Isaiah 30:18: Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
The other day I heard a radio commercial about how far we have technologically advanced in just the past 10 years. Ten years ago if you had e-mail and the internet, you had to wait a considerable amount of time for the dial-up service connection. Ten years ago texting didn't exist. Ten years ago there were no USB ports. And the list went on and on.
The faster the pace of our world, technology, drive-thru meals, and all modern conveniences, the harder it is for us to learn the key to waiting. For the past six months I have felt like God has had me in a holding pattern, of sorts. My emotions have gone from anticipation to frustration. I have felt like God has been grooming me for something yet to come, but I haven't been privy to the knowledge of what God is really doing in my life.
Waiting is not an easy task. However, I am praying that I will continue to learn the secret of being content, no matter how long the wait. Psalm 130:5 says, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word, I put my hope."
I think I finally understand one of the concepts of waiting. It is in the ACT of waiting that God IS doing his amazing work. The answers to prayer don't always come at the end of the wait. Many of them come IN the wait. It is when we ARE waiting that we learn to trust God fully. It is during this time of waiting that God shows himself to be our provider, sustainer, and he is enough. It isn't the answer at the end of the wait that is the end of our problem. That is simply another of God's blessings on us. The REAL blessing is gained in the day-to-day grind of the holding patterns of our lives when God shows up in the mundane things to prove himself. He is really all we need. We don't need that thing for which he is grooming us. We just need him.
Psalm 40:1-3 says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."
Cheralea Purcell
based on the book of Mark
The Lectio Divina Series from Nazarene Publishing House
Every time one of my kids wants an answer to a question they've posed I often answer with the phrase "not right now." That doesn't seem to go over very well with them and they are quick to rephrase the question again or repeatedly ask for the answer thinking I will give in.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of waiting or abiding seems to have been a problem since the beginning. Even in the garden the idea of waiting/abiding wasn't enough to satisfy the desire to want to know everything now.
I've been trying to wrap my hands around the idea of who God is and why is acts in the ways He does. I'm finding that truly loving God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength is a much harder practice to live out then to profess. None-the-less I'm prayerfully submitting myself to Him this Lent with the desire to be filled with a more complete love that will not only change me but will change the world in which I find myself wondering.
"The answers to prayer don't always come at the end of the wait. Many of them come IN the wait. It is when we are waiting that we learn to trust God fully"
ReplyDeleteQuoted because you've hit the nail on the head!