When I was studying the English language in high school, we had a section called “composition writing”. Adding similes and proverbs while writing our compositions always gave us additional marks. I managed to collect a few proverbs which I kept writing in every exam. One of them was, “Good things come to those who wait.” I was reminded of this proverb while writing about the waiting room. It is an encouragement to know that waiting is not always in vain. Good things come to those who wait.

However, life does not always allow us to think of the good things at the end, but rather the immediate negative feelings while we wait. We often develop feelings of defeat and failure, especially when others advance past us and seem to have everything going for them. In the first part of this series, I talked about the awesome fact that the Bible is no stranger to delay and that waiting is a posture which every child of God, including our ancient forefathers, has to take in one way or another. In this write-up, I explore three reasons why we experience delay so that we may each identify the root cause of delay in our lives and know how we can deal with such seasons.

Delay due to ignorance

When delay happens, we often want to play the victim, blaming others for our situation, or blaming forces above and beyond our control. However, there are times when no force is available and no enemy stands in the way but ourselves.

Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.” “Moreover, since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

Hosea teaches that we pay a high price due to our ignorance. God rejected the Israelites as priests due to their lack of knowledge. The effects of such a decision are catastrophic. When the Lord, who opens doors and shuts them, rejects you, there is a reason for concern. The question then is, what knowledge did these people lack which led to their destruction? Let’s talk about three of these:

Lack of knowledge of the systems and workings of God: God does not operate randomly; he is a God of order. 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people”. God will only entrust us with tasks which we are equipped to handle and the first part of being equipped is having the knowledge and understanding of the systems and workings of God.

Lack of knowledge of oneself and one’s purpose: Men spend years pursuing things God never called them to do and, in the process, delay what God has called them to do and the blessing and progression which comes with it. Moses spent years as a prince in Egypt and then as a fugitive tending to his in-law’s sheep; all the while not knowing that God had called him to lead the Israelites out of a life of slavery in the hands of the Egyptians.

Lack of knowledge and understanding of the world system and how it works: King Solomon, considered the wisest man in the Bible, illustrated this point well. He understood how the world worked, why people were poor, how to build cities, and what made a man prosper. Follow closely and you will find the same things taught today by motivational speakers. The point is that the principles do not change, and failure to learn them causes delay. If all we do is to wait for the good things at the end and never gain understanding, the waiting room will only be prolonged. The solution is not to wait but to take action by gaining wisdom and understanding.

Delay due to satanic influences

As New Testament believers, sometimes we are quick to rule out this option; however, sometimes, delay is backed by hell. The devil and his cohorts stand in the way and make it difficult for any breakthrough to happen for the children of God. Revelations 12:13 “Now, when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.” The devil was cast out into the world, and he immediately started persecuting men. Even when Jesus died for our sins on the cross and redeemed man, Satan did not leave the earth. He is still as determined as before to destroy man, and delay is one of the tools he uses. The devil knows he cannot stop the blessings of God from reaching us, but he can at least delay them. 

So why does he cause delay and fight to ensure that things take a long time? It is because he knows delay causes weariness (Proverbs 13:12). And once men are tired, they will make all sorts of wrong decisions; they will curse God, and in the worst-case scenario, they will turn away from the faith. Even the best can make mistakes when they are delayed. In the parable of the ten virgins, the groom delayed, and both the wise and the foolish slept. If he can delay you long enough, certain options that were never acceptable become considerable. When an illness takes too long and costs too much money, a person may be able to sign deals they never thought they could, or the village healer can become an option!

Delay due to the purposes of God

Colossians 1:17 “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” The Bible explains that everything holds together in God. Waiting is also included in that list. Sometimes God allows the process to be slower than our expectation. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is not delay which we can pray away. It is in God’s good and merciful design that some things go at a slow pace; at least slower than our expectations. All you have to do is trust that the process will be worth it. Some things could not have come if there was no waiting process. Some things are only possible because of the process. God is not punishing you but rather preparing you. Why does God cause us to wait? It is because he is preparing us for something big, and the process is designed to make us ready for the blessing (Romans 5:1-6). 

David in the Old Testament illustrates this point best: he was chosen by Prophet Samuel and anointed to be king, but it took him 13 years to get to the throne while it took Saul only a few days. The journey through the wilderness and the harsh conditions he went through prepared him to be the king that Israel needed. So much depended on him, and God had to take extra care to ensure that the process was worth it. In the end, when Jesus comes from among all the kings, it is David that he identifies with because he was the one whom he prepared to take the throne. 

I know that when we are going through periods of delay, the last thing we want to hear is “wait”. We want to hear that a breakthrough is coming now because it is never easy to wait. However, the good news is that God’s waiting room was designed to keep us only for a short time. We can never be there even a second longer than God has deemed necessary.

You will not wait forever. For at the right time, the door will open. However, in the meantime, understand that God is molding something great, and you can only appreciate it once the process is complete.

Shalom