I have been waiting for something, in particular, to happen for years. At one time, I believed God told me this would happen. I say “at one time” because sometimes I find it really hard to still believe with no evidence that what I am waiting on will come to pass. What if I got it wrong, you know? What is the fruit of waiting?
It’s kinda like how Joseph had a dream that his brothers would bow down to him. They sold him into slavery. Eventually, he was put into jail. For a long time, whatever dream he had probably felt like just a dream that would never come to fruition. I imagine that over the years his dream shifted. Maybe he no longer cared if his brothers bowed down to him. Perhaps he never did. Maybe he just wanted to see his dad again.
Or when God told Abraham he was going to have a son but he was an old man, so first, he and Sarah laughed about it. Then they decided to make a child happen by using Sarah’s maidservant, instead of waiting.
We read these stories seeing the outcomes. We rarely think about how hard it must have been to wait for some of our favorite Bible characters.
Waiting is hard! The Bible acknowledges this in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life.”
In a sense, we are all in a waiting game right now due to COVID-19. We wait for a virus remedy, school plans to be communicated, racism to end, for sin to end, and on and on. I don’t call myself a planner, but I’ve never been in a season with so many unknowns. Seasons like these tend to make me reflect on the thing I am waiting for as well as the long wilderness I’ve experienced in my life. I reflect on these things, because I recognize how fleeting life is.
God’s promise to Abraham and Joseph came to pass, but there were characters in the Bible who were still waiting when they died. I think that’s where my personal faith is tested when I think of what I am waiting on. Will God prove Himself to me in the land of the living on earth or the land of the living after death?
For example, Moses did not get to enter the Promised Land. David did not get to see the building of the temple. Now, these guys mostly missed out because of sin. When I am in a long wait, I tend to assume my own guilt. “I must have missed God’s plan or something,” I say to myself. However, waiting builds long-suffering, patience, and perseverance. Obviously, these are lessons I have to learn continuously because they come up constantly for me.
But there were others, like Daniel, who was placed in captivity as a teenager, who never returned to Jerusalem. Daniel, though, chose to stay in Babylon, which always fascinates me. It’s as if he knew his home was not really on this earth and his mission was to usher in an other-worldly Kingdom even before the King had arrived.
The prophets foretold prophecies they never saw fulfilled, and the disciples went around preaching a mission that they would never truly see totally fulfilled either.
It’s the Daniels, the prophets, and the disciples whose example I need draw strength from when I wait.
Currently, I am in the Jesus & Women bible study, and I keep thinking about all those people who waited in the silent 400 years, wondering and waiting for a Savior. The bible study also led me to the woman with an issue of blood. She bled for 12 years. Twelve years seems short to me. Until I think about bleeding for so long. Until I recognize her isolation which would have made her time feel longer than it was. The days would have seemed long and the years even longer.
During this pandemic season, it is easy for me to lose focus with so many unknowns. In a season like this, I can quickly spiral into thinking about the difficulty of the wilderness instead of the goodness of God. I can think about how it’s still not yet, that I must wait a little longer. My heart asks, “But will the I even have the time to wait?” The fruit of waiting for me is often weariness and lifelessness.
The woman with the issue of blood reminds me to wait with expectation instead of without hope, instead of lost. I want to see and then believe. But her story reminds me to believe and then look and see.
I am not good at believing and then looking and seeing. I’ve often misplaced my belief. When I expect nothing to happen, nothing happens every time. But there have been many disappointing times when I’ve expected good times to happen and they didn’t.
The woman with the issue of blood must have waited with expectation. She found the tree of life from the Proverbs 13:12 verse. She touched the Saviour. His power left his body as He walked. She must have been watching and waiting for Him. He didn’t have to come in her time. He didn’t have to heal her. But he did.
She waited while continuously looking for Him. He had healing in His wings. He proved Himself to be exactly who and what she was waiting on. I want to be more like her. The fruit of waiting for her was life.
I can’t help but wonder if maybe all the waiting God has allowed in my life helps build belief and remove unbelief. If that’s the case, the evidence proves that there is still much work to be done.
The woman with the issue of blood teaches me the fruit of waiting is belief, perseverance, persistence, hope, expectation, healing, touch, and meeting the Savior, even when you wait what seems like til death.
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