Biblical Examples of Waiting
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)
I love that we can look to the Bible to learn from others but also to gain encouragement. We can see from many of the Bible stories how the characters, these REAL people, were often extremely relatable and went through many of the same types of things that we endure today—maybe not identical circumstances but comparable troubles and accompanying emotions. We can see that we’re in good company. Because ALL scripture is useful for teaching us, including Bible character stories even as adults, I often use “character studies” in my lessons when teaching where we’ll explore different Bible characters that complement our current topic of study.
Today’s post comes directly from a character study worksheet I use on waiting. There are several examples in the Bible of people who had to practice waiting for various things. We’ll discuss of few of them here. I’ll also vary slightly from my typical post format and implement some “practical steps” with some questions to ponder for each character study instead of waiting to include them at the end.
Unfortunately life requires a lot of waiting
Unfortunately throughout our lives, and often on a number of occasions, we will find ourselves waiting. It’s just one of those unenjoyable life truths. A few things we could find ourselves waiting on might include (but are not limited to):
-
- Healing
- A marriage or relationship to be restored
- Our future spouse
- Child(ren)
- Answers, direction, guidance, and/or purpose
- A loved one to come to or return to God
- Financial breakthrough
- Promotion
- Freedom
- Justice
- Change
- Fulfillment of a dream
- Fulfillment of a promise
Waiting can be an extremely difficult and sometimes painful process. Previously I wrote a few posts on this topic that you might also find helpful…
When You’re Waiting on God—to give some ways to wait and some encouragement throughout the process
Explanations for Why We Wait on God—to share some potential reasons behind the waiting
Scriptures for Waiting on God— to give some scriptures to focus on during the waiting periods
To supplement these posts, today’s character studies will give some additional encouragement and hopefully some relatable stories from the Bible to help and give some food for thought in the process of waiting.