Delaying
of God’s promise, What the Bible teaches us about Waiting Seasons
INTRODUCTION
Waiting is one of the most difficult phase
we go through as Christians. As humans, we only endure hard times only when we
are seeing the progress. We feel like we can survive our struggles only when
there is a movement in a situation. However, when nothing seems to change or
happen, when our prayers are not being answered and promises delayed, our faith
is challenged.
Waiting season is not about passing of
time. It is about understanding God’s power in silence. It is trusting God in
the hard time even we are not seeing any outcome.
The Bible is full of people who waited, not
for days or weeks but years. Their stories about waiting shows that waiting is
not wasting time. Waiting season is about sticking on our faith and shaping our
character.
Waiting season is considered as spiritual
period of preparing, growing and refining where we wait for the promises to be
fulfilled or wait for something to change in our lives. Waiting time does not
mean that God is punishing us. It is a period we understand God’s power and
build our faith in his promises.
How
Abraham waited for God’s Promise
One of the best example of waiting in the
Bible is Abraham in the book of Genesis.
God promised Abraham that he was going to
be the father of many nations. This seemed to be impossible because Abraham and
his wife Sarah had no child for many years. They were very old enough to have a
baby. Abraham was shocked to hear that statement from God because it felt
impossible, But God showed him the stars in the sky and told him that as he
cannot count the amount of stars in the sky that it is going to be for him that
he was going to be the father of many nations. Let analyze Adam’s situation in
this era we are living in, who can believe that an 80 years old woman can give
birth to a child? I do not think anyone will believe it. However, in the case
of Abraham, Abraham heard God’s promise, Kept on that promise and waited for
God to fulfill them. Abraham waited for a long time, time passed as the doubt
grew stronger.
After waiting for 10 years for a son,
Abraham started to doubt God’s promise and tried to act as if he was helping
God’s promise by fathering a child with one of his servants called Hagar.
Despite of God’s promise, Abraham acted more human than sticking on his faith.
Despite on the mistake Abraham made by doubting God’s promise. God remained
royal to his promise by proving a son to Abraham and Sarah.
What does this teach us?
It teaches that waiting time are for
testing our faith as Christians. We do not have to doubt in God’s promise
because if God says a word, it has to pass regardless of how hard we are seeing
the situation.
Abraham story shows us that delay in
promise is not denying the promises.
3.
How David was anointed but not King yet
Another good example of waiting in the
bible is David.
Samuel anointed Samuel at a young age.
Samuel (16:13). At this time Saul was still a king of Israel. This was showing
that God chose David rather than Saul was on the throne at that time. This pre
anointing was a moment of preparation because after David was anointed, he went
back to be a shepherd before serving in Saul’s court. In that time of
preparation, David faced Goliath and he was hunted and forced to flee. David
spent many years running and hiding before he sat on the throne. David was
anointed three times in total, and he became King of Judah at the age of 30 and
he became the King of all Israel seven years later.
Key
points of David’s Pre-King Anointing:
Ø The first anointment: Samuel anointed David in front of his brothers after God rejected
Saul to be the king of Israel.
Ø Waiting and Testing: After the anointment, David did not behave himself as a king. He
went back to be a shepherd and later he even served as Saul’s servant. This is
a perfect example to teach us how to wait on God’s promise and knowing that
testing does not delay Blessings but it prepare us for the blessings.
Ø Saul’s Reign: At the time David was anointed, Saul was still on the throne. This
show us that David had divine over him not political power.
Ø Preparation Phase: After the anointing of David, David waited around 15 years to became
the King. In these years, David grew in his character and personality. He knew
what leading meant, he learnt how God’s ways work. He was being prepare to
become a king to lead God’s people.
Ø Three Stage process: David was anointed three times, the first time he was anointed as a
youth, the second time he was anointed as King of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4) and at
the last time he was anointed as a king of all Israel (2Samuel 5:3).
This waiting time was a
time for David to grow and understanding God’s ways and blessings rather than
denying the calling. The waiting season helped David to build his humility; it
helped him understand how to lead in God’s way.
Sometimes God prepare us in hidden place
before displaying our blessings in visible positions.
4.
Habakkuk: The perfect Example of waiting Without Understanding
The prophet Habakkuk experienced waiting in
different ways.
Habakkuk remained active and he relied on
faith instead of figuring his own ways. He turned his confusion into a
conversation with God, choosing to trust God power and timing despite of the
delay in promises or no clarity. In the Book of Habakkuk, he asked God; why
there is injustice and why does the devil seem to prevail and why God seem to
be Silent.
How did Habakkuk manage his waiting?
·
Active positioning: while Habakkuk was
waiting, he did not go and sit down to wait for God to do something. He was
curious and wanted to know how God’s blessings work.
·
Ready to hear: Habakkuk did not give up
because he waited for too long, he looked for answers and he was willing to be
corrected or directed to the right path.
·
Trusting the Time: During his waiting,
Habakkuk learnt that blessings takes times and he witness that when God says a
word no matter how many years shall pass, What said by God is going to be
fulfilled.
·
Praying Through: Habakkuk had many
questions for God, he did had man questions but he had belief in God’s promise
rather than walking away.
·
Shifting Focus to God: Habakkuk moved
from focusing on the injustices and confusion to focusing on God’s ways of
miracles and blessings.
God’s response did not give immediate
solution to Habakkuk; Instead, God reminded Habakkuk his plans and waiting for
the right time. Waiting sometimes means trusting God when we seem to not find
any explanation for the situation.
5.
Why Waiting feels Challenging?
Waiting challenges:
·
Control: As humans, we like
something, which is time, defined. Waiting without know the time for answers
can feel challenging because it feels like we are losing control over the
situation.
·
Identity: when we wait, we
invest our value to the progress, So sometimes when we see that the progress is
not moving forward, we start to feel like we are being played and we are losing
our time and value.
·
Comparison: waiting feels
challenging when we start to compare our situations with others. When we see
other moving forward, we feel like being left out and lose hope. We sometimes
think that things must go the same for everybody and this makes waiting impossible
and hard.
·
Doubt: doubt is a big challenge
to waiting. When we feel silence we sense absence and we start to develop
doubts. The moment doubts develop, we start to wonder if we had our hopes up
and not understand that God’s blessings takes a time.
Silence is different from abandonment. We
have seen that in the Bible that God works behind the scenes before revealing
the results.
6.
What does God develop when we wait?
ü Patience: during the waiting time, God develop our patience by understanding
that silence does not mean absence. When we wait, we place all in God’s hand
and let him control the situation. And this help the spiritual maturity grow.
ü Dependence: when we wait, we develop a huge dependence to God. We plan and our
plans fail and know that we have to depend on God in deep prayers. And the good
thing of depending on God is that when you depend on God, He can never fail
you.
ü Character: Waiting for too long helps in building integrity. Waiting help us
develop our spiritual morals and know what God likes and what displeases God,
Our character is built when no one is watching.
ü Faith: Our faith become to strong when we wait for too long for the
promises. Waiting strengths our faith because we understand that no matter the
time the promises are taking, we know too well that there are going to be
fulfilled.
As we find in the New Testament, Paul the
Apostle explained that waiting is a ground for endurance (Romans 5:3-4).
7.
Waiting does not mean God is inactive
In the Bible, they explain waiting as
active trust not passive laziness.
David continued to worship God while he
waited. Abraham continued to obey the Lord while he waited. Habakkuk chose
faith while questioning. We have seen in these stories that when God is silent
does not mean he is inactive. It means, he is waiting for the right time and
the right moment to fulfill his moment and we do not have to worry that the
promises are taking too long because we have seen how big God’s blessings are,
so they need a time. When we wait, we do not have to give up. We can wait while
continuing our daily responsibilities, growing internally and spiritually and
preparing ourselves for what is ahead.
God’s delay in promises is to protect us
from premature success.
8.
Dangers of forcing promises
One of the biggest temptation during
waiting season is trying to force promises for quick results.
Abraham and Sarah tried to help by forcing
God’s promise and Abraham fathered a child with his servant Hagar who ended up
having some problems with Sarah. Saul lost his leadership of Israel because he
acted impatiently and he tried to figure out his own ways. Lack of patience can
create complications that extends the waiting. Forcing promises leads to wasted
efforts because God’s ways are always perfect, so if when we create our own
shortcuts it leads to wasting our efforts. When rushing the promises it prevents
us from developing spiritually by developing patience and faith, which is built
during waiting season.
Trusting God involves trusting His ways.
9.
Mature waiting on waiting
It is very important to understand that
waiting means avoiding action. Waiting does not mean we have to suppress
emotions. We have to understand that when we are waiting does not mean we are
being punished; God often delays promises because we are not ready to accept
the promises. Maturity is realizing that God might be blocking some ways just
to open better ways for us. Also as mature believer, we have to understand that
the promise is the outcome but God himself. Waiting seasons have to be a good
time for us to be closer to God and understand his ways.
CONCLUSION
As we have seen in the scripture, waiting
is not considered as a punishment but a preparation.
Abraham became the father of nations after
many years with no child. David became the King of Israel after many years of
developing in secret. Habakkuk learnt to
question but with faith. It is noted that whenever God speaks of a promise, he
fulfill that promise no matter the time it takes are when we see no progress
and clarity. Waiting seasons strengthens our trust. It shifts our faith from
doubting to trusting and this helps a lot in our spiritual growth journey. The
delay is not a sign that God have forgotten his promises. Sometimes, it is a
sign that, He is preparing for something big than we imagined and sometimes God
delays the promises because he is protecting us from something.
Faith during waiting seasons means that God
is working even if we seem not to see it yet.
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