The table is set, candles will soon be lit.
Any moment now, family members will burst through the door after their flights to Miami. My husband, Rich, has just returned with a chocolate cake. My best friend is in the kitchen arranging sunflowers. Music fills the house. My kids are racing around the table with their scooters like it’s the Indy 500.
I’m turning 40.
I feel like a kid in many ways, but I’m far from the little Cajun girl from Louisiana. With my dad as both a football coach and a preacher, weekends were spent watching football and singing hymns. I’m far from the seventeen-year-old recording pop music in Nashville, dreaming big dreams. Now, I sit in my driveway in Miami, in a different life I’ve called home for seventeen years.
On this birthday, I’ve been married to Rich for eighteen years; we have three kids and one on the way. We endured eight years of infertility, moving from barrenness to fruitfulness long before our first child. We’ve gone from youth pastors to church planters, leading a gritty, loving church in Miami for almost a decade.
I’ve had four decades of getting to know the Father’s heart and living His story for me. Like all stories, mine has involved years of waiting — for courage, identity, calling, marriage, children, and growth.
I’m sure you have your list too.
The Biblical Significance of the Number 40
God used long stretches of time to accomplish His desires in Scripture.
The number forty played significant roles.
Israelites wandered for 40 years before the promised land. Noah and family endured 40 days on the ark. Goliath taunted for 40 days before David confronted him. Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days before facing the Enemy and stepping into power. Disciples shifted from sorrow to joy during the 40 days between crucifixion and ascension.
Though 40 days or years have literal meanings, they symbolize testing and trials. Moses spent 40 years in Egypt and the wilderness before God called him at the burning bush — the beginning of yet another 40-year period. It was only the beginning of a new season for Moses.
Sometimes we feel like Moses, thinking key points are behind us, when we’re in the middle, between turning points. Other times we know we’re in a waiting place. Inclined to resent the wait, we see it as a random trudge. I operated with this mindset until God changed my heart.
The Wait Is Life
The wait is not just a season; the wait is life. The question became, Will you live while you wait?
Humans do not wait well instinctively. We buck against it, even hate it. Entire industries exist to shorten waits. Distractions are welcome if they bring our desired outcome quickly; we scroll until time passes. We assume waiting holds no value, feeling it wear us down over time.
But what if waiting is not meant to be endured, but embraced? What if it’s a necessary part of our growth and transformation?
As Charles Swindoll once put it, “We don’t like waiting, but that’s when God does some of His best work on our souls.”
There were seasons when God’s people didn’t just wait half-heartedly; they forgot all he had done and offered their incense to false gods. They “went after worthlessness, and became worthless” (Jeremiah 2:5 NIV).
The same struggle of the heart remains in our culture today. We are too busy waiting on everything but God. And he is the only one worth waiting on.
God once told his wandering people how they would later give him honor: “In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations” (Malachi 1:11).
When Jesus walked the earth, he “gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). He became a fragrant offering so our lives could become an offering too — so we could do what Paul described in Romans 12:1: “In view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (NIV).
And we know the praise will continue in heaven. We read in Revelation 8:4, “The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar” (NLT).
The One Worthy of the Wait
He is forever worthy of all we can bring him.
What do we do while we wait, when it seems we are just burning time? We live like David, who told God, “Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend,” and “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 5:3 MSG; 141:2 ESV).
When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, he showed his heart for his people. “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:7–8 NIV).
Look at his extraordinary love in action: “I have seen your misery, I have heard your cries, I’m concerned about your suffering, and I have come to rescue you.”
He’s saying the same to his children today.
Adapted from Slow Burn: The Work and Wonder of the Wait by DawnCheré Wilkerson.
Waiting isn’t a season. Waiting is life. The question is, Will you live in the wait?
We don’t ever graduate from waiting. After one prayer is answered, a new one begins, putting us back in the “space between.” Are you hoping for an illness to subside, a job to open up, a relationship to develop, or some other heartfelt transformation? This slow burn is the human experience — and the greatest invitation to become intimately acquainted with a faithful God.
DawnCheréWilkersonis a speaker, singer, songwriter, author, and pastor who loves nothing more than to encourage people of all ages to never give up! After an eight-year journey through infertility,DawnCheréand her husband, Rich, have seen the faithfulness of God as they have welcomed their four children, Wyatt, Wilde, Waylon, and Wolfgang into the world.DawnCheréand Rich are the lead pastors of VOUS Church in Miami, Florida.
