Luke 24:49; Romans 8:16-17; 1 John 3:2

49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem[i] until you are endued with power from on high.”

This verse contains a promise to the disciples that they will receive the Holy Spirit, and also a command to wait for that promise to be fulfilled. It occurs to me that this is how God consistently relates to His people throughout the Bible. He promises something, then makes the person or people who have been promised wait for it for what seems like forever, and then fulfills the promise. He did it with Abraham, Moses, David, the nation of Israel, even with Jesus, with the disciples in this verse, and now us. Over and over in the Bible, God proves Himself faithful to His Word, even if He often waits so long (by our standards) to fulfill it that we must have faith in Him to avoid discouragement. So what are the things that have been promised to us by Him that are currently in the "waiting stage"? Here are a couple of references that should give us cause for great optimism, since we know that even though He asks us to wait, we know of no example where He has ever failed to deliver on a promise He has given to anybody:

Romans 8
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

1 John 3
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.