Volume 1 · Week 12 — Waiting for God’s Time
Day 80 — The Time That Shapes Us
Main verse
“But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
— James 1:4 (KJV)
Meditation
We often regard waiting as an empty space between a promise and its fulfillment. We feel that real life will begin when the answer comes, the door opens, or the situation finally changes.
Yet waiting can become a place of formation.
David had been chosen and anointed to become king, but he did not immediately ascend the throne. Between the calling and its fulfillment, he experienced quiet service, battles, flight, and uncertainty. These years were more than a parenthesis. They revealed his heart and prepared him to carry a responsibility he was not yet ready to assume.
We sometimes want to receive quickly what our character is not yet able to carry. God does not always make us wait because he refuses to give. He can also use the delay to deepen patience, humility, discernment, or compassion within us.
This does not mean that every wait has a hidden explanation we will necessarily come to understand. Some delays arise from circumstances or human decisions. But no time is entirely lost when we allow God to meet us in it.
The question, then, is not only, “When will this waiting end?” We can also ask, “Lord, what do you want to form in me during this time?”
Perhaps we need to acquire a skill, heal from an old wound, learn to listen, or become more faithful in the small responsibilities of the present.
Waiting does not automatically produce maturity. It can also nourish bitterness. But when offered to God, it becomes a quiet workshop where our inner lives are gradually shaped.
Psalm
Psalm 40:1–5 (KJV)
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Further Bible reading
1 Samuel 16:1–13; 1 Samuel 23:29–24:7; James 1:2–5
Suggested hymn
The Church Hymnal (1941), no. 388 — “Purer Yet and Purer”
Prayer
Lord, I often see waiting as wasted time. Help me recognize the work you can do within me during this season. Form my patience, purify my motives, and prepare me for responsibilities to come. Guard my heart against bitterness and make me faithful in what is entrusted to me now. Amen.
A thought to keep
While I wait for my situation to change, God can be working to transform me.
Personal Notes
What would you like to remember, pray about, or put into practice today?