03 | February | 2025 | Craig T. Owens

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How Do We Wait Expectantly?

February 3, 2025 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

Last week I asked, “How long do we keep praying?” Answer: Until God answers or until He lifts our burden. In the meantime, the Bible encourages us to…

Keep asking with full confidence that God hears you
Keep expecting an answer
Keep worshiping God for Who He is
Keep trusting that your Heavenly Father wants to give you the very best!

With that in mind, let me ask you another question: What does this look like? How do we wait expectantly for God to answer? I’ve got three thoughts from the Scripture.

(1) Keep walking

Eliezer had a 300-mile journey which would have taken him about 10 days. Abraham prayed for him before he left and Eliezer prayed when he arrived (Genesis 24:7, 12, 15). His expectation that God would answer him kept him walking. The answer came after 10 days—before he even finished praying!

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

Nehemiah prayed for God’s favor with King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 1:11) but then he had to keep walking to work every single day for at least 4 months (2:4). All the while he was praying, expecting, and planning, so when the king asked him what he wanted, Nehemiah was ready to answer.

A royal official met Jesus in Cana and asked Him to heal his son who was was sick in Capernaum. Jesus said, “Go! Your son will live,” and that father began walking his 20-mile journey home. Along the way, his servants met him to deliver the good news of the boy’s full recovery. When the father asked, he found out it was at the very moment Jesus had said, “Go” (John 4:46-53).

Faith takes Jesus at His word and starts walking toward the approaching miracle!

(2) Keep waiting

There are two Hebrew words in the Old Testament that frequently are translated “wait”:

qava = expecting in hope
yahal = guarding that hope

Check out how one psalmist linked hoping and waiting—

Out of the depths I cry to You, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. … I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His Word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:1-2, 5-6)

And David wrote how he had learned to quiet himself in God’s loving presence: But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content (Psalm 131:2).

Then listen to the wait-hope-quiet link in Jeremiah’s prayer—

I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentation 3:24-26)

In the New Testament, the idea is patience for an expected result is like a farmer who had prepared his field, planted good seed, watered it with his prayers, and is now assured of an abundant harvest (James 5:7-8; Galatians 6:9).

(3) Keep smiling

We put on a smile, not a show!

Contrast what Jesus said about the wrong way to pray and fast…

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. … And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans … When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting… (Matthew 6:5, 7, 16)

…with the God-honoring, God-trusting way—

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen … But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face. (Matthew 6:6, 17)