Last Friday, I turned in my last paper for this semester of grad school. My grade in that class is currently an 89% but this paper is a significant percentage of my final grade. As you can imagine, I am very anxiously waiting for my professor to grade my paper! Throughout this waiting process, I have found myself experiencing a wide range of emotions. I am afraid to check my email and be disappointed. I am irritated by my professor failing to grade all thirty final papers in less than a week. I am frustrated at myself for not doing better earlier in the semester, putting me in this position.
What all these responses have in common is a sense of dissatisfaction with the waiting process. While I freely admit that waiting for a grade is relatively minor, it expresses a reality that is far more universal. Life is full of waiting. Some seasons of waiting are mildly inconvenient, others are deeply painful. Each of us will likely find ourselves in a position in which waiting for clarity, healing, direction, provision, reconciliation, or just plain old answers from God feels unbearable. The question lurking beneath our frustration is often the same: Why does God make us wait?
Good for us, the Bible does not shy away from this question. For the people of God, waiting has never been portrayed as an interruption in the life of faith, but a common, even central feature of it. God’s people consistently find themselves in the “already-not-yet” space between the promise and fulfillment. Whether it was Abraham and Sarah waiting for a son, Israel waiting in the desert before entering the Promised Land, or David waiting to become king, the biblical story portrays waiting as a formative reality. The Psalmists give a voice to this reality as well. They cry out, “How long, O Lord?” (Ps. 13:1). This is not a question of unbelief but of trust in the face of pain. Waiting tests our faith by forcing us to live without a resolution, confronting our desire for control. Just as being forced to wait for my paper grade led me to question my professor, waiting can expose how often we equate God’s goodness with immediate results.
Still, Scripture consistently reframes waiting as a space where God is still at work. Isaiah famously declares, “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isa. 40:31). Waiting, in this sense, does not mean passively giving up but indicates a confident surrender to the God who will act. The New Testament provides hope for those who are waiting, by revealing Christ as the Messiah for whom Israel had waited for thousands of years. God answers the prayers of those who wait “in the fullness of time” — when he knows it is the right time.
So how do we wait well?
In his book Waiting Isn’t a Waste, author Mark Vroegop provides a fourfold prayer framework derived from Psalm 25 for times of waiting. Of course this is not a magic formula, but potentially useful for the believer who is stuck in a season of waiting.
Focus: Vroegop describes focusing as looking to and allowing the light of God to wash over us and warm us. Rather than fixating on our circumstances, we realign our focus to God.
Adore: He defines adoration as to “worshipfully rehearse what you know to be true about God.” It is easy to think that we already know who God is, but it is different to repeat the words to ourselves in a way that breeds transformation.
Seek: To seek is to invite and request God’s help, making our waiting active rather than passive. By seeking the Lord, we imitate the Psalmists flurry of requests in Ps. 25.
Trust: Finally, we trust that God can indeed be trusted. Hopefully, the first three steps has brought us to this fourth, in which we declare that God will ultimately answer our prayers and bring us into the fulfillment of his promise.
Discussion & Reflection Questions
ASK:
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What emotions do you feel most strongly when you are forced to wait?
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Are there areas where waiting has led you to anxiety, anger, or beating yourself up?
DISCUSS:
Read: Psalm 27:13–14; Isaiah 40:27–31; Psalm 25
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How do these passages describe waiting?
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What does Scripture suggest God is doing in us while we wait?
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How can Jesus’ own life and suffering inform how we understand God’s timing?
DO:
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Identify one current situation where you feel stuck in waiting. Instead of asking God only for resolution, ask Him what He might be forming in you through this season. Perhaps use the FAST framework.
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Share this waiting space with a friend and invite them to pray with you—not just for answers, but for patience, trust, and hope as you wait.
Vroegop, Mark. Waiting Isn’t a Waste: The Surprising Comfort of Trusting God in the Uncertainties of Life. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024. Here is a link to the publisher’s listing.