Wait for it … wait for it. This catchphrase is used frequently in movies and on television. Overused might be a better description. I was thinking the other day about how impatient we all can be at times when we pray and we feel like we are having to wait on God for a long time. It seems like everybody these days are having to wait on something or someone. Wait for it, wait for it seems to be a catchy phrase, so catchy, until I decided to look the phrase up. I found several sources for its origin online but “A Dictionary of Catch Phrases,” Second Edition by Eric Partridge and Paul Beale, cites the first documented use in an old music hall play called “In Red Peppers,” written in 1935 and published in 1936. According to the book, Noel Coward offers direction to his actors immediately after Refrain 1 in the first dialog, the dialog went something like this:
GEORGE: I saw a very strange thing the other day.
LILY: What was it?
GEORGE: Twelve men standing under one umbrella and they didn’t get wet.
LILY: How’s that?
GEORGE: It wasn’t raining. (Wait for it — wait for it.)
The “Wait for it — wait for it,” is to wait for the laughter to end before resuming the dialog.
Another use of the phrase is found in Habakkuk 2:3, which was probably written some time before 600 B.C. God tells the prophet, “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end — it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
God was talking about the punishment of the Babylonians, who had punished Israel. He told Habakkuk that while the punishment seemed slow, surely it would come, so he should be patient. And at the end of the next verse, God told Habakkuk, “but the righteous shall live by his faith.” It’s a verse repeated several times in the New Testament.
The thing about waiting is that it’s rarely funny or fun. We are an impatient lot. At least I know I am. That’s why we have drive-thru windows, microwaves, email (as opposed to snail mail) and many other conveniences.
How often to do we “wait” for God to answer our petitions or pull us out of our plights? Never fun times.
But more importantly — wait for it, wait for it — how often does God wait for us?
Pretty much forever.
Go back to the Garden. God waited for Adam and Eve while they hid in the Garden.
God waited for leaders to rise up and lead.
Consider Sampson. He had all the tools to be God’s greatest leader. But you know the story. God waited on Sampson to finally seek his help at the end of his life.
But God doesn’t just wait for us — wait for it, wait for it — God waits with us.
Consider the Israelites. They didn’t follow when he called them into the Land of Promise.
God never intended for them to wander 40 years in the wilderness.
But during that time God didn’t desert them. He led them day and night despite the whining, complaining, backsliding and sin.
Those years could have made it tough on the generation to follow but God waited patiently and compassionately.
And he still waits for us.
How many times are we to wander from his word, reject his love and seek someone or something else?
God knew we would yet he waited and sent his son. And waited some more.
Still God has told his believers in Hebrews, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” and in Matthew 28, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The next time you are at the end of your rope remember — wait for it, wait for it — God is there waiting for you.
Paul also used the catchphrase in Romans 8:25, as with Habakkuk, we’re told how to wait, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we — wait for it — with patience.”
God has waited for you all of your life to develop a relationship with Him, if He’s asking you to wait on Him with trust and patience as He works, can’t you wait for Him?
Written by R. Reed who is a columnist who lives in Mount Dora and “The WIN International Ministries Team.
