Mindset Mondays: The Power and Purpose of Waiting

Waiting can be hard. The Word instructs us to wait. I was reading my devotional the other day and came upon this definition of wait. The Hebrew word for wait is not a passive, boring waiting that tempts you to sleep and slumber. No, the Hebrew word for wait is qavah. It is an active word that means to wait, look for, hope, expect, look eagerly for, to lie in wait for, to linger for, to collect, bind together, or to be collected.

The first time this word shows up in the Bible, however, it was not people who waited, it was the waters. Genesis 1:9-10  (AMP) – Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered  [wait: qia’wu] into one place [of standing, pooling together], and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that this was good (pleasing, useful), and He affirmed and sustained it.

Can you picture it? The waters waited for God’s plan to go into action. In verse 10,  the word gathering comes from the root word mikveh, and it means a collection or hopeful gathering. So the waters waited together in one place, and God called the collection of waiting (gathered) water, seas. What were the waters waiting for? The waters were waiting for God to give them purpose. God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and then be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas (Genesis 1:20-22).

Let us qavah (wait, look for, hope, expect, look eagerly for, lie in wait for, linger for, collect, bind together, or be collected) patiently for God to give us purpose. Trust God’s timing. Often, things happen so quickly that if you aren’t waiting, expecting, and looking for it, you’ll miss it. There is power and purpose in waiting.

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