Waiting


            You’re doing your best to live the good, Christian life; spending time in the word, praying steadily, spending time in worship, doing all the things you’re supposed to and now you are waiting on God. Life feels like you’re sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Perhaps there is a major life change on the other side of the door, or you find that where you are is where you’re supposed to be. It feels random and out of your control and ever so frustrating.
            Waiting is not a passive event. It is active faith and trusting God’s plan for you. In 1 Samuel 13 we see Saul waiting to go into battle. He had received specific instructions to wait for Samuel to offer sacrifice. Saul’s men were getting restless and leaving so he took it upon himself to offer the sacrifice; he didn’t trust. Of course, Samuel arrives just after Saul does this. As a result of not waiting and following God’s command his kingdom would not endure.

            I tend to envy Saul for the fact that he had a clear directive of what he should do. I don’t always find things so clear in my life and I venture to guess you are in similar circumstances. But, even with such a clear directive Saul panics and does his own thing. I have done that too, panic and try to fix it myself. My own history tells me that God has always provided for my needs, His timing is perfect; me, not so much. My imagination runs away with my common sense and I can make some poor decisions.

                So, what does waiting look like? For me, it is continuing to live my life, say my prayers, offer my worship and keep putting one foot in front of the other. It doesn’t mean freeze and do nothing. I can’t be a deer in the headlights. We must put our best foot forward and trust that God will put into place all the right things for living as He has called us to live. Maybe I need to stay put in a situation until God directs me otherwise.

 We gain His direction by reading His word, praying and seeking the counsel of other wise, truthful Christians. I emphasize truthful because we all need that friend who will tell us we are off base if necessary. The friend who pays lip service is not a true friend. They compare to the false prophets of the Old Testament who never wanted to give bad news to the king. They told the king what they thought he wanted to hear rather than the truth. Ultimately, the truth is far more valuable.

Stay the course, do what you know is right. Give thanks and pray while waiting. Waiting is also a time of growth in our faith, making us stronger than we were before.
Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

               

Posted by

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How are you?

Image
            When I wake, one of the first things I do is say, “Good morning God!” Some days are more enthusiastic than others. When I greet another human being, I usually follow that greeting with, “how are you?” This morning it occurred to me that I don’t ask God how he is. I have been contemplating this idea, how are you God? Obviously, given his attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience it is easy to follow the train of thought that he has everything in check. Despite that; I think of him in human terms and I can’t help but feel he is; not mad but disappointed (cringe). When he looks at creation, like a parent gazing on the wreckage of a kid’s toy room, wouldn’t there be disappointment?             As I contemplated that, my meandering mind led me to consider guilt. The guilt that leads to the disappointment of others. Every culture I have known lays claim t...
Read more

I Don't Understand

Image
              I was walking with my good friend Patti this morning as we do most Saturdays, and we were discussing dependance on God versus a bank account when from out of my coat pocket my phone speaks and says, “I don’t understand.” In the moment it made us chuckle, but it is so appropriate because the phone (a worldly item) can’t understand that kind of faith. The world doesn’t understand that kind of faith. I have often heard stories of men and women of faith totally dependent on God, prayers being answered in supernatural ways at the very last minute. (Read up on George Mueller who ran an orphanage depending entirely on God). I desire that type of faith because try as I might, at times I still lean on my bank accounts and fear can creep in when my funds are low.             There is no way to completely understand the love of God, His ways are incomprehensible to the...
Read more

Masterpiece

Image
              As a young person, I was fond of painting, not great at it but reasonable. I set it aside when I fell in love and got married. In these days of isolation I needed to find some other ways to occupy myself other than baking and decided to get back to my paint brushes.   To get used to handling the brushes again I got myself a paint by number,             If you have never tried one of these let me give you a little insight. You receive a canvas with an image divided up into numbered areas and little pots of paint with corresponding numbers. Then you begin a sort of scavenger hunt trying to fill in all the spots of a particular number. Sounds simple enough, however some of these areas are so tiny they are easily overlooked. The tiny spots are important though, they give that little flourish that can draw the eye or round out an object.    ...
Read more