Read: Isaiah 64:4  |

We have all had experience with waiting rooms. Generally, there are two types of waiting rooms. In one type, individuals leave one at a time when called. An example might be a doctor’s office or a hospital. In the other type, people leave en masse when called. Examples include a railway station, bus station, and airport.

In God’s “Waiting Room”, we are to patiently wait where God has placed us until God’s timing occurs. Sometimes, we have to wait alone and sometime en masse, nevertheless He wants us to wait for Him!

Since we are free-willed people, we are not commanded, coerced or consigned to wait. We can choose to wait or not to wait. Not waiting, when directed by God to wait, can lead to sin. Waiting as God directs keeps us on track with God’s plan for our lives.

Which brings us to our topic for today, what is the benefit of waiting in God’s “Waiting Room” for His timing? Charles Stanley, in the “Handbook for Christian Living”, outlines that waiting on God allows us to:

1. Discover God’s purpose for us
2. Receive spiritual adrenaline
3. Win battles
4. Hear answers to our prayers
5. Fortify our faith

Discover God’s purpose for us

God has a plan and a purpose for each of us (Jeremiah 29:11). If we follow God’s lead, he will guide us from the circus of our circumstances to find the purposes for those circumstances.

Waiting on God was one of David’s secrets to success. He was a man after God’s own heart (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). David started as a mere shepherd boy before God appointed then anointed him the next King while Saul was still on the throne.

While walking with Him, David waited upon God to make a way for him to achieve God’s purpose for him. During many of those waiting moments, it seemed that the waiting was futile and fruitless. He waited with God, relying on His protection while learning to lead and apply his faith. He waited for God’s appointed time for him to take the throne while overcoming the temptations to take things into his own hands.

As we each make our journey through life, remember that our human clock and perspective of time differs from God’s perspective of time. In Psalm 90:4, the only Psalm attributed to Moses, we find “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.” Knowing that God is never late and always on time, we are called to proactively wait upon God, wait with God and wait for God to reveal His plan and purpose for our lives.

Let us face it, at some point in every believer’s life we spend time in God’s “Waiting Room”. Each session in God’s Waiting Room makes us more confident and focused on who God is and what God is doing. We develop confidence with His presence. We develop faith in His power. We trust His provision. We experience His power and see His promises fulfilled. We begin to accept his purpose for our lives and yield to his timing.

Over time, we learn the benefit of waiting on Him is His promise to act on our behalf.

Questions:
1.Discover –
A. What have you discovered while waiting in God’s Waiting Room?
B. Have you ever left God’s Waiting Room before He released you? If so, what happened? If not, how did you resist the temptation?

2.Develop –
A. Do you know God’s plan and/or purpose(s) for your life?
B. While waiting for God, have you developed a deeper understanding of who and whose you are?

3.Demonstrate –
A. If you were to mentor someone who said they were too impatient to wait for God to act, what advice would you give? Any scriptures you would use to back it up?
B. Would your friends and/or family say that you tend to wait when God says to wait?

Profiles on Waiting Outline

Overview – Why and How to wait upon/for/with God (link)

Benefits – Why Wait?
1. Discover God’s Purpose (link)
2. Receive Spiritual Adrenaline (link)
3. Win Battles (link)
4. Hear Answers to our Prayer (link)
5. Fortify our Faith (link)

Postures we should adopt when waiting for/with/upon God
1. Wait on Time (link)
2. Watch for Him (link)
3. Wait by walking within Touching Distance (link)
4. Work while waiting upon God’s Answer (link)
5. Willful Waiting does not Wilt (link)
6. Weather the Storms while waiting under His Umbrella (link)
7. Wait with an Unwavering Faith (link)