rMag

When We Are Called to Wait

Lauren Shirley

If there was ever a person who had the training, position, and ability to change a culture, it was this guy. He was raised among the leaders of the greatest power on earth.¹ He was homeschooled and then sent to the best universities in the world. People spoke of him as a man “powerful in speech and action.”² He was not interested in the wealth or sin that surrounded him.³ In fact, he knew that God had called him to use his position for something greater than his own pleasure.⁴ But he didn’t know when, or how, or for what God would use him.

So he takes matters into his own hands - and fails miserably. In an instant he goes from being someone groomed to potentially rule the greatest nation on earth to a fugitive hiding and eluding capture. He spends the next forty years of his life in the desert, raising sheep and a family. For forty years, he waits, thousands of miles away from what he thought God had called him to do.

After looking at this story, and modifying some of the extreme variables, I can identify with this guy called Moses. Despite some four thousand years and major cultural differences, there are things I see in his story that are not so different from mine. I’ve had excellent training, but I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do with it. I know that God has great things in store for me, a perfect plan that He will work out in my life, but I don’t know any specifics: most days, I seem to lack even a general direction. After seeing several doors close and options disappear, I find that I, like Moses, must wait.

Waiting is not an easy process, regardless of whether it is waiting for an event or a season to arrive, or waiting on God to reveal Himself, His plan, and His purpose. Yet it is an inevitable part of life and part of the spiritual process we must go through to grow. Waiting, when seen as an opportunity for growth, leads to perseverance, which builds character, which produces hope. This hope points us back to the gospel, back to God, and reminds us of His plan for His glory.

Scripture encourages us to wait on God and offers hope as we wait. In Psalm 40, David tells of his experience: “I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.”⁵

Isaiah also offers encouragement: “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”⁶

Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was trained by his parents in the ways of God. Yet this schooling did not make Moses the greatest leader Israel ever had. God transformed him and molded him during his time in the wilderness, a long span of forty years that most would call a waste of time. Following a short transition in which he gained the responsibility of several million people, God sent him again to wait in the wilderness for forty years. If Moses, and God, had viewed this waiting time as a complete waste, Moses would never have truly accomplished anything. But the seasons of waiting he experienced were not pointless: they taught lessons and bore fruit that could not have been otherwise accomplished. This time of waiting was not a waste, but a time of great preparation, even though the purpose was not clear at the time.

After the time of waiting in the wilderness, we see the man who murdered because of his unbridled anger and passion to avenge injustice emerge as the most humble man who ever lived.⁷ We see the man who did not wait for God’s plan or timing return to Egypt bearing the Name and signs of God as proof of his life-changing encounter. He still had much to learn, and he still fell, but he was not same the same young man of Egypt. He had become a leader and a man of God.

The teenage years are a time of waiting. In any season of life, waiting should be seen as a chance for preparation, but this is especially true for teenagers and young adults. The desire to do big things for God in the future can destroy our present calling of living where God has placed us now. Across the country, seniors struggle to stay focused on school as they anticipate graduation and beyond. Young people eager to fulfill what God has called them to do may struggle to find practical life application in memorizing geometry theorems or the periodic table of elements or the generals of the War of 1812. The subject or the topic really is not the point, though. God has called us to be diligent, faithful, and excellent in the little things that may seem unimportant. Perseverance in the small, seemingly unimportant hard things leads to a strong foundation of character and hope, as well as faithfulness and trust, which simply cannot be built by taking shortcuts.

The goal of regenerating a culture is a goal that inevitably requires a lot of waiting. Really, this goal is not a new concept, but one that has been passed down, with the charge to persevere, since God first called His people to Himself.

Moses spent the majority of his life waiting in a desert, yet he allowed God to move mightily in a season some would see as time wasted. It was in this waiting that Moses developed his relationship with God. We are told that God knew Moses face to face.⁸

Like Moses, it seems Christ spent much of His time on earth waiting, as He devoted only three years to His actual ministry. God used the previous thirty years as preparation, not only for Jesus, but for those around Him. We are not told much about the gap between Jesus’ childhood and the beginning of his ministry, but we can learn from what we are told. Luke reports, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.”⁹

I would challenge you to use the time you have as a young person to grow in your faith and your relationship with God. Use this period of waiting to let God prepare and develop you for the things He has planned. Be diligent and faithful in the little things. Seek out the instruction of your parents and pastors and mentors. Develop the relationships God puts in your life. Learn from the resources and the gifts He has given you. Learn to wait on God, for His timing and His purpose, because dwelling in His presence is the ultimate goal for which we wait.