of your life has left no opportunity for paying attention to how He is talking to you?  Then we wonder why we haven’t heard from Him. 

I believe sometimes we are not in the “waiting room,” we think we are because we have missed the ways God is trying to communicate with us. Metaphorically, we are outside the waiting room, pacing the halls, wondering where He is.

This reminds me of the story of a woman who was caught in a great flood.  The waters were rising quickly. Some neighbors came by to help her, but she refused to leave and said she was waiting on God to rescue her. As the intensity of the situation arose, so did the water and she found herself clinging to the shingles on top of her roof. A police rescue team came by at this time in a small boat to help her. She again refused and proclaimed she was waiting on God’s provision. It wasn’t long when a Coast Guard helicopter came overhead and let a ladder down for her as the last resort to grab and cling to, but you guessed it, she refused and had faith God would save her. Well, the waters washed her away and there she stood at the Gates of Heaven with a surprised look on her face. As she meets the Lord, she says, “Lord, I waited for you, why didn’t you rescue me?” The Lord responded, “I ran out of patience.”

We know that God doesn’t run out of patience; I am living proof of that. However, don’t you think we are guilty of responding like the woman on the roof? She was waiting unnecessarily. It is one thing to wait on God, it is another to not be paying attention.  Could it be His provision looks different than ours, so we think we are still waiting on God?

 “The practice of paying attention awakens us to what is extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.” Ruth Haley Barton

“Those who wait on the LORD 

       Shall renew their strength; 

       They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 

       They shall run and not be weary, 

  They shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31, NKLV).

Friends as yourself these two questions:

Are you putting the right things into your heart and mind while you are waiting?

Are you waiting in a way that you will be prepared when the wait is over?

God only sends rain to a prepared field.