Waiting on God To Move

God led Israel out of Egyptian bondage. They didn't know where to go. God used a cloud to lead them by day and fire by night. He used these means to lead them through the Red Sea and away from Egypt forever.

When they got in the wilderness, God used those same means to lead His people. When the cloud stopped, so did the people. They set up camp. Sometimes the cloud stopped for a day, and at other times it stopped for a month. The people had to wait on God to know where to go next.

Think of them waking everyday and looking to the cloud, or more precisely to God, moving in the cloud to know what to do for the day. There were days to pack up camp and to travel onward. There were also seasons to wait. They dared not venture out on their own. They depended on God's guidance.

It shouldn't be any different today, though we do not have the cloud and fire to guide us. We have two things they did not have. We have the Holy Spirit and we have God's word to direct our steps. Even with those two there are still times we have to wait.

Do you enjoy waiting? Are you more impatient and want to hurry things along, and if we were honest to hurry God along too? You don't have to look too long before you discover someone waiting on God to do something. To open a closed door. To lift a burden. To reclaim a prodigal. To heal. To provide. To revive. To save. To deliver. You get the point.

Most of us have the attitude of the little boy who once prayed, "Lord, I ask you to give me patience and could you hurry up in doing it."

God has His purposes for seasons of waiting. If nothing else, it forces us to depend on Him and seek Him. Those are vitally important as we journey through life. They develop patience and perseverance. We are also forced to slow down, or hurry up to move at God's pace.

God has His purposes. He has His plans. He also has His seasons. He knows and sees how it all fits together though we often are blinded to His ways. When He requires us to wait, there is love and wisdom behind it. That may be hard for us to see. We often equate waiting as wasting time. God does not waste.

Waiting really comes down to this. Do we believe God knows what is best better than we do? Do we trust Him? I am not saying periods of waiting are easy. If you are serous about following and serving Yahweh and Jesus, you might as well expect there will be seasons of waiting. There will be times when God comes to a standstill. He may even be silent during that time. That does not mean that He is not on schedule or does not know what to do next.

If you are waiting on God now, I challenge you to get busy about serving Him. Time seems fly faster when you are occupied in some activity. If you awake everyday fixated on your watch and calendar, time may appear to drag on slowly. Don't get impatient and give up on Him. Perhaps these words from scripture will help today.

Psalm 27:13-14 (ESV)
¹³  I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

¹⁴  Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!