We pray for things from God. Sometimes God says, “Yes.” Sometimes He says, “No.” And sometimes He says, “Wait.” It is the “wait” that we often chafe at the most. But maybe there’s a good reason for the “wait”. Of course, sometimes it’s because we’re not ready for what we’re asking for, a lot like a 14 year old asking to drive. But sometimes the things that we ask — barring a miracle that God is quite capable of, but which God has chosen not in modern times (see 1 Cor. 13:8-10) — take time.

God could have just strategically nuked Pharaoh and his army and let Israel walk out of Egypt in a stroll. But God had in mind to accomplish the same thing in style to make a point to the world, then and today. God knew from the start that Pharaoh was going to be a “hard sell” on letting Israel go,

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.”” Exodus 6:1, NAS95.

And so followed a series of plagues that broke the back of the mighty empire of Egypt, the division of the Red Sea (probably the Gulf of Aqaba), and a spectacular destruction of Pharaoh and his entire army! It was a catastrophe of a such a caliber that the whole pagan region was terror struck for centuries afterward (“The Philistines were afraid, for they said, ‘God has come into the camp.’ And they said, ‘Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.'” 1 Samuel 4:7, 8, NAS95.).

So next time that you want to kick dirt about having to wait, keep in mind that God may just have something in mind that you wouldn’t believe if you were told (Hab. 1:5). Remember: “… those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Isaiah 40:31, NAS95.