Waiting can feel like God’s silence.
Acts 3 reminds us, it may actually be God’s positioning.
The lame man thought he was waiting for money. Heaven knew he was waiting for Christ.
Perhaps your Beautiful Gate is closer than you think. Waiting is one of life’s greatest equalizers.
Whether you’re nineteen or ninety. Employed or unemployed. Newly married or recently widowed.
Everyone is waiting for something.
Some are waiting for a job. Others are waiting for healing.
A young couple is praying for a child.
A student is refreshing the university admissions portal for what feels like the 17th time today.
An entrepreneur is convinced the next phone call will be the client.
Some of us have become so good at waiting that we deserve honorary diplomas in it.
At our discipleship class on June 28, 2026, at GPT Hebron City, I joked that I belong to a rather unique fellowship, the Diversity Visa 2026 selectees.
Our weekly routine? Refreshing emails. Reading court rulings. Decoding (U.S.) visa bulletins. Studying timelines. Praying over case numbers.
Then refreshing our emails… again.
Watch out for my upcoming blog, Pursuing the American Dream.
It’s the story of how a promised 2-month wait quietly became 3 months… then 6+ months… and we’re still waiting.
As it turns out, sometimes God teaches us the most while we’re waiting.
Then there are Arsenal fans. For years, every August began with the same declaration:
“This is our season!”
Eventually, one day (2025/26), it actually was!
Waiting has a peculiar sense of humour.
It can make one year feel like ten years.
It can make God seem silent when He is quietly arranging the furniture behind the scenes.
It can convince us that nothing is happening… when everything is.
The Irony of the Beautiful Gate
Acts chapter 3 introduces us to a man who had been lame from birth.
Every day he was carried to a place called the Beautiful Gate. He begged from worshippers entering the Temple.
The irony is almost impossible to ignore.
The gate was beautiful. His life wasn’t.
At least not by society’s standards.
He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t work.
He depended on other people to carry him.
Every morning began exactly where yesterday had ended.
Imagine spending decades sitting beside something called Beautiful without ever experiencing its beauty.
That’s a little like living next to Karura Forest and never taking a walk.
Or owning a Bible app with 47 translations, but only opening it to check the weather.
Sometimes we become so familiar with God’s presence that we stop expecting His surprises.
Waiting Is Never Random
One sentence from Sunday’s teaching has refused to leave me.
“The man wasn’t randomly waiting. He was strategically positioned.“
Historians tell us the Temple had several gates.
Yet this man was placed at the busiest one.
If begging was your livelihood, this was premium real estate.
The equivalent of opening your biashara at Kencom, instead of somewhere deep inside Karura Forest.
His caregivers thought they were positioning him where generous people passed.
God was positioning him where the right people would pass.
That made me wonder. How often do we spend our lives asking,
“Lord, when?”
When perhaps a better question is,
“Lord, where have You positioned me?”
Scripture quietly answers that question again and again.
Abraham was waiting for Isaac.
Where did heaven meet him? While he was serving strangers beneath the oaks of Mamre.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a child for decades.
Where did Gabriel finally find Zechariah? Serving faithfully in the Temple.
Neither man was hiding from disappointment.
Neither had retired from obedience.
They simply kept showing up.
Perhaps faith is less about knowing when God will move… and more about remaining where He can find us.
“Look at Us.”
Then comes one of the most unusual invitations in Scripture.
Peter looked at the lame man and simply said,
“Look at us.”
At first, those words sound almost inappropriate.
Shouldn’t Peter have said,
“Look to God.”
Or,
“Look to the Temple.”
Instead, he says,
“Look at us.”
The only reason Peter could say that was because Christ had first been revealed in him, before being expressed through him.
Peter wasn’t asking the man to admire him.
He was inviting him to encounter Jesus.
That may be one of the greatest definitions of Christian maturity I’ve ever discovered.
Living in such a way that people look beyond you… and somehow see Christ.
What Occupies Your Eyes Eventually Occupies Your Heart
The lame man had spent years looking at feet.
Sandals. Coins. Crowds.
Generous people. Indifferent people.
Tomorrow’s meal. Today’s disappointment.
He expected money because money was all he had trained himself to look for.
Peter interrupted his vision before he healed his legs.
Sometimes God changes our focus before He changes our circumstances.
That pattern appears throughout Scripture.
When poisonous snakes invaded Israel’s camp, Moses lifted a bronze serpent.
Those who looked lived.
Centuries later, Jesus explained that the bronze serpent had always been pointing to Him.
Then Stephen.
As stones rained down upon him, everyone else saw death.
Stephen looked up.
Everyone else saw a tragedy. Stephen saw Jesus standing.
The circumstances were identical.
The perspective was completely different.
Perhaps that explains why Hebrews 12:2 tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, not merely believe in Him.
Faith has a direction.
Looking in the Wrong Places
We should probably admit something.
Modern life has become remarkably good at distracting us.
We wake up and look at our phones before we look out the window.
We know what celebrities had for breakfast, but struggle to remember Sunday’s sermon.
Social media promises connection.
News promises certainty. Politics promises rescue.
Money promises security. Success promises significance.
None of them were designed to carry the weight of our souls.
Perhaps that is why so many people are exhausted.
We’ve been looking horizontally for what only comes vertically.
The Beautiful Gate Was Never the Miracle
Here’s what finally struck me.
The miracle wasn’t really the gate.
Neither was it Peter. Not even the healing itself.
The greatest miracle was that one man’s waiting became a meeting place with Christ.
Looking back, perhaps that is true of more of our lives than we realize.
We think we’re waiting for a salary. God may be preparing a calling.
We pray for a spouse. God quietly shapes our character.
We ask for an open door. He prepares us to become the kind of people who can walk through it.
In 2025, while reflecting on Job, we asked two difficult questions:
And later,
Acts 3 gently adds another.
“Can we still look to Christ while we wait?“
Perhaps that is the invitation hidden inside every Beautiful Gate.
Not simply to wait longer.
But to wait differently.
To wait where God has positioned us. To keep our eyes fixed on Christ.
And to trust that today’s place of disappointment may quietly become tomorrow’s place of encounter.
After all… the lame man thought he had spent decades waiting for generous people.
Heaven knew he was waiting for Jesus.
Maybe you are too.
🎥 Watch the full teaching from GPT Hebron City:
📄 The teaching Notes shared with the congregation are available here.
📖 Further Reading
If this reflection resonated with you, you may also enjoy these earlier messages from our journey through the book of Job:
Join the Conversation
What are you waiting for in this season of your life?
And looking back, can you identify a “Beautiful Gate”. A place that once felt ordinary or painful, but later became the place where God met you?
I’d love to hear your story in the comments.
#WaitingAtTheBeautifulGate #ChristRevealed #ChristExpressed #Acts3 #Faith #ChristianLiving #GPTHebronCity #GrowthCommunities #WaitingOnGod
Joseph Ngaara is inspired by people’s stories, especially those shaped by faith, resilience, and grace. If you’ve walked through triumph, tragedy, or something beautifully in between and feel ready to share, my inbox is open. 📩 j.mungai@hotmail.co.uk
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