It is easier to work than to wait. It is often more important to wait than to work. We can trust God to do the needed working while we are waiting; but if we are not willing to wait, and insist upon working while He would have us be still, we may interfere with the effective and triumphant working that He would do in our behalf. Our waiting may be the most difficult thing we can do; it may be the severest test that God can give us.

Oswald Chambers has said truly: one of the greatest strains in life is the strain of waiting for God. God takes the saint like a bow which He stretches; we get to a certain point and say I cannot stand any more, but God goes on stretching. He is not aiming at our mark but at His own, and the patience of the saints is that we hold on until He lets the arrow fly straight to His goal. If we are willing to remember God’s call and assurance, there need be no strain at all while we are waiting. The stretched bow time may be a time of unbroken rest for us as we are “still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7).

Unless a violin string is stretched until it cries out when the bow is drawn over it, there is no music. A loose violin string with no strain upon it is of no use—it is dead, has no voice. But when stretched till it strains, it is brought to the proper tone, and then only is it useful to the music-maker. A. B. Simpson

In God’s eternal plan, a month, a year, Is but an hour of some slow April day, Holding the germs of what we hope or fear, To blossom far away. The Almighty is tedious, but He’s sure!

Return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Take with you words, and turn to the Lord : say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

We glory in tribulations: . . . knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts.

Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?—I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.

Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.—Wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.—Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord.

Let us not be weary in well doing: . . . in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.—Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.