Why does God keep us waiting?

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" -Ecclesiastes 3:1

We know that God can do anything, anytime, anyplace as there is nothing impossible for him, then why does he sometimes not give us what we want as soon as we ask for it. In my own experience, I have had many prayers answered and seen the impossible happen, yet many times I have gone through a phase of desperation, pleading with God, anger, hopelessness, surrendering, learning to trust and finally having my prayer answered. And in all honesty, there are still some prayers yet to be answered and I am simply waiting on the Lord. But the question is, why the wait?

Do you remember the story of Lazarus? When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he didn't rush to him and heal him, instead he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. The result of his decision was the death of Lazarus. Jesus would have definitely known that this would cause great pain to Martha and Mary who he cared about deeply, so much so that he was greatly moved by their tears, then why would he let it happen, in the first place?

Jesus himself, gives the answer to this question when he tells his disciples "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe." So in fact, he delayed his visit, in order to instill faith in his disciples as well as Martha, Mary and the onlookers with what he was about to do, namely, the raising of Lazarus to life.

God, being all knowing and all powerful can see much further than our eyes can reach. Sometimes he allows things to happen to us as he knows he can turn it around and use it as an opportunity to strengthen our faith and in turn the faith of those we encounter. 

Then again, we all know that the Israelite's wandered the dessert for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land. However, some scholars say that the distance could have easily been covered within 11 days. Why was there such a long delay?

While God took the Israelite's out of Egypt, he had to still take Egypt out of them. For 400 years, the Israelite's lived in Egypt and were very much influenced by the idolatry practices in the land. Had they gone straight away into the Promised land, they would have easily been tempted to worship the many gods of the Canaanites. Yahweh had to remind them of who he was, so starting with the 10 plagues which each represented a god of Egypt which Yahweh overthrew, he re-educated his people that he is their true God. Then in the dessert, he taught them to depend on him, feeding them with bread from heaven, teaching them his precepts and making a covenant with them. However, they often disobeyed God and went against his teachings which caused major hurdles and delays in their journey.

Sometimes, God needs to prepare us mentally, physically and emotionally for the gift he is about to give us, so that we cherish it all the more and do not take it for granted. 

But what if our prayer, is just not answered. For example, I prayed for my mother when she had Cancer, yet she passed away and for the longest time, I thought my prayer was ineffective or lacking something. However, I realized that our prayers do not change God because he is always good, rather prayer changes us. It sanctifies our soul and the souls of the ones we pray for. While our thought are just in the present life, God prepares our soul, so we may be ready to live with him eternally. If praying was really of no effect, Jesus wouldn't insist that we pray always without losing heart.