24 & 25 Jan 2026 (Pastoral Page) LIVING IN THE WAITING

by Dn Ernest Tan

When was the last time you felt annoyed or impatient waiting for something? Perhaps you were stuck in traffic on the way home due to an accident on the highway. Or you were ready to order your favourite bowl of bak chor mee, only to find that the person in front of you placed a takeaway order of fifty packets and cut your lunch hour in half. Waiting can be deeply frustrating.

Yet at other times, waiting can involve real struggle. It may be the long wait for a job after a season of unemployment, for healing, or for a loved one to come to know and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. We can pray and wait longingly for change in our workplaces, our social circles, and our own hearts.

This tension is familiar to every Christian. We long for the desires of our hearts to be fulfilled, but we often forget that God operates according to His wisdom and timetable. He answers in His own time. So what can we do when we have prayed and sought the Lord, yet He seems silent? What does faithfulness look like while we wait?

The Bible shows us that God’s people have always known what it means to wait, and they rarely do so calmly. We will come to this as we study Psalms this year. Many times we will read David’s cries for God’s deliverance (Psalm 13:1-2; Psalm 40:1-2). But even when God felt distant from him, David did not turn away. Instead, he continued to fix his eyes on the Lord, lifting prayers and praise and remembering God’s faithfulness across generations (Psalm 13:5-6, Psalm 40:5-9).

God invites us to remember the moments He has worked throughout history and in our lives. And through it all, to not let the pain we experience today limit the hope of what God can do tomorrow. It is this hope that helps us move forward. “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.” (Psalm 62:5).

Paul reminds us in Romans 4 that Abraham did not waver through unbelief, but was fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised (Romans 4:20–21). Though Abraham and Sarah were far beyond the age of childbearing, Abraham held on to God’s promise that he would become a great nation (Genesis 12:2). Years passed between God’s promise and its fulfilment. Still, He fulfilled that promise by blessing the couple with Isaac, even when it seemed humanly impossible.

Do we cling to God’s promises in the same way? I am continually encouraged by God’s promises never to leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8), that we can find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28), and that He will provide all that we truly need (Philippians 4:19). Especially in seasons of discouragement, we can anchor ourselves to what God has promised.

But what about those of us still wandering in the wilderness of waiting? It is tempting to think that life only begins once the waiting is over. Yet David reminds us that waiting is not passive:

“Show me your ways, Lord,

    teach me your paths.

Guide me in your truth and teach me,

    for you are God my Saviour,

    and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5)

So we wait. But we wait by remembering God’s promises for us and learning His ways, praying and submitting our lives to Him. We wait by loving those around us and serving them as Christ did, sharing the gospel when the opportunity arises. And we wait with hope, knowing that none who wait on the Lord will ever be put to shame (Psalm 25:3).