While headed to a meeting recently, I got behind slow traffic – VERY slow traffic. I was trying to drive the speed limit which was only thirty-five miles per hour, and I was barely able to drive twenty miles per hour. The road was hilly and curvy, so it was unlawful to pass. I am sure this does not happen to you, but I felt myself getting impatient and irritated.

The vehicle in front of me was a monster-size pickup truck. I began to think, “Who drives a manly vehicle twenty miles per hour? Come on man! Step on the gas!”

As we approached a huge curve, I had a better visual of what was going on in front of me. There were two other cars in front of the truck, and the lead car was going terribly slow. The reason we were slowed down was not because of what I could see, but because of what I could not see.

There have been so many times in my life when I wished things would hurry along. What I really wished was that God would speed up the process. As I impatiently drove behind the truck driver, my waiting experience could have been much better. Seething, getting aggravated, and being impatient did not make the wait any less, but it sure made it more unpleasant for me.

Do you enjoy waiting? Most of us would say a resounding, “No!”  We do not like waiting. We want things to be done on our timetable. Our society today wants things done quickly, however, for the Christian, walking by faith requires trusting God while sitting in His waiting room.

Noah had to wait for the rain to come and the rain to stop. Daniel had to wait in the lions’ den, not knowing when his ordeal would be over. Even though God promised a son, Abraham and Sarah waited decades for Isaac to be born. I have often thought about the years of waiting that Joseph had to do to see the promise of God fulfilled in his life – hard, unfair years of waiting. Even Jesus had to wait thirty years to begin His earthly ministry.

When Jesus was leaving earth to return to His Father in heaven, He said to His disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised” (Acts 1:4).

I seriously doubt that any of Christ’s followers wanted to wait in Jerusalem. John 20:19 tells us that the disciples were afraid of the religious leaders who killed Jesus. They hid behind locked doors, fearing for their lives. It would have been far easier to hide in an obscure place, anywhere but Jerusalem.

Why did Jesus make them wait in a place they would rather leave? Why Jerusalem? Because Jerusalem was where He needed them to be. He was about to pour his Spirit out upon them and birth the Church.

Jesus saw farther down the line than did His disciples.

The waiting can be hard. Sometimes, it is easy to feel like God has forgotten about the desires of our heart. It’s easy to explain to God that He needs to hurry it up! When we find ourselves in the waiting room, it is important to remember that God has a plan for us that is far greater than what we could imagine. He sees farther down the line.

I could not see what was farther down the line as I slowly drove in traffic. God sees the whole picture. He sees everyone involved in the whole picture. He has promised “…that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28. Trust Him.