"How to Not Waste Your Wait" | March 29, 2026 | Ps Joel Lowery

We live in a world that despises waiting. Whether it's the traffic jam, the unanswered text message, or the job application that seems to disappear into a void, we've been conditioned to interpret delay as something gone wrong. Our first instinct when faced with waiting is to assume failure, rejection, or abandonment.

But what if we've been looking at waiting all wrong?

What if delay isn't denial? What if silence isn't absence? What if God is doing His deepest work precisely when it feels like nothing is happening?

The Paradox of Love and Waiting

In John 11, we encounter one of the most puzzling statements in Scripture. The text tells us that Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus deeply. But then, immediately after establishing this love, it says He stayed where He was for two more days while Lazarus lay dying.

This seems contradictory to our understanding of love. We've been trained to equate love with immediate action, with getting what we want when we want it. It's the inner child in all of us crying out, "If you love me, you'll give me what I want!"

But God operates differently. He can love us completely and still make us wait. In fact, sometimes it's precisely because He loves us that He requires us to wait. The delay isn't evidence of His indifference - it's evidence of His intentionality.

Three Truths About God's Timing

1. God's Timing Is Always Intentional

Jesus is never late, but He is often unhurried. There's a significant difference.

Consider the healings recorded in the Gospels. Almost everyone Jesus healed had endured their condition for years, sometimes decades. The woman with the issue of blood suffered for twelve years. The man born blind had lived his entire life in darkness. The lame man at the pool of Bethesda had waited thirty-eight years.

God doesn't rush. He works more like a skilled surgeon than artillery fire. When you're facing life-altering surgery, you don't want the surgeon to hurry. If they emerge from the operating room after only thirty minutes, your first thought isn't relief - it's concern. Did something go wrong? Did they give up?

Precision always requires patience.

What if the delays in your life aren't random but strategic? What if God hasn't abandoned or forgotten you, but is orchestrating something far more significant than you can see from your current vantage point?

2. Waiting Is Forming You

This might be the hardest truth to embrace. Waiting isn't empty time. It's not worthless. Waiting is active trust, and God is building strength beneath the surface.

Elizabeth Elliot, whose husband was killed as a missionary, wrote: "The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances." She described faith as "the willingness to carry uncertainty, to lift the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts."

That's a deep-rooted believer - someone who can carry uncertainty and still worship, still trust, still move forward.

Romans 5:3-4 lays out the progression: "We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

You can't skip steps in this chain. You can't have hope without character. You can't have character without endurance. And you can't have endurance without suffering.

The question becomes: What if God wants to do something in you before He does something through you?

3. When We Wait Well, God Gets Glorified

When Jesus finally arrived at Lazarus's tomb, He stated clearly what the entire situation was about: "This happened for the glory of God."

Similarly, when the disciples asked about the man born blind - whose fault was it that he was born this way? - Jesus redirected their thinking entirely. "It wasn't because of his sin or his parents' sin. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him."

God's goal isn't always our comfort or convenience. His goal is His glory. And if we're not aligned with that goal, we'll constantly find ourselves frustrated.

We were created for one purpose: to be in relationship with Him, to worship Him, to reflect His glory. If what we want keeps us from that, we'll be waiting indefinitely - because that's not why we're here.

How Do We Wait Without Wasting the Wait?

The real struggle isn't whether to wait - it's how to wait. The prophet Habakkuk gives us a practical blueprint.

Seek the Lord

Habakkuk said, "I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guard post. There I will wait to see what the Lord says."

Notice two elements: position and posture.

Sometimes your location matters when seeking God's voice. You may need to change your environment - take a walk, find a quiet space, create a designated prayer closet. Get out of bed. Remove distractions. Put yourself somewhere you can actually hear.

But location isn't enough. You also need the right posture - a genuine willingness to listen, not just talk. Are you stopping long enough to hear? Are you cutting out distractions? Are you listening intentionally?

Write It Down

God told Habakkuk: "Write my answer plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others."

What God shows you today can anchor your tomorrow - but only if you write it down. Clarity fades with time. The harshness of life's weather can make God's promises seem distant and faded.

Journal. Write down scriptures. Record prayers. If someone gives you a prophetic word, write it immediately before the details blur.

Remember His Faithfulness

Before God answered any of Habakkuk's complaints, before any breakthrough came, Habakkuk declared: "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength!"

This is the power of worship in the waiting. When you can worship before you see the answer, you prophesy truth to your own heart. You remind yourself of God's character before He has to prove it again.

Worship isn't just singing songs together. It's declaring the goodness of God regardless of your current circumstances. It's saying, "I know You're good. I know You'll do what You say. I know Your character, and I won't let my condition control my worship."

The Same God Who Waited

The same Jesus who waited while Lazarus died, who took His time while Martha and Mary wept, who rode into Jerusalem on a colt knowing the cross awaited Him - that same Jesus knew resurrection was coming. But He had to go through the process before He could demonstrate the power.

What you've called dead, God might be calling dormant.

The roots are growing beneath the surface. The formation is happening in the darkness. And when the time is right - not your time, but His time - what emerges will be worth every moment you spent waiting.

Don't waste your wait. Seek Him. Write down what He shows you. Remember His faithfulness. And worship Him in the uncertainty.

Because the same God who was faithful then will show up again.