Waiting rooms are designed to accommodate people awaiting significant news or needing obvious care. They bid people come and sit their weakened selves down. They're routinely found in doctor, lawyer and business offices. Every hospital has them too, especially when it comes to pregnancies, as a delivery room may be surrounded by multiple waiting rooms. Locker rooms often function as waiting rooms, too, as teams await the contest. Truth is, our entire lifetimes will be spent in and out of waiting rooms. Quiet, alone and anxiety-laced, we come in looking for answers, deliverance, direction, help, launch, words of life. We are constantly needy people, usually uncomfortable in our wait.

One of the roles of God's Spirit is to help us in the wait. His Spirit wants us strengthened, not weakened, by the wait. Here are some ways He accomplishes this:

AWAKENS. God's Spirit awakens us within to feel birth pangs, a yearning for full deliverance. That's why waiting does not diminish the Christian, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. The longer we wait, the larger we grow, and the greater our joy when what we are awaiting arrives (8:23-24).

ATTENDS. The moment we get tired of waiting, God’s Spirit is right there helping us along. He's committed to not leaving us alone (v. 26).

INSTRUCTS. The Spirit finds ways to show us that God knows us better than we know ourselves. This reminder sure builds our confidence and helps us in the wait (1 John 2:27).

INTERCEDES. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. God’s Spirit does our praying for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He keeps us present before God. What an interceding gift the Spirit becomes (8:26-27)!

Athlete, in what way(s) do you feel like you're in a waiting room right now? Are you sensing by the Spirit that you're being enlarged, that something good inside you is growing through the wait? How has God's Spirit joined you in the waiting room of life?

Prayer to consider today: Spirit of God, thank You for abiding in me and waiting with me, helping me in my weakness. Keep awakening, attending, instructing, and interceding. I need Your help in the waiting room of life. We are better together.