Isaiah 30:18 proclaims, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!" 

Hmm. Interesting how those parts are all in the same verse. He longs to show His grace and compassion to me just as any good father longs to give good gifts, but since He is a God of justice, I must wait for His time and His way. What does justice have to do with it? Let's go back to His original plan for my life. I was created to glorify God. His purpose is to make me into the image of Jesus and this will bring glory to God. Patience is one of the attributes of Jesus. In order to grow me in patience, I have to practice waiting. That is logical. In fact, since I'm a slow learner, He must give me multiple opportunities for practice until being patient becomes part of my nature---until I wait just as Jesus did: trusting that God's timing is always right and good. If God never made me wait, He would not be fulfilling His promise to make me like Jesus. Making me wait establishes God's sovereignty in my life. It requires me to trust His faithfulness. It shows that He keeps His promises. What a wonderful method for growing me in reliance on His word and on His attributes! 

Titus 2:11-13: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope---the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ..."

Waiting gives me practice saying 'no' to ungodliness and worldly passions and saying 'yes' to  self-control and an upright and godly life. God considers this waiting practice to be a gift of His grace. Wow! I never looked at waiting as a gift before. 

Psalm 27:14--"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." In other words, this waiting is not open ended. I am waiting for the Lord, waiting for Him to move, to answer my prayer, to do the work He promised. There is content to my waiting. I wait for God to accomplish His will and purpose. The Psalmist repeats the phrase, "Wait for the Lord," twice to emphasize that it matters what I'm waiting for. Waiting without an object is pointless. What is the object of my waiting? Am I waiting for God to do things my way? Am I telling Him how to answer my prayers? Or do I actually wait for His will to manifest itself? Will I accept whatever He sends as an answer to my waiting?