Perhaps the reason we don't like to wait is because we don't like to give up control, and being made to wait means that we are not in control. Waiting means yielding, it means submitting to someone else's plans, or someone else's schedule.

Doesn't it gripe you when you're calling your bank or insurance company and they require you to listen to their choice of music? Wouldn't waiting on the phone be more tolerable if you could get to choose what you want to listen to?

Or if you have planned to meet with someone to discuss a business proposal, and they are late - one reason you're upset is that during the time you have to wait, the other person has taken control of your schedule, and there's very little you can do about it.

On the other hand, waiting becomes a bit more tolerable if only we can understand the reason.

If we're caught in a traffic jam, and can tune to 1620 on the AM dial to find out that up ahead there's been a terrible accident - somehow that information makes it a bit easier to wait.

When we are required to wait in the doctor's office, we accept it better when we learn that there's been an emergency and the doctor has been called to the hospital to save a life.

If we're incarcerated in an airplane idling on the tarmac, we just want to know why, and if the pilot announces that mechanics are checking out a faulty hydraulic line, we're only too happy to wait - certainly we don't want the plane to take off before the repair is finished.

However, the problem is, with God, we rarely know what is the reason for the wait - and it feels like eternity.

Notice that we are not the first people who have had to wait for God.

When the people of Israel, trying to escape the oppression of the Egyptian King, found themselves trapped - mountains on each side, the sea in front and the Pharaoh’s army closing in from behind - God simply told Moses to "stand still!"

Elijah prayed for rain - none came so he prayed again, and again, and again, sending his servant out 7 times to see if there was an answer. He prayed and he waited.

Daniel prayed a very simple but moving prayer concerning the restoration of Jerusalem as prophesied by Jeremiah. After Daniel prayed, he waited for an answer, but none came - so he continued to wait, 21 days in all before the response came.

Jeremiah knew what it was to wait - thrown into an abandoned well and left there to die, helpless to save himself. We love the words this great prophet left us, "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

But then listen to what follows: "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." (Lamentations 3:22-26)

Other prophets also spoke of this waiting on God:

Micah wrote, "Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." (Micah 7:7)

And there's this better known verse from Isaiah: "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

The lessons about waiting are also found in the New Testament.

When the disciples of Jesus told Him of Lazarus' sickness, they had to wait four days for Jesus to go to Bethany. When they arrived, certainly they must have thought they had waited too long, for Lazarus was dead.

Jairus, a well known religious leader near Jesus' home town, came and met Him and asked Jesus to come heal his daughter. But on the way, a woman with an internal hemorrhage came and touched Jesus' robe and was healed. Jairus could do nothing but wait - certainly he must have become impatient, especially when household members came to report that during this delay his daughter had died.

And this is the message of Pentecost - wait.

By the way, one of the possible disadvantages of being Pentecostal is that we believe in miracles. Why is that a disadvantage? Because we come to expect immediate answers to all our prayers, and we forget that at times we will be required to wait.

Jesus referred to waiting when telling His kingdom parable of the farmer and the seed:

"A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:26-29)

James, who was among those who first heard the Lord's teaching, seems to have this in mind when he writes, "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains." (James 5:7)

Paul also refers to this waiting:

"We . . . who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8:23-26)

David and the other song writers of his time understood and wrote about this idea of waiting:

"Stand in awe and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." Selah. (Psalms 4:4)

"Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalms 46:10)

"Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day." (Psalms 25:5)

"Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee." (Psalms 25:21)

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait I say, on the LORD." (Psalms 27:14)

"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." (Psalms 37:7)

"For evildoers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth." (Psalms 37:9)

"Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off thou shalt see it." (Psalms 37:34)

"Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us." (Psalms 123:2)

This last example is especially meaningful to me because it brings back a memory of being on a commercial fishing boat five hours out to sea off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. How well I remember that trip, leaving the safety of the port at 1:00 a.m., and trying to get a little sleep below deck until daylight when the doors and dragnet would be lowered into the sea. Then we waited, very slowly moving along until the signal would come from the captain. It was a non-verbal signal - the crew kept watch toward the "bridge" until with just a slight movement of his eyes, the captain would let them know it was time for the powerful winch to begin drawing in the steel cable. The great net, filled with writhing white fish along with an assortment of other odds and ends of fish was hoisted out of the water. After being swung over the deck, the rip-chord was yanked and hundreds of pounds of fish spilled all over the deck. The doors and net were once again lowered, and the crew busied themselves for an hour packing the fish in ice filled crates that were then lowered into the hold of the ship. Then the wait would begin all over.

Oh that God would help us have eyes to wait upon the Lord.

We also have many examples of those who could not wait:

First there was Adam and Eve who succumbed to the temptation to take the short cut to the knowledge of good and evil - God's plan was that He would come and visit with them "in the cool of the evening," and during those times of intimate conversation, He wanted to teach them - but they just couldn't wait, they wanted it now.

Abraham got tired of waiting for the fulfillment of the promise and rushed ahead to father a child by his wife's maid-servant.

Job's wife became impatient and told her husband to give up waiting and die.

Moses rushed in to save his people by his own hand instead of waiting for God's timing - he ended up killing a man and having to flee from the law and waiting 40 more years.

There was King Saul who didn't want to wait for Samuel and went ahead with the sacrifice, an impatience which ultimately cost Saul his kingdom.

In the story of the Gospels impatient Peter took out the sword because he wanted the kingdom of Jesus to be established right then - he didn't want to wait.

David expressed the distress of waiting with these moving words,

"Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God." (Psalm 69:1-3)

Let's be honest, if waiting was difficult for people in the ancient eastern world when life was less hurried, how much harder it is for us westerners in our fast paced culture that breeds impatience and frustration over any delay.

The church we served in Gloucester, Massachusetts was located on Washington Street less than a mile from the harbor. At the end of this heavily traveled street, you could turn right, and pass by the famous tarnished statue of the Gloucester fisherman gripping a ship's wheel and peering out to sea. Then you would come to the draw bridge that would allow you to cross over the "cut" where an artificial waterway had been made to join the Annisquam River to the harbor so boats could have this shortcut to the sea. Unfortunately for motorists, the boats had the right-of-way, and especially during the summer months the draw bridge would be opened very often and car drivers would have to wait.

For me, the only time this mattered very much was when our church would pitch a large tent at Stage Fort Park, a flat piece of land where the Pilgrims first landed before going on to settle the colony at Plymouth. Very often, coming or going to the tent, I would get stuck at the bridge. However, there was a way around this. Approaching the bridge, one could turn left and head out of town on Route 133, connect with the major highway Route 128, and cross the river on the high bridge that had been built 50 years before - that road would lead to the circle where you could turn right onto Washington Street. Many people would choose this 10 mile round about way rather than sit and wait for the bridge to close. They probably didn't save any time, and certainly not fuel, but they felt better because they were moving - they didn't want to wait.

To be honest, at first I was among them until one day I read a short piece on the editorial page of the local newspaper. The writer pointed out all the benefits of this imposed wait - open your windows and breathe in the salt water breeze, gaze out to the beautiful harbor and the seeming endless ocean beyond, or get out of your car, chat with other drivers or walk to the bridge and watch as the fishing boats and fancy yachts passed through.

Waiting is hard, but nonetheless, the Lord told His disciples then, and He tells us now, to wait.

The problem with waiting on God is that it involves sitting still, doing nothing, and being quiet. It also means that in spite of what some Christian teachers tell us, we will not even resort to visualizing. Why? We just might get only what we can see - we might get only what we want. Waiting on God opens up the possibility of receiving far more.

In Scripture we learn that "'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him' -- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." (I Corinthians 2:9, 10)

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:20, 21)

So today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we remember not only the powerful manifestations of wind, fire, and the miraculous speaking in tongues, but also the day we remember the waiting.

When Jesus instructed His disciples, He told them to "tarry . . . until you be endued with power from on high."

What's interesting is that a form of this word "tarry" (which simply means "wait") is found again when the promise was fulfilled. In Acts 2, we're told that the Spirit "filled all the house where they were sitting" - the word "sit" is just another form of the word "wait". We want to run, but we are required to sit.

Here's the simple lesson, if we want what Pentecost represents, we must remember that we will not receive it without learning to wait for it.

"Teach me Lord, teach me Lord to wait."

1. What is represented by these three important Christian holidays, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost?

2. Why can it be maintained that without Pentecost it is most unlikely that there would have been a Christmas or Easter?

3. What were the most outstanding features of the New Testament Day of Pentecost?

4. Why do you think "speaking in tongues" was designed by God to be the personal evidence of the Spirit's coming?

5. Why is it difficult for westerners to become eager to obey the command to wait?

6. What is the relation between waiting and control?

7. What are the factors that may help us be more willing to exercise patience when we are required to wait?

8. Why could it possibly be a disadvantage to believe in miracles?

9. Isaiah 40:31 makes a direct connection between strength and waiting - what is that connection?

10. According to Romans 8:23-26, what is the relationship between praying in the Spirit and waiting?

11. How is a servant who waits upon his master similar to our relationship with God?

12. What are some examples of people in the Bible who could not wait?

13. What are some Bible stories of people who were required to wait for the answer to their prayer?

14. Can you think of practical benefits of waiting?

15. Why would it be a sad thing if God gave us only what we prayed for?