If the truth be told and we were being totally honest most of us don't like waiting particularly if we're waiting for something to change or something to get better waiting can be a very frustrating experience but the worst kind of waiting of all is waiting on God when God forces you to wait for things to get better in your life for things to improve to change to reverse and nothing is happening and yet over and over and over and over and over again in the bible we're told to wait on the Lord the most difficult
place for you to be in life is in God's waiting room in God's waiting room some of you are in God's waiting room right now what is God's waiting room when you're in a hurry for something to happen and God isn't that's God's waiting room some of you are in a hurry to graduate some of you are in a hurry to get married some of you are in a hurry to start a family some of you are in a hurry to launch a new business to to close a big deal some of you in a
hurry for a big goal a big dream a big accomplishment some of you are in a hurry for all kinds of different things and God isn't we as human beings hate to wait and we especially struggle with waiting on God have you ever been in a hurry when God wasn't and your God I know you're going to come through and I'm praying this really Godly prayer I know it's your will so where are you why aren't you coming through and you're in the waiting room of life and we get so impatient we want to hurry
God up and we want things right now and some of you've been waiting for God to come through and you're about to give up and you're getting discouraged and you realize that God's standard time is not always running on my time and it's in the waiting rooms of life we learn to trust God the most in those difficult waiting rooms of life that's where God grows us and builds our character the most through the pain of waiting we learn to trust God and without faith it's impossible to please God that's when he builds our character
you see while you're working on your project your goal your dream your vision God's working on you and God's much more interested in you than in what you're trying to accomplish because you're not taking your accomplishments to heaven but you are taking your character and sometimes God says yeah I intend to give you what I've promised you I intend to answer that prayer I intend to fulfill the vision but you're not ready yet I want you to grow and when you're ready then it's going to happen a lot of times we think we're waiting on
God for something to happen like a prayer to be answered God says you're not waiting on me I'm waiting on you I'm trying to prepare you I'm testing your faith will you trust me but I'm also trying to grow you up because the blessing I want to give you so much bigger than you can handle right now you're not ready for it you can't handle it yet another thing you have to learn in life is that a delay is not a denial there's a big difference between no and not yet now immature children don't know
the difference you tell a kid not yet they start crying and having a hissy fit because they think it means no they don't understand a delay is not a denial God is saying I I intend to do these things in your life that I've given you the vision the dream to do but you're just not ready yet and at the right time I will answer your prayer God's often waiting on us now why is this important because when you're in God's waiting room you fall temptation to all kinds of negative emotions you start worrying you
start stressing out you get anxious you get irritable you get spiritual add you can get envious you can get jealous hey he got a promotion I didn't get the promotion that she's having a baby I'm not having a baby she got engaged I didn't get engaged he's starting a new business that's taken off what about mine and and all these kind of negative emotions can come in to your life and then you get frustrated and then you start having a pity party so what does God want you to do when you're in the waiting room
of life and because you're going to go through it many many times God is not a vending machine where you put in the prayer and then you pull the thing and you instantly get it there's always a delay the delays are by design the delays are by design to teach you to trust him and to grow up in your character hey a delay is not a denial there's a big difference between no and not yet for those of your parents you understand this there's a big difference between telling your kids no and not yet it's
just not time yet and a delay is not a denial we see it all through scriptures God told Noah to build a boat that would save his family from a great flood but it didn't rain for 120 years God told Abraham he'd be the father of a great nation but he didn't have his first child until he was 99 years old God told Moses that he would lead the people out of slavery from Egypt they'd been in for over 450 years but then God sends Moses out into the desert for 40 years to wait God
gives Joseph this great dream that he'll save his family and his people from famine and he'll be a great leader but then Joseph gets sold into slavery he gets falsely accused and imprisoned and he's waiting there in prison until finally God takes him from prison and positions him second in command in all of Egypt and the promise comes true King David God had King David anointed as king but he didn't really get to be king until years later even Jesus Christ spent his first 30 years waiting in a carpentry shop before he started his earthly
ministry see a delay is not a denial When God delays sometimes we feel forgotten Psalm 13:1 says how long o Lord will you forget me forever you come to a point sometimes of believing that God has forgotten you don't worry it's a common experience we all go through it one time or another feeling that God isn't there or at the very least he's forgotten us perhaps our problems aren't important to him we imagine the Psalmist encounters those very doubts in Psalm chapter 10 and verse 1 here's what he says there why do you stand afar
off oh Lord why do you hide in times of trouble what you believe is that he has given up on you you may even be feeling that way right now if so please allow me to remind you that what you're contemplating is a simple impossibility God never gives up on you he never ceases to care about you and he will not abandon his work on you of which your trial is a part he even says that your name is written on the palms of his hands your very name is tattooed on the palms of God's
hands it is engraved there it cannot be removed and such is God's concern for you he cannot forget you no matter what storm you're weathering now you have never left God's mind or his heart yes sometimes when God delays we feel forgotten but God never delays without a purpose he knows you he knows your heart he knows everything you're asking him for if he's not doing what you think he should do just be patient because God loves you don't forget he's got your name tattooed on his palm he knows who you are he hasn't forgotten
and he never will often God's timing disappoints us you know there's something maybe something you've been praying about for a long time and you really you need an answer you know maybe you've been praying for something really specific and you needed God to show up within a particular time frame you know it's an urgent need and he doesn't when God doesn't answer when you need him to I wonder what conclusions do you come to do you think to yourself you know did I do something wrong did I ask the wrong way do you find yourself
asking does God even hear my prayers so often we think when God doesn't answer in our way or in our time that it's because he doesn't love us God loves you he doesn't love anybody else one grain of sand more than he loves you you know in those darkest moments of life I want you to hear Jesus looking right through your fear and saying to you trust me I am right here God's timing might not have been everything you hoped for in your life but I hope you understand that you can trust the one who
keeps the time clock We don't like to trust somebody else's timing why because if we lose control and so we'd rather then trust God because trusting God means my goodness I actually have to trust God we'd rather go listen I like the plan and purpose you have for my life but can we do it my way and here's the funny thing now that I'm a parent I recognize in my children that they don't like it to wait on my timing they don't like to wait they don't like to chill and be patient but the thing
is if they would just trust my timing they would recognize it's for their good it's for them to be blessed and prosperous and so you can live life frustrated anxious stressed out angry or you can rest and go God I have to trust in your timing just trust his timing why because it'll give you peace it'll give you rest and it will help you to remove all disappointment and hurt and bitterness from your heart because you'll know actually God's in control of my life Why didn't God just tell you everything that's going to happen in
your life right up front well I think there are two or three reasons first it would overwhelm you probably scare you to death but the real reason God doesn't announce his timetable to you is he wants you to trust him he says just live one day at a time trust me I I'm a good God I'm a loving God everything I do in your life is for love but you just got to trust me in acts chapter 1 in the bible the bible says this Jesus said in verse 7 you don't get to know the
time timing is the father's business so you're just not ever going to know stuff in advance you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow in your life much less the rest of your life God does not tell us the details in advance he has a timetable for your life but he doesn't tell you the details in advance if you could understand why God does everything God does you'd be God God's timing isn't good it's perfect because he knows all the details he knows past present future he knows what we need what we want what's the
wisest thing to do you can never go wrong waiting upon God's timing If I'm going to wait upon God I've got to trust him because my waiting is saying I'm trusting you God that your timing is better than mine you know what I do not know your time is always right and so I'm going to trust you and I'm going to wait till you give me permission to go there or do this or have that or buy the other it isn't that God's trying to deprive us of anything he only wants what is best for
us so it takes faith and what I mean by that is simply this am I willing to trust God for his timing before I make a decision Just imagine how amazing life would be if we could trust God all the time in every thing all the time in every thing and trusting God means that we stop trying to make things happen ourselves and we wait on God how many love waiting we wait on God it's a painful word even to say it and God doesn't do it when we'd like him to or the way we'd
like him to but I can promise you today if you will keep your eyes on God and trust him to be your recompense and to be your reward and to be your vindicator you will get double blessings for your former trouble trusting him doesn't mean I'm going to get what I want when I want it trusting him says I believe that when the timing is right God will provide what I'm asking him for you know broken hearts do mend bodies do healed disappointment turns into new dreams and the end of one thing can open the
door for something new if we will just put our trust in God you know what if you're still here on the planet God's got a plan for you it seems to you like God's forgotten all about you well he hasn't he hears you and he sees you can I tell you today that you're not invisible God knows exactly where you're at and he knows exactly what's going on in your life and he knows exactly how much you can take and how much you can't take and he may not be early but he won't be late
God's timing is always perfect do I believe that he has our best interest at heart if I believe that I'm going to wait but watch this somebody says I don't have any time to waste you never waste time waiting on God never you always find out that his timing is always the right time
