Why Does God Make Us Wait?

“Wait patiently before the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14

If you’ve ever seen pure maple syrup in the grocery store, you’ve noticed that it commands a premium price compared to artificial alternatives. This difference in cost stems from the labor intensive process required to produce it. Men travel into forests in search of sugar maple trees. They carefully drill holes into the trees and insert hollow metal tubes called spiles, which drain the sweet sap into buckets. A day’s work might yield 30-40 gallons of raw sap, but that’s just the beginning. The sap then has to be cooked over an open flame for several hours, evaporating the water and concentrating the sweetness. The syrup undergoes multiple filtrations to ensure its purity. When all is said and done, those 30-40 gallons of sap might only yield a single gallon of maple syrup. If you want to get to know God, you need to realize that the process is a lot like producing pure maple syrup: it takes time! Getting to know Him usually involves many periods of waiting. You won’t always know why you’re having to wait, but you should be encouraged by the fact that time in God’s waiting room is not arbitrary. It always serves a purpose in your life. Sometimes, God makes you wait simply because he wants you to slow down in order to actually hear him. That’s what the Psalmist gets at when he writes, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). So today, if you find yourself in God’s waiting room, take some time to be still and know that He is God. Let your waiting draw you closer to him.