The Joy of Waiting

“I waited patiently for the LORD;he turned to me and heard my cry.”—Psalm 40:1

The Struggle of Waiting

The rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers famously sang, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

Do you find that to be true?

Where in your life do you find it hard to wait? Maybe you’re waiting for a job offer, waiting for a wound to heal, waiting for test results, waiting to find the love of your life. Maybe you’re waiting for a prayer to be answered. Perhaps you’re waiting for clarity, purpose, or meaning to your existence.

Or maybe you’re simply waiting in the excruciatingly long drive-thru line at In-n’-Out while your 3-year-old asks a barrage of nonsensical questions about why some of the streetlights are on and others are not! (Completely hypothetical of course)

Christian leader St. Francis De Sales penned these words over 400 years ago:

“Oh, how happy are those who, if made to wait all their lives, never grow weary of waiting!”

At first reading, I thought, “Ok but Francis never had to take a trip to the DMV, get stuck at LAX Airport for 8 hours, or sit in rush hour traffic on the 101 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles at 5:07 pm on a Friday!”

But can it really be possible to become the kind of person who can not only survive waiting, but enjoy it?

Learning to Wait

From childhood, we’re taught to wait:

• “Wait your turn for the slide.”

• “Wait until after dinner for dessert.”

• “Wait until you’re on the potty before you…well, you know.”

As adults, we’d like to think we’re better at waiting, but we’re not. Our culture has discipled us into impatience.

Disciples of the Internet

Author John Eldredge puts it this way:

“The internet has discipled your soul to expect immediate answers. You inquire and you are answered—immediately. But now, when you turn to Jesus and you are not answered in the way the internet answers, you feel he isn’t listening.”

We live in a world of one-click purchases, food delivery apps, and same-day shipping. Over time, we’ve come to see waiting as an obstacle to avoid instead of an opportunity to embrace. But maybe that’s because we misunderstand what waiting really is.

What Waiting Is—and Isn’t

Waiting is not passive. It’s not simply twiddling our thumbs until God finally gives us what we want.

Biblical waiting is an active posture of surrender. It’s saying to God not only “Thy will be done” but also “Thy pace be done.”

Sometimes we wait because God calls us to it. Other times, waiting is the consequence of poor choices, like Israel’s delay in entering the Promised Land. Either way, waiting always carries opportunity.

When we slow down to move at God’s speed, we discover that His timing is not only good but best. As Paul writes, Christ came “at just the right time” (Rom. 5:6). In active waiting, we learn that God meets us in our actions by providing what we need when we need it.

How We Wait Matters

Psalm 40 doesn’t say, “I waited begrudgingly for the LORD.” It says, “I waited patiently.”

What matters most is not just that we wait, but how we wait.

Paul echoes this in Romans 5:3-4:“Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Hope is the key to waiting. And biblical hope is not naive optimism, as in “I doubt this lottery ticket will win, but I sure hope it does!” Scriptural hope (ἐλπίς) is confident expectation.

Think about hope like a dear friend that you haven’t seen in ages making plans to visit you. Do you think, “I doubt my friend will actually show up, but I sure hope they do!”

I doubt that. I think, in your excitement, you would clean your house, prepare the guest bed, and plan a full, fun-filled weekend with your buddy. And then you would drive to the airport….and wait in giddy anticipation. Even if your friend’s arrival was a bit delayed, your joy wouldn’t vanish, because you confidently trust that, eventually, they will arrive.

That’s what it means to wait on the Lord: not with passive frustration, but with active, giddy anticipation.

Waiting With Joyful Anticipation

To wait on God is to believe—deep down—that He will show up. It’s to live as though His presence will break into our lives at any moment. That kind of waiting changes us. It frees us from fear of missing out, teaches us patience, and builds our character.

Waiting becomes less about getting what we want and more about becoming who God wants us to be.

God is not simply making us wait to test our endurance. He’s forming us into people who can trust Him, even when life slows to a crawl. People who can say in a traffic jam, at a delayed flight, or during a long season of uncertainty: “Here comes God.”

Waiting With God

At the end of the day, waiting isn’t just about waiting for God. It’s about waiting with God.

God meets us in the long checkout lines, the stop-and-go traffic, the anxious seasons of uncertainty, and even in the dry stretches of silence. When we learn to see waiting as a place where God is already present, we find peace, joy, and hope rising in us.

With God, time waiting is never time wasted. It’s sacred space.

Practices for Learning to Wait

So how do we grow into people who wait with joy? The same way we grow in any discipline—practice.

Here are a few simple ways to train your soul in waiting:

1. Drive in the slow lane. As you do, recite Psalm 23 or thank God for the extra time with Him.

2. Choose the longest checkout line. Instead of scrolling your phone, look at the people around you. Pray for them, bless them, or strike up a kind word.

3. Memorize Psalm 40:1-3. Imagine God doing for you what He did for the psalmist—lifting you up, setting your feet on a rock, giving you a new song.

4. Listen intentionally. In conversation, resist the urge to interrupt. Wait until the other person fully finishes before you respond. Practice being present.

   
   

These practices may seem small, but they train our hearts to embrace waiting as an invitation instead of an interruption.