The Waiting is the Hardest Part

From author Ben Patterson, here's something good re: waiting. Having faith, living with patience, and trusting the outcome to God are things at the top of my list of life and spiritual struggles. One of the main reasons this is such a struggle is the difficulty inherent in trying to find a balance several competing things, such as: living in the moment and enjoying there here and now, trying to maintain and pursue personal goals both presently and going forward, not living "in the meantime" (i.e. you're so focused on what is or might be next that the quality of life in the present suffers), and trying to do all this while being flexible enough to go with God if He decides to come in and change things around (which He's known to do quite often, whether we are on board with it at the time or not). I suspect I am not alone in this. Fortunately for us, God pulls us through even when hurrying up and waiting is hard and makes us feel like giving up.

"To wait on God is to struggle and sometimes to fail, but sometimes the failures teach us more than the successes. The failures often teach us that to wait on God is not only to wait for His mercy, but also by His mercy. The glory hidden from the surface of our failures is the discovery that the very thing we wait for is also what we wait by. The success of our waiting lies not in who we are, but in who God is. It isn't our strength that will pull us through to the end, but rather God's amazing grace and mercy.