Why Does God Make Us Wait? Two Biblical Reasons for Waiting on God and His Timing

Why does God make us wait? This is such a hard question, and we will never fully know all the answers. Often times, waiting is a frustrating experience. When we pray and see no immediate answer, we may wonder if God hears us. We may also wonder if He’ll ever answer our prayers or if He truly loves us. 

Below are two biblical reason why God may make us wait, along with Bible stories to illustrate each point. Hopefully, these points will help to provide you some comfort, remind you of God’s love, and encourage you to trust God in your season of waiting.

First Reason God Makes Us Wait: We are Not Ready

One reason God may delay answering our prayers is that we are not yet ready to receive God’s blessings. This can be a painful truth, but, sometimes, God denies us a blessing or delays it in order to prepare us beforehand. 

This reason can be further broken down into two truths—God may use waiting to prepare our character or to allow us to develop the skills and experience necessary for His blessings.

Waiting Prepares Our Character

Sometimes, we pray for blessings we are can’t handle. For example, let’s say that we ask God for a financial blessing but currently struggle with being good stewards of our money. In this case, God may graciously give us time and opportunities to prepare to be a better financial steward before providing such a blessing. 

We see an example of this in the Old Testament. In Exodus 13:17, God led the newly freed Israelites out of Egypt on a roundabout path through the desert. He explained to Moses and the Israelites that they were not ready to face warfare. God knew that they did not yet have the faith to trust Him in a war with a seemingly more powerful and organized nation. Instead of taking them directly into conflict, God chose to make the Israelites wait to go to the promised land. 

Later, in Numbers 14:33-34, we find that God decided to make the Israelites wait forty years to enter the promised land because of their lack of faith. This may seem harsh, but God wanted the Israelites to have the faith and character to necessary to trust Him in warfare. He also wanted them to be able to properly steward the blessing of living in the promised land, which required them to have a right relationship with God.

Apply This Truth:

God often desires for us to also have the faith and character to properly steward His blessings. This is because God is righteous and has the expectation that we will not just receive the blessing but the responsibility and work it requires to steward it well. 

A difficult truth that we often overlook when pursuing God’s blessings is that each blessing also comes with responsibility. Until we are ready for the responsibility, work, or faith walk that a blessing may require, God may allow us to wait before answering our prayer.

Waiting Builds Our Skills and Experience

God uses waiting to not only build our character but to also build our experience or skill. The life of David illustrated this truth. Though anointed as king at a young age, David did not take the throne immediately. Instead, he spent years as a shepherd, unknowingly developing the skills he would need as Israel’s leader. 

While on the surface David’s work as a shepherd seemed like it didn’t have anything to do with being a king, it allowed him to get used to fighting. He fought dangerous animals, like bears and lions, in order to protect his flock. David would later credit his shepherding experience when asked why he felt comfortable taking on Goliath in the famous battle that would catapult him into working for King Saul as his armor bearer (1 Samuel 17:34-37). 

His new position as armor bearer helped David to learn more about the role of the king. It also helped him to become an important figure in Israel. Later in his life, David would say that it was God who trained him for warfare (Psalm 144:1). As king, David would often be at war to defend Israel from enemies in the same way that he had to defend his family’s flock.

Apply This Truth:

God had a plan to provide David with the experience he needed to eventually progress to his position as king. It required David to patiently wait and trust God to not just build up his character but also the skill needed to be a just king and defender of Israel. 

In a similar way, God may be preparing us through our life experiences for His future blessings. We must also choose to be patient, follow His wise direction, and prepare to wait on God’s timing in order to be ready for His blessings.

Second Reason God Makes Us Wait: The Timing Isn’t Right

Sometimes God makes us wait because the timing just isn’t right for us. This kind of waiting experience can be tricky because we may feel that we have the character, skills, and knowledge to take the next step, but we are stuck waiting on God. 

Just like reason one, this reason can also be broken into two truths—God may make us wait for the right circumstances or He may make us wait for the right people to help us receive His blessings.

God Makes Us Wait for the Right Opportunity

As Christians, we must trust our good and wise God with our lives. This includes submitting to God’s timing for blessings. The truth is that God knows the future. He is able to perfectly guide us into the best possible situation so that we can receive His blessings.

We can see an example of this through Joseph’s life in the book of Genesis. Joseph endured many hardships, including betrayal, enslavement, false accusations, and imprisonment. While waiting in prison, there came an opportunity for him to get out. Unfortunately, the opportunity didn’t work out (Genesis 40:9-23). God had a plan for Joseph to one day play a role in ruling Egypt. This plan required a specific opportunity for Joseph, one that would come later. 

When the time was right and Pharaoh needed Joseph, God allowed the circumstances to come together for Joseph to have an audience with Pharaoh. This opportunity resulted in Joseph being promoted to a position of authority directly underneath the Pharaoh (Genesis 41:39-43).

Apply This Truth:

Joseph’s story shows us that God has a plan for answering our prayers. He works to orchestrate our lives so that we will be prepared with the proper faith, skills, and character, and receive the right opportunity at the right time. While we are waiting, we may be tempted to act rashly because we think God is refusing to answer our prayers. Instead, we should continue to trust that He is faithful.

This means that we don’t have to fight, hurt others, or resort to sin to receive God’s blessings or accomplish our goals. If we trust God, He will provide for the desires of our heart at the right time.

God Makes Us Wait for the Right People

On other occasions, our waiting is due to others who are a part of God’s plans. God is a relational God. He often uses others to bless us or to partner with us to receive a blessing. 

An example of this is the story of Joshua and Caleb. These two men faithfully believed God could lead Israel into the promised land. They trusted that God would help them to win the battles needed to conquer the land and receive their inheritance in it. Unfortunately, the rest of the Israelites in their generation acted in unbelief and chose not to trust God. In response, God decided that the next generation, along with Joshua and Caleb, would inherit the promised land (Numbers 14:6-24). 

This meant that Joshua and Caleb had to wait forty years before they could receive God’s blessing. Conquering the promised land required an army, so they had to wait until the next generation reached fighting age.

Apply This Truth:

Joshua and Caleb’s story is an extreme example, but it shows that God may delay an answer to prayer until the right people can partner with us. God does eventually fulfill his promise to Joshua and Caleb. For more of their story, please read this devotional. 

Similarly, we may also have to wait for God to bring the right relationships, partnerships, and people into our lives. In the meantime, we can trust that God is working in their lives just as He is working in ours.

Final Encouragement

It’s never easy to have to wait on a promise from God. However, we can trust that our loving God has a good reason when He decides to make us wait. 

Are you in a season of waiting? Be encouraged! God is using this time to prepare your character, build your skills and experience, create the right circumstances, and bring the right people into your life so that you’ll be ready to fully receive the blessings He has for you!

Key Takeaways for Why God Makes Us Wait:

• Waiting is often God’s way of preparing us. He may be building our character, strengthening our faith, or developing our skills
• God’s delays align us with His perfect timing. We can trust that He is orchestrating events for our good
• Our blessings may require the right people or circumstances. God may be preparing favorable circumstances or other people to be part of His plan
• God’s waiting season is never wasted. Every moment of waiting is an opportunity for growth, faith-building, and preparation

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Has this message encouraged you in some way? Share your thoughts in the comments. Please also feel free to leave a word of encouragement for those who are currently waiting on the Lord.