“When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die.” 

“But little deaths have to be died just as great ones do. Every reminder that aroused a longing had to be offered up.” -Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

I remember exactly where I was the day my season of wait began. It was the summer of 2014, right in the middle of hot sticky July. My mother, sister, brother and I were standing in a department store waiting to check out just as the tornado sirens buzzed. Rain began and thunder followed almost immediately. The line was long, snake like, intimidating, never ending. “C’mon,” I thought, “I want to go home and read a book. This is taking too long.” 

Eventually the line shortened, we paid, and went about the rest of our day. I forgot about my first encounter with God’s timetable until the next day. Another test! Could I be patient? Would I wait for my sister with a content joyful heart? I had no idea that 2014 was only the beginning of my nearly six years long, and still ongoing, season of learning to trust in the Lord’s timing. 

For those of you who have read Elisabeth Elliot’s novel Passion and Purity, myself included, we know who she was waiting for, and we know to whom she pledged her heart. Her testament and pledge to put God’s desires before her own is a lesson we can all learn as we wait for marriage, (if it be the Lord’s will for us.) Elisabeth’s oath to lay her own desires at the foot of the cross and wait five and half years for Jim, so that she could marry for three, speaks volumes. 

She loved God more than she loved Jim. She knew God’s plans were better. 

I wonder if we women in today’s age could honestly say, “God’s plans are better than my own. His desires for my life are far superior and majestic than anything that I could plan for myself, His timetable flawless, even if I don’t attain what or whom I want.” 

I wonder if we could acquire the kind of strength of those we read about in books even if our best laid dreams and plans are dashed and never came to be. 

“But Kelly,” you may ask, “What is the purpose for why the Master asks us to wait then?” 

It’s simple, really. So that we may know him, and conform daily more and more to the likeness of His character. Jesus didn’t throw temper tantrums. He didn’t lose his cool. He was as soft as the doves. The purpose of the wait is to be refined and molded into a vessel that is pleasing and fit for His service. 

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him.”- Psalm 62;5 KJV 

Will you wait for Him? That’s the question I’m imploring of you today. Can you wait for God? Can you trust that what He has in store is good and honorable and worthy of delay for now? 

“I realized that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done.” -Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity

Isn’t it the best thing to be spiritually mature and ready to carry the weight of such a man, a growing baby in the womb, the house by the sea, midnight disagreements?

I’ve heard it said that marriage is sanctifying, but isn’t the in between as well?

“Tho it linger wait for it.” If He  lovingly placed the desire in yours and mine hearts for a later time, longer than we hoped, can we trust Him to fulfill? It is my prayer that we would be willing. It is my desire that we would have the strength to yes to God and yes to a timing that fulfills in a way that only God could ordain. Dear girl, don’t settle for microwave timing plans when God longs to give you a feast at His table. His plans are better, be willing to wait for them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kelly Beth has been a connoisseur of coffee shops, since grade school, and a writer of words for the past twenty. When she's not writing devotionals or fiction, she enjoys video games, and spending time with friends and family. You can read more of her writing at kellydetzel.com