waiting in expectation

On bent knees and with a covered face I have fervently prayed for a specific need. A couple years have passed and I am still praying the same prayer. My knees have grown calloused as I call out to God. It has become very clear to me that my faith is being refined... and that God's timing is not the same as mine.

Month after month I have looked for God to provide an open door while inwardly asking,  Where are you, Jehovah Jireh? Like a grip that is loosening after growing tired of holding on for so long, I feel myself wavering. Yet it is now that I must resolve to trust - to stand firm and "re-grip" my faith in God's plan.

If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Dear friends, there is so much joy and peace to be had when we rest in God's promises. While my heart quivers and my body grows faint by the fear I constantly battle against, I choose to believe that God is in control. And while I wait I will continue to strive for His glory as He prepares me for His answer.

Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in You. Psalm 33:20-22

Waiting! Yes, patiently waiting!

Till next steps made plain shall be;

To hear, with the inner hearing,

The Voice that will call for me.

Waiting! Yes, hopefully waiting!

With hope that need not grow dim;

The Master is pledged to guide me,

And my eyes are unto Him.

Waiting! Expectantly waiting!

Perhaps it may be today

The Master will quickly open

The gate to my future way.

Waiting! Yes, waiting! still waiting!

I know, though I’ve waited long,

That while He withholds His purpose,

His waiting cannot be wrong.

Waiting! Yes, waiting! still waiting!

The Master will not be late;

He knoweth that I am waiting

For Him to unlatch the gate.

~ J. Danson Smith 

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Other great verses and quotes on waiting...

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,  more than watchmen for the morning. Psalm 130:4-5

Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be. ~ John Ortberg 

Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.
~ Peter Marshall

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

What then are we to do about our problems? We must learn to live with them until such time as God delivers us from them…we must pray for grace to endure them without murmuring. Problems patiently endured will work for our spiritual perfecting. They harm us only when we resist them or endure them unwillingly. ~ A.W. Tozer