Isaiah 30:18 says: "The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him."
Who is waiting for whom here? Both God and humans are depicted as "waiting".
You might be tempted to picture God as sitting on the sidelines waiting for you to finally get your act together.
But the sense of the word "wait" is closer to longing than merely passing time. (For both God and humans.)
So it's more like "the Lord longs to be gracious to you".
Think about that.
Many people carry around an image of God as distant, indifferent, perpetually disappointed, or barely tolerating them. Some imagine that God is looking for reasons to reject them.
I know that I've been there before.
But Isaiah paints an entirely different picture.
God longs to be gracious.
He desires to show mercy.
He is for us, not against us.
He is not looking for an excuse to abandon His children.
He is looking for an opportunity to restore them.
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