TEACHING NOTES

Do you know what one of the worst feelings in the world is? Having to Wait!

Especially when you’re waiting on God.

What is God doing while you are waiting? God is working.

Just because it feels like God is silent, doesn’t mean God is absent.

No one enjoys waiting, but God’s timing is perfect. The wait is well worth it!

God doesn’t make you wait as punishment,
You’re waiting because it isn’t ready for you yet!

Don’t waste the waiting.

TALK IT OVER

INTRODUCTION
Waiting is never an easy task. Especially if you’re waiting for God. It can feel like you’re being ignored, or that God doesn’t care about your needs. But even when you are waiting, God is working! God will use the time we are waiting to draw us closer to Him. Even when we feel forced to wait for our prayers to be answered, we need to remember God’s timing is always perfect. Just because it feels like God is silent, God is never absent. God’s delays aren’t always His denials. When we trust in Him and His ways God gives us patience.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is the most difficult part about waiting?
2. It’s important not to waste our waiting. What do you think that looks like, practically?
3. What is something that you have been waiting for?
4. What are some ways we can lean on God and trust what He’s doing in the middle of our waiting?
5. Has there ever been a time when you wondered whether God was actually at work in a season of waiting, only to find out later that He was? What happened?

MOVING FORWARD
In every other religious system, the people pursue their God. They have to win them over with gifts or good behavior. Christianity is different. We serve a God who pursues us. God won’t waste a second of our time. He knows the true desires of our hearts, and will not neglect us in His plan. We can show our trust in God and His plan by surrendering to Him, because God’s ways are always good. Maybe you aren’t waiting on God, maybe God is waiting on you. Before God does something for us, He will do something in us. Don’t waste the waiting, remind yourself that when the time was just right God sent us His Son.

CHANGING YOUR MIND

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him
—Isaiah 64:4 (NIV)