I refer to the discipline of waiting on God.

I don’t have to tell you how excruciatingly difficult it is. I often remind people, “Wait is a four-letter word.”

But God’s word assures us though hard it is good. Consider Lamentations 3:26: It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

Note the modifier on what kind of waiting counts as good – quietly. Fussing and fuming while we wait doesn’t cut it.

Octavius Winslow, wise man of old, said it well:

The Lord would now often have us wait His time in answering prayer. And, if the vision tarry, still let us wait, and hope, and expect. Let the delay but stimulate hope, and increase desire, exercise faith, and multiply petitions at the mercy-seat. It will come when the Lord sees best. A believer may lose the answer to his prayer, by dictating to the Lord the mode, as well as the time, of answering. The Lord has His own mode of blessing His people. We may prescribe the way the Lord should answer, but He may send the blessing to us through an opposite channel, in a way we never thought of, and should never have selected. Sovereignty sits regent upon the throne, and in no aspect is its exercise more manifestly seen than in selecting the way and the means by which the prayers of the saints of God are answered. Dictate not to the Lord. If you ask a blessing through a certain channel, or in a prescribed way, let it be with the deepest humility of mind, and with perfect submission to the will of God. Be satisfied to receive the blessing in any way which a good and covenant God may appoint. Be assured, it will be in that way that will most glorify Himself, and secure to you the greatest amount of blessing.

Does God have you in wait mode over something, several things during this season of your walk with Him?

Remember. It’s good to wait quietly for His salvation. Beware trying to manufacture a salvation of your own.