Bible verses about waiting on God's timing (and what they mean)

Popular Bible verses about waiting on God's timing include Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Lamentations 3:25-26 and Habakkuk 2:3. Together they say that waiting on God is not sitting idle. It is expectant trust that God is at work and will act at the right time, even when nothing seems to change.

Below, each verse is explained in plain English, along with what the Hebrew word for wait actually means and people in Scripture who waited a long time for God to act.

Bible verses for when you're tired of waiting

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Read the verses just before this one. God's people were complaining that God had lost track of them (Isaiah 40:27). God answers with a promise instead of a timetable: people who wait on him get new strength. Notice the order: flying, then running, then walking. Most days you just need strength to keep walking without giving up, and that counts too.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

The psalm repeats "wait on the Lord" for emphasis; when you are discouraged, once is rarely enough. "Be of good courage" means be brave. One verse earlier David admits he would have collapsed if he had not believed he would see God's goodness in this life (Psalm 27:13). Waiting like this takes courage.

What "wait on the Lord" means in Hebrew

In Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Psalm 130:5 and Lamentations 3:25, the Hebrew word translated "wait" is qavah. Strong's concordance, a standard Bible word reference, says its root meaning is to bind together (perhaps by twisting) and, figuratively, to expect. The King James translators usually rendered it "wait" or "look."

A related noun, tiqvah, usually means "hope," yet in Joshua 2:18 it is the scarlet "line" Rahab tied in her window (Strong's H8615). The rope picture is only a "perhaps," so don't lean on it too hard. What is clear is that biblical waiting is aimed at someone: you wait for God and expect him to act.

Habakkuk 2:3 uses a different word, chakah, which Strong's defines as to adhere to, and so to await. The surprise is that Isaiah uses that same word for God:

And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

You are not the only one waiting. The Lord waits too, so that he can be gracious to you. He said this to people who had just refused his offer of rest and planned to escape on fast horses instead (Isaiah 30:15-16). "A God of judgment" means a God of justice, one who does what is right.

When God seems slow

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Habakkuk asked "how long?" (Habakkuk 1:2), was even more troubled by God's first answer, and climbed his watchtower to wait for another (Habakkuk 2:1). This is that reply. In context, "the vision" is God's promise that the violent Babylonian empire (the "Chaldeans" of Habakkuk 1:6) would itself be judged, not a promise about your job or your marriage. But the pattern holds. "Tarry" means delay: it may feel late, yet it will not be late by God's clock. If you are waiting to hear back about work, these verses for a job interview fit that season. If you are waiting for a spouse and wondering whether to date someone who doesn't share your faith, see what the Bible says about dating a non-Christian.

²⁵The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. ²⁶It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations was written after Jerusalem was destroyed, and these lines sit in the middle of grief. The writer does not deny the pain. He decides to hope anyway because God's mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). "Salvation" here means rescue.

⁵I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. ⁶My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

This psalm begins as a cry from the depths (Psalm 130:1), and what the writer waits for is mercy. He trusts that God forgives (Psalm 130:3-4) and will redeem his people from their sins (Psalm 130:8). Picture a night guard on a city wall. He cannot make the sun rise faster, but he knows it will come. If your waiting keeps you awake, these verses for anxiety at night may help.

Bible verses about God's timing

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

This famous verse opens a poem about the rhythms of life. A few verses later the writer adds that God makes everything beautiful in its time, yet no one can find out the whole of God's work from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11). So the verse says that seasons change. It does not promise we will know when.

My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

"My times" means the whole course of David's life, including when things happen. He prays this while surrounded by slander and threats on his life (Psalm 31:13). He doesn't know how it will turn out, so he puts the timing, and himself, in God's hands.

⁸But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

"Slack" means slow, "longsuffering" means patient, and "to us-ward" means toward us. Peter was answering scoffers who asked where Jesus' promised return was (2 Peter 3:3-4). His answer is that God does not measure time the way we do, and what looks like delay is patience: God is giving more people time to turn to him. It echoes Isaiah 30:18, where the Lord waits in order to be gracious.

Christians differ on how directly God sets the timing of each event. Reformed Christians hold that God ordains all of it, working through human choices without forcing anyone's will (Westminster Confession 3.1 and 5.2). Wesleyans, following John Wesley, hold that some delays come from human choices that God permits and works through. For more on that question, see whether "everything happens for a reason" is in the Bible.

What to do while you wait on God

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

"Fret not" means don't get worked up, especially over people who seem to get ahead by cheating ("wicked devices" are schemes). Resting in God goes together with the psalm's earlier command to trust the Lord and do good (Psalm 37:3).

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

"Well doing" means doing good to others (Galatians 6:10), "in due season" means at the right time, and "faint not" means don't give up. Paul's picture is a harvest: you keep sowing before anything comes up. In context the harvest is eternal life (Galatians 6:8), so the verse promises that doing good is never wasted. It does not set a date for any particular outcome.

⁷Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. ⁸Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

A "husbandman" is a farmer. He cannot make it rain, but he still plants and tends his field, then waits for the early and latter rains: in Israel, the autumn rains at sowing and the spring rains that ripen the grain. "Stablish your hearts" means steady yourselves. James has just condemned rich landowners who cheated their workers (James 5:1-6), and now he tells believers to wait for Christ's return with a farmer's patience. This is patience under injustice as well as delay.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Hope, Paul says, is by definition about what you cannot see yet, and "with patience" means with endurance. The hope he has in view is the day God redeems our bodies and sets creation free (Romans 8:21-23). So a long wait is no sign your faith has failed. Faith has always had to wait for what God has promised but not yet shown.

People in the Bible who waited on God

• Abraham was 75 when he left Haran on God's promise (Genesis 12:4) and 100 when Isaac was born (Genesis 21:5). About ten years in, he and Sarai tried to force the promise through Hagar (Genesis 16:1-3), and it caused real pain. Hebrews 6:15 still sums up his story as patient endurance that ended in receiving the promise.
• Joseph was 17 when his story begins (Genesis 37:2) and 30 when he stood before Pharaoh (Genesis 41:46). In between came slavery, false accusation and prison, where the king's cupbearer forgot him for two full years (Genesis 40:23; 41:1). Looking back, Joseph could say that God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20).
• Hannah went year after year without a child while a rival mocked her (1 Samuel 1:6-7). She prayed so intensely, lips moving without sound, that the priest Eli thought she was drunk (1 Samuel 1:12-14). After Eli blessed her (1 Samuel 1:17), she went on her way no longer sad (1 Samuel 1:18), before she was even pregnant. Samuel was born later (1 Samuel 1:20).
• Simeon was waiting for God to comfort Israel and had been told he would not die before seeing the Messiah (Luke 2:25-26). He finally held the baby Jesus in the temple. Anna, a widow of great age who worshiped in the temple night and day, also recognized him (Luke 2:36-38).

None of them knew how long it would take, and not all of them waited well. God was faithful to each of them anyway.

When the wait doesn't end the way you hoped

Not every wait ends with the answer we asked for. Hebrews 11:13 says many faithful people died still waiting, having seen the promises only from far off. Christian hope finally rests on God's promise to renew creation (Romans 8:18-23), and that promise holds even when a particular prayer is not answered the way you asked. If that is hard to hear, the Bible gives you words for it: Psalm 13 asks God "how long?" four times, and God kept that prayer in Scripture.

It also helps to drop slogans that promise more than the Bible does, like the idea that God won't give you more than you can handle.

If waiting has turned into despair, please talk to your pastor, a doctor or a counselor. You don't have to wait alone.