Hover & Skip: Waiting on God in Prayer

“I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” ~Psalm 40:1

Waiting on ads to finish is part of my daily life now. Usually, I mute the ad, then watch the numbers tick down instead of the ad itself, my thumb already hovering, ready to hit skip or unmute the second the ad ends. Ads aren’t the only thing I’m anxious to skip. Yesterday, I was watching a tutorial on how to install a car seat when I realized the video was over and I still didn’t know how to install it. I didn’t watch the video; I scrubbed through it. That’s when I accepted there are some things you just can’t skip.

We’ve gotten used to waiting having a timer. Almost anything that makes us wait now comes with some version of a countdown, a progress bar, a loading circle promising it'll be over soon and there's a monetary way to hurry it along if we want.

Prayer doesn't work that way. I'll ask God for something and then, within the hour, catch myself checking whether it worked yet — like there's a countdown running somewhere I can watch tick down to the answer. There isn't. There's no gray circle. No five seconds and you're through to what you actually wanted.

David knew this. “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1). Read the rest of that psalm and you'll find he wasn't waiting five seconds — he describes being stuck in “a pit of destruction” and “the miry bog” before God lifted him out (Psalm 40:2). The waiting wasn't the delay before the real story started. The waiting was already inside the story God was telling.

James makes the same point with a slower picture. “The farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient” (James 5:7-8). A farmer can't skip past the rain. He can't fast-forward the seed to harvest. The waiting isn't wasted time he has to get through — it's the only way the crop grows at all.

Waiting on God in Prayer: Why We Can't Skip the Wait

Waiting on God in prayer means sitting inside the delay instead of reaching for a way around it, because He's already at work in what I can't see moving yet.

So here's what I'm asking myself this week: what am I trying to skip past in prayer right now, as if the waiting itself were the obstacle instead of part of what God is actually doing?

I know God isn’t “slow” on purpose to frustrate me. I think I've just spent so much time training my thumb to skip ahead that I forgot some things were never supposed to have a skip button in the first place.

Daily Practice: The next time you pray about something specific today, don't reach for your phone or move on right after you say amen. Sit for one full minute on purpose and thank God that He's already at work in it even though you can't see a countdown.

Always improve the present moment.

~Corbin Riley