The Unknown: God’s Waiting Room

Have you ever stepped out in obedience, only to find yourself in God’s waiting room?

I know I sure have. And that waiting room is about as much fun as sitting in the dentist’s office waiting for a root canal.

You know it will end eventually. You just don’t know when.

David knew that waiting room well.

He was anointed as king while he was still a shepherd boy. The calling was clear. The promise was unmistakable. But the crown didn’t come next. (1 Samuel 16)

What came next was waiting. Lots of waiting.

I tend to expect immediate answers, but David waited YEARS, nearly fifteen of them.

(2 Samuel 5:4)

Waiting while someone else sat on the throne God had promised him. Waiting while he served faithfully in the background. Waiting while his life didn’t look anything like what he had been told it would.

I mean, nobody ever mentioned he’d be hiding out in caves with bats. And he definitely wasn’t told he’d be running for his life because his best friend’s dad was jelly. (1 Samuel 18–24)

David wasn’t waiting because he had disobeyed.

He was waiting because he had obeyed.

Waiting like that changes you.

It tests your trust. It exposes your motives. It reveals what you’re really holding onto. The waiting room has a way of stripping away restlessness and replacing it with dependence. dependence on Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. (Genesis 22:14)

David had every reason to grow bitter. He had been promised a throne and instead found himself running for his life. And yet, in the waiting, we see him learning restraint, humility, and trust in God’s timing. (1 Samuel 24; 26)

The waiting room wasn’t a pause in God’s plan.

It was part of the preparation.

Waiting after obedience can leave you questioning the timing, the silence, and even yourself.

We start to wonder if we heard God right. If we moved too soon. If we should have waited longer or done something differently.

It doesn’t mean we missed God. It means He’s still at work! Praise the Lord!

And more than that, the waiting room is where we are refined.

God uses the waiting to shape our trust, strip away self-reliance, and deepen our dependence on Him. What feels like delay is often refinement, preparing us for what comes next. David wasn’t ready for the crown at 15, God knew He would need to be refined.

And sometimes, after the waiting and the refining, everything changes in an instant. We will pick up in part 3 next week and see how everything changed instantly for Paul.