Waiting.  

It can feel like the worst. 

Just yesterday, I happened to pick the “slow” lane at the grocery store.  As most of you probably do, I try my best to anticipate which will go the fastest.  By all accounts, I had picked the right one.  But it wasn’t so.  I could feel myself getting anxious as I saw the people in the other lane who came after me finish paying and leave, while my lane hadn’t moved at all. 

The struggle was real.

But in all seriousness, I’ve spent a lot of time waiting for more important things.  I have found myself anxious and disheartened that the answer had not come quickly, and for some things, the answers still have not come.

These past few weeks as I’ve been reading through the book of Genesis, I noticed that the Old Testament saints also had to do a lot of waiting.

We see a pattern.  God makes a grand promise.  And years and even decades later,  the promise is still not fulfilled.

Noah was told there would be a flood and was commanded to prepare by building a boat.  And then he waited for 120 years for the flood to come.

At the age of 75, Abraham was promised a son through his wife Sarah.  But Isaac, his promised son, wasn’t born for another 25 years.

Isaac, as the son of Abraham, laid hold of the promise that numerous descendents would come through him.  But Isaac was only married at the age of 40, and only became a father at the age of 60.  

Jacob went to his Uncle Laban’s house to find refuge from his angry brother Esaw.  There he met Laban’s daughter Rachel and wanted to marry her.  He worked 7 years to earn her hand in marriage.  But instead of getting Rachel, he was tricked by Laban and was given Leah, her older sister, instead.  He then had to commit to work another 7 years to be able to take Rachel as his wife.  

Joseph was a young man when God gave him dreams about his future.  After sharing his dreams with his brothers, their jealousy drove them to throw him in a pit and sell him into slavery.   From the house of Potipher where he worked as a slave, to being thrown into prison, to then being placed as 2nd in command in all of Egypt, 13 long years had passed.  And from there another 7 years from when Egypt had a booming economy, to then 7 years of famine.  And it was only during the 7 years of famine that Joseph saw the fulfillment of the dreams God gave him as a young man.

As I’ve been reading through these stories, I’ve been both frustrated and encouraged.  The waiting can be really long at times.  But I see that it is in the waiting that maturity and growth happens on the part of the one waiting.  And on God’s end, we see that He is working things out for His greater purposes.  In these stories and in my own, I found that it is in the waiting that the fulfillment becomes that much sweeter.

If you are waiting on something today, be encouraged that you are not alone.  God’s plans for you are always good.  And in the right time, you will see that He has been working it out all along.

~ Vijoy