I don’t like waiting. Most of us don’t. Whether it’s waiting for the bus or for prayer to be answered, waiting is hard.
Right now I can think of friends waiting for an improvement in a health condition; waiting for the restoration of a broken relationship; waiting for a family member to come to Christ; waiting for a ministry opportunity; waiting for justice to come. They’re all clear that it hurts.
Part of the reason we find waiting difficult is our tendency to want things now. That’s understandable when facing the horrors of this fallen world, but it’s also exacerbated by the impatience of the ‘instant gratification’ culture that surrounds us. Our expectation is that things should happen quickly. But I suspect it’s also hard because we tend to see waiting as a waste of time. Many of us are activists at heart. We feel like we’re only being constructive if we’re doing something. Waiting feels so passive, so fruitless, so infuriatingly pointless.
A cursory look at God’s word, however, shows that God is a God who waits. His plans and purposes span generations. He is slow to anger (Ex. 34:6). He is delaying Judgment Day, waiting for more people to join His Kingdom (2 Peter 3:9). And He calls His people to wait too. Joseph waited in prison. The Israelites waited in the desert. David waited to become king. All of us wait for Christ to return.
How do we wait well? The prophet Habakkuk knew. He was waiting for God to bring justice – on His own wayward nation and on the horrifying empires around. He was waiting for justice with hope. And He can begin to teach us to do the same. He reminds us that:
Waiting is relational
Habakkuk may have been unable to make things better but he was able to turn to the One who loves him the most. He pours out his heart to the Lord in lament. He asks big questions of his Heavenly King. He pleads, petitions and prays. And he does all this with a heart full of passion (Hab.1:2-4; 12-17).
Waiting is reorientating
As Habakkuk prays, he reflects on God’s character. Whilst his questions are big, his conclusions are bigger. He knows God is eternal (1:12); holy (1:13); creator (1:14) and more. As he ‘complains’ about what is hard, his vision of who is good enlarges. And that allows him to wait with increasing confidence.
Waiting is expectant
As well as asking, Habakkuk falls silent. Twice in the book he commits himself – or calls others – to stand and watch for what God will do (2:1; 20). This isn’t a man who’s gone quiet through exhaustion or despair, this is a man craning his neck to see how God will respond. He doesn’t know when he’ll see the evidence but he doesn’t doubt that God is active and good.
Waiting is hope-filled
Habakkuk got no comforting message of life getting easier. In fact, he got a resounding warning that things were first going to get much worse! But the praying, the reorientating, the expectation of Chapters 1 and 2 build together in Chapter 3 to show us a man who trusts God. He is in awe of God – he can recall the great deeds God has done in the past – and he trusts that God will do something similar again. And so he can commit himself to waiting, with joy, strength and hope.
Of course, there are no guarantees of happy endings in this life. Sometimes our good hopes only reach their fulfilment in the life to come. But, as we wait for God’s purposes to come about, we – together with those who wait alongside us – can be confident that our waiting is not a waste. As we wait, we can grow in relationship, understanding, hope and trust. Confident that, in the waiting, God’s refining is at work. And that is fruitful ground indeed.
