The Most Precious Answer of All

It’s difficult to do but waiting has benefits far
beyond we can perceive at the present moment

Waiting is probably one of the most difficult things for
a single person to do. I know. I waited for many, many
years before I met “the One.” I knew that the Lord had
someone in store for me because I believed I was called to
the married life. But it was the waiting that was killing me!
When the pain of loneliness would strike, I’d turn to the Lord and
sometimes pray, “I know You can do it. In a blink of an eye, You could
send that man for me. So why don’t You just do it?”
The Lord would often answer me with silence. Maybe because He
knew that I knew the answer to my own question anyway.
Yes, God has a purpose for making us wait that many times we
don’t see. In my case, I now realize that the many years I spent as a
single woman wanting to be a bride has equipped me to be a coach to
countless others on their “wait training.”
Just the other day, a single woman emailed me. She read my book
and was greatly encouraged. But her birthday was coming soon and,
somehow, her body clock seemed to tick louder than usual. She wrote,
“In my lack of perfect faith, I am ashamed that I still worry about
getting old and not being able to find the man of my dreams.” Oh, that
could have been my theme song when I was in her shoes years ago.
So to women like her, and to all of us who, at one time or another,
have to wait for an answer to a prayer, I share a poem entitled, “Wait.”
Its author is unknown but it was originally intended for a woman
waiting to have a child of her own.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, He replied.
I pled and wept for a clue to my fate.
The master said gently, “Child, you must wait.”
“WAIT!” you say, “Wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is Your hand shortened, or have You not heard?
By faith I have asked and I’m claiming Your Word!
My future and all to which I relate,
Hangs in the balance and you tell me, ‘Wait’?
I am needing a ‘Yes’ or a ‘Go ahead’ sign
Or even a ‘No’ to which I could resign.
And Lord, You have promised that if we believe
We need but to ask and we shall receive.
And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry,
I am weary of asking, I need a reply!”
And quietly, softly, I learned of my fate.
As the Master replied once again, “You must wait.”
He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine.
And tenderly He said, “I could give you a sign…
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause the mountain to run.
All you seek I could give and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want but you wouldn’t know
Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint,
You’d not know the power I give to the faint,
You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair,
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of just resting in Me
When darkness and silence is all you can see.
You’d never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You’d know that I give and save for a start
But you’d not know the depth and beat of my heart.
The glow of My comfort late in the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask,
An infinite God who makes what you have last.
And you never would know should your pain quickly flee
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee!
Yes, your dreams for that loved one
O’er night would come true.
But the loss, if you lost what I’m doing in you.
So be silent, My child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And how often may My answers seem terribly late
My most precious answer of all is still, “WAIT!

Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God
chooses. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)