Every Monday, for the next several weeks, I am posting a quote from my forthcoming book, iFaith, Connecting to God in the 21st Century. Today, a quote from the first chapter, entitled, “A History of Waiting.”
Nearly 50 times the Scripture implores us to wait because waiting is the DNA of faith. The root Hebrew word might imply “waiting with eager expectation.”2 In other words, believing, against the odds, that God will be faithful to His promise. This is a waiting that includes more than merely sitting idly by. It means holding on to your integrity, your values, your faith in God, even as circumstances seem to prove God wrong. It’s an anticipation and longing that runs deep into the soul.
Our waiting years are God’s gym, where He builds in us a stronger heart muscle. This is growth that can’t be microwaved, truncated, or manufactured at warp speed. A durable faith is formed in the mundane disciplines of daily life, a straight line in the diligent pursuit of godliness (1 Timothy 4:8).