The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him.
—Lamentations 3:25
There is none good but God. (See Matthew 19:17.) His goodness is in the heavens. “Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee” (Psalm 31:19). “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). And here is now the true way of entering into and rejoicing in this goodness of God—waiting upon Him. The Lord is good—even His children often do not know it, for they do not wait in quietness for Him to reveal it. But, to those who persevere in waiting, it will come true. “The Lord is good unto them that wait for him.” If you want to fully know the goodness of God, give yourself to a life of waiting on Him.
At our first entrance into waiting upon God, the heart is mainly set on the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses our needs and desires for help to educate us for something higher than we were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give Himself. It is for this reason that He often withholds gifts, and that the waiting is made so long. He is constantly seeking to win the heart of His child for Himself. He wishes that we would not only say, when He bestows the gift, “How good is God!” but that before it comes, and even if it never comes, we should always be experiencing: “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him.”
What a blessed life the life of waiting then becomes, the continual worship of faith, adoring, and trusting His goodness. Instead of only taking refuge in time of need, there comes a great longing to wait continually and all day. And, however duties and engagements occupy the time and the mind, the soul gets more familiar with the secret art of waiting. Waiting becomes the habit and disposition, the very second nature and breath of the soul.
Begin to see that waiting is not one among a number of Christian virtues. But, it expresses that disposition that lies at the root of the Christian life. It gives new power to our prayers and worship, because it links us, in unalterable dependence, to God Himself. And, it gives us the unbroken enjoyment of the goodness of God: “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him.”