While We Are Waiting, God Is Working
By Pastor Rick Warren
When you’re working toward something as big as the fulfillment of the Great Commission, delays can feel frustrating. You see the urgency. You see the need. The clock is ticking. And sometimes it feels like progress is slower than it should be.
But one thing I’ve learned through seasons of pain, limitation, and waiting is this:
While we are waiting, God is working.
We think we’re waiting on God, but often God is waiting on us.
God worked on Moses for 80 years before the Exodus happened. The trip from Egypt to Israel should have only taken a couple of weeks. Instead, it took 40 years because of the people’s lack of faith. God gave them tests in the wilderness, and every time they failed the test, it was another lap around the desert.
It doesn’t surprise me that the evangelization of the world — the biggest task in history — also requires deep preparation. God could finish the task instantly if he wanted to. But God is not in a hurry the way we are.
Because God is always, always, always more interested in your character than your achievements.
You’re not taking your achievements to heaven. You’re taking you. You’re taking your character: the man or woman you became in the process.
So when there are delays, setbacks, pressure, or difficulty, we shouldn’t spend all our energy asking, “Why is this happening?”
Instead, we should ask:
“Lord, what do you want me to learn?”
Before every assignment, there is always a period of refinement.
God wants to work on us before he works through us at the next level. That’s true for leaders, teams, churches, and movements. And refinement is rarely comfortable.
The Apostle Paul understood this. After describing beatings, shipwrecks, prison, hunger, and suffering, he still called them “light and momentary afflictions” because they were producing something eternal in him — glory, maturity, and character.
That means the delays are not wasted.
The waiting is not empty.
God is forming something in us.
One of the things I’ve learned is that God is not only systematic — he’s sequential.
God enjoys watching things develop slowly. You’ve heard me say this before: When God wants to make a mushroom, he takes six hours, but when God wants to make an oak tree, he takes 60 years. So, do you want to be a mushroom or an oak tree?
God could have created the world instantly with one word. Instead, creation unfolded in stages. Human life develops in stages. Plants grow in stages. Even Jesus discipled the apostles in stages.
Over the last few years, I’ve studied the chronological sequence of how Jesus developed his disciples. He didn’t immediately give them the hardest teachings. First, he loved them. Then they trusted him. Then he revealed deeper truth. There was rhythm to it — ministry and retreat, pressure and rest, action and reflection.
God works in sequence.
And between the sequences, there are pauses.
That’s difficult for us because we live in a culture that wants everything instantly. Instant communication. Instant answers. Instant results. But spiritual formation doesn’t work that way. The kingdom grows like a seed.
So what do we do in seasons when progress feels slow?
We keep believing.
We keep trusting.
We keep praying.
We keep expecting.
We remember that this too shall pass.
There are seasons in life. There’s a time to push forward and a time to wait patiently. A time for intense ministry and a time to pull back. A time to fight and a time to rest.
And while we’re waiting, God is still working behind the scenes in ways we cannot yet see.
For those serving to help finish the task, we also have to remember this:
whenever there is great opportunity, there will also be opposition.
The fulfillment of the Great Commission is not a small task. It is the kingdom work of God. So of course there will be spiritual warfare. Scripture tells us not to be surprised by that.
But greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
God has not abandoned us in difficult seasons.
“Lo, I am with you always.”
Even in the valleys.
Even in the delays.
Even in the uncertainty.
And one day we’ll look back and realize that the waiting seasons were not interruptions to the mission. They were part of how God prepared us for it.
So if you feel discouraged today, don’t lose perspective.
This is one chapter of the story — not the whole story.
God is still working.
And while we are waiting, he is preparing his people to help finish the task.
To learn more about how you can take your first steps to finish the task of the Great Commission, visit https://finishingthetask.com/take-your-next-step/
