Waiting...

2Peter 3:9 -"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you..."

Why should He wait- why not act at once? Because something in us hinders. We cannot enter into spiritual blessings till we are made capable of them by faith...God has the right time for help...He never gives the wrong medicine. His waiting is full of work to fit us to receive His grace. It is not a mere passive standing by, till the fit conditions are seen in us; but He is exalted while He waits. He Who prepares a place for us is preparing us for the place. He who has grace which He is ready to give us here, is making us ready for His grace. The measure of all God's work in us is to form a character fit to possess His highest gifts...the waiting desire to which He responds is directed to something better and greater than any gifts from Him, even to Himself, for it is they who wait for Him...who are blessed. The blessedness of such waiting, how it calms the heart, brings into constant touch with God, detaches from the fever and fret which kill, opens our eyes to mark the meanings of our life's history and makes the divine gifts infinitely more precious when they do come...
- Alexander Maclaren's sermon God's Waiting & Man's