I call it the “Everlasting Light.”

It’s a stoplight with a really long timer at an intersection not far from my house.

Actually, I don’t mind waiting for the light, because I know it eventually turns green.

It’s been much harder to wait for things I prayed about for years. So I like to recall a sermon I heard years ago by the Rev. Rick Warren, before he retired as pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

Rick offered several tips on what to remember — and do — while waiting for God to answer a prayer.

These tips — not in specific order — include:

• Remember Jesus is helping to prepare you for God’s blessings. God usually has a bigger and better idea about things than we do and will need to prepare us for them. That usually takes some time. Waiting is also a test of our character, trust, faith and endurance.

• Remember that there’s a natural delay between planting and harvesting. You don’t plant and harvest in the same season. Wait quietly, expectantly and patiently.

• Remember that an unseen battle is going on. Rick says there’s a spiritual battle taking place in a realm we don’t understand.

He cites Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

While we’re waiting, Satan throws darts of doubt, discouragement and disappointment at us.

Rick cites Daniel 10:11-13 in which an angel tells Daniel that his prayer was heard from the first day he prayed it, but an evil angel had blocked the good one for 21 days, until Michael, the archangel, intervened. The good angel was now there in response to Daniel’s prayer.

“A delay is not a denial,” Rick says. “When an answer to prayer is delayed, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to be answered. There may be spiritual warfare behind it and you’ve got to keep praying.”

• Remember that I’m in good company when waiting on Jesus to do something as God does something. “Millions of saints before you have sat in God’s waiting room. You’re not alone,” Rick says.

Moses spent 40 years in a desert before being sent to help the Israelites. Abraham was 100 before his son, Isaac, was born. Noah worked on the ark and it was 120 years before it rained. God waited thousands of years before sending Jesus. Waiting is essential to faith.

• Remember that God always keeps his promises. “Don’t focus on what you can’t do … Focus on what God does have and can do,” Rick says, adding that God’s timing is perfect. Rick recommends memorizing Scripture during the waiting period.

Rick shares four other things to do while we’re waiting. They spell the acronym: W.A.I.T. These things are:

• Write down the lessons you are learning. “This is extremely important for building your faith,” Rick says. “God has things he wants to teach you before he answers your prayer….

“God is more interested in your character (the only thing you’re taking to heaven) than your comfort, but you will forget the lessons you learn in the waiting room of life if you don’t write them down.

“Little lessons lead to big successes,” Rick adds.

• Act as though you already have it. In Mark 11:24, Jesus says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Does this mean we need to believe that we’ve already got something in order to get it?

“Yep. That’s called faith,” Rick says. “When you thank God after you get the answer to your prayer, that’s called gratitude. When you thank God before you get the answer to your prayer, that’s called faith.”

There’s a difference in passively waiting in fear and apathy and expectantly waiting in faith, where you take action and get prepared as if you already have it.

Rick cites Romans 4:17 which states that God calls things that are not as though they already were.

Twenty-five years before Abram had a son, God changed his name to Abraham, which means the “father of many nations.” God called the frightened Gideon “a mighty man of valor.” He called the impulsive disciple Peter, a “rock.” God speaks things into existence and tells us to do the same.

• Imitate the habits that grow strong faith. Find a stronger Christian, a Godly person and imitate that person’s faith. Rick makes this important point:

“When you’re in the waiting room of life, don’t put your life on hold,” he says. “Waiting is the time to develop habits and skills that you’re going to use later on.”

In the 1980s, Rick went through a year of depression. But during that time, God taught him habits and skills that prepared him to handle enormous amounts of stress that he never would have had otherwise.

What are some good habits? They include: to keep on praying, serving, going to small group Bible studies and to keep believing the things you know are true.

“Waiting is not passivity. God can’t steer a parked car,” Rick says.

• Trust God instead of panicking. “God’s never in a hurry. He’s never late. His timing is perfect,” Rick says.

Rick points to the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to come and heal Lazarus who was sick, but Christ’s goal was to raise him from the dead.

“Sometimes God lets a situation get so bad that only a miracle will do. Don’t give up your faith. Hang on,” Rick says.

Rick then tells the marvelous story of bamboo. You can put bamboo in the ground and water it year after year — and nothing happens. Then by the seventh year, it can sprout and take off. Some bamboo can grow 3 feet in 24 hours. Some can grow up to 9 feet in about four days. When it takes off, it really takes off.

“Your life is like bamboo,” says Rick, noting that we may be in Year Six. “Don’t give up.

“I’m so glad that in the darker days of my life that I didn’t give up on God, but I’m even more glad that he didn’t give up on me,” Rick says. “He knew what he was going to do in my life, but I didn’t — but during the dark days, I was learning the skills and I kept on praying, giving, serving, believing and trusting — and the bamboo sprouted.”

I love Rick’s tips on waiting.

They’re another way I believe the Lord is helping me as I spend time in God’s waiting room.

Actually, we’re all in that waiting room — in one sense or another.

We may think we’re waiting until we finish our education, get a great job, get married, have a child or retire.

But what if God is waiting for the Christian maturity and service that he desires in us?

Our lives on earth are short when compared to eternity. What if this is an incubation period — a time for growth — until our next step with God occurs?

Are we the bamboo that our Lord has planted and is waiting to see sprout?

And, if so, are we making the most of the time — alternately growing and resting — in the hands of a most capable gardener?

It’s something else to think about as I wait and trust in a loving God, who may just be teaching me a little bit about patience. If God is teaching me a little about patience, more than likely He is teaching you a little about patience and about waiting in what you don’t understand, don’t like and can’t change!

Author Tammy R.

Can God change your life as you wait, look and wonder?
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