Introduction
We live in a culture of instant gratification. We want everything right now, and we become annoyed, agitated, and anxious when our plans are interrupted or delayed. This makes one of the most common spiritual instructions—to wait—one of the most difficult to follow.
Life is full of these “in-between seasons,” those agonizing periods when we find ourselves caught between the pronouncement and the promise, between the vision and the victory, between our present disappointments and our future deliverance. It is in these moments that we, like the prophet Habakkuk thousands of years ago, look to heaven and ask what God is doing and why. Habakkuk’s questions to God about divine timing and justice are timeless, echoing our own struggles when we find it difficult to trace God’s hand in our lives.
His experience provides us with profound wisdom for navigating the “meantime.” So, what are we supposed to do when the only answer we receive from God is to “wait on it”?
Waiting Is an Active Stance, Not a Passive State.
The spiritual command to “wait” is often misunderstood. It is not a call for passive resignation or a fatalistic acceptance of circumstances. True spiritual waiting is an active posture, one defined by positive expectation and eager anticipation. It is a confident trust that what God has promised will come to pass.
Our role during this in-between time is not to sit idle and hopeless. Instead, our task is to remain faithful to the calling God has placed on our lives and to continue to seek his will in our daily actions. We are called to do all that we can do and then get out of the way, trusting that God will handle the rest.
Your Impatience Is Fueled by Culture.
Waiting on God’s timing is especially difficult today because we are immersed in a society of impatience and intolerance. When things take longer than we expect, our first reactions are often annoyance and agitation. We become anxious when life doesn’t follow the program we’ve designed for it.
Sadly, this spirit has crept into the church, presenting us with the central spiritual challenge of the waiting season. When people can’t immediately trace God’s hand in their circumstances, they are tempted to stop trusting God’s heart. This is the crucial battle: to choose faith in God’s character (His heart) even when we cannot see evidence of His actions (His hand). Without this trust, many grow indifferent and may even give up, simply because God did not move according to their personal agenda. Recognizing this helps reframe our frustration—it is not just a personal spiritual failing, but a powerful cultural force we must actively fight against with faith and patience.
God’s Timing Is Perfect, Not Absent.
When we are in pain, a command from God to simply “wait” can feel like indifference or even a mockery in the midst of our misery. It can seem to ring hollow in the face of our hurts. The core fear is that God’s delay is actually God’s denial or absence.
But we must remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. As Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us, there is “an appointed time for everything.” The vision He gives is for that precise moment. The divine word He speaks is a “Kairos word”—a word for the perfect, opportune moment, distinct from our human, chronological time. It is crucial, Child of God, to hold on to the foundational truth that:
HE may not come when we want HIM but HE is always right on time.
God is never not on time. Even when we think He is late, He is working things out according to His perfect will and infallible schedule.
You Must Actively Fight the Voices of Doubt.
During any prolonged period of waiting, you will be challenged by the “voices of dissidence, cynicism and negativity.” These voices, whether from outside sources or your own internal fears, will whisper a compelling and corrosive argument: “If that was God it would have already come to pass.”
This is a direct assault on faith, designed to make you abandon the vision. But God does not leave us defenseless. He provides a direct, practical strategy for fighting these voices. The instruction from God to Habakkuk is our instruction today: to make the promise tangible. Frame it not just as a passing thought, but as God’s prescribed antidote to doubt:
Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance. Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.
We cannot allow delays to discourage us. If God said it, though it may tarry, it will happen.
True Strength Is Forged in the Waiting.
Ultimately, the season of waiting is not a punishment to be endured, but a training ground where true spiritual strength is forged. It is not intended to make us feel hopeless but to engender in us a deep and resilient hopefulness. What we face now is not meant to hurt us, but to help us. This is a season of building spiritual endurance, for we must remember that “the race is not to the swift or the strong but to them that endure.”
The act of waiting is transformative. In this space of active expectation, we are renewed. Scripture promises a powerful exchange for those who choose to wait on God rather than giving in to despair, as the prophet Isaiah declared:
…they that wait on the Lord shall renew your strength, you will mount up on wings as an Eagle…You’ll run and not grow weary, walk and not faint.
Conclusion: Hold On to the Vision
Waiting is not passive, and it is not empty. It is a powerful and active spiritual discipline. Though it is difficult, the instruction is clear: Keep on waiting! Hold on! Hold on to the vision, hold on to the promise, and hold on to the One who promised it. He is faithful.
Remember the One who, in the agony of Gethsemane, chose endurance, praying, “not my will but thy will be done.” He held on through trial and torment for our sake, and because He held on, He now sits with all power in His hand.
So, no matter the test…hold on. No matter the trial…hold on. No matter how long you’ve been in the storm…hold on. God is not through with you yet. As He declares in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
What vision has God given you that it’s time to write down, make plain, and wait for in positive expectation?
Paul D. Flowers, Sr. 