Oh, Those Faithful Waiters

Our church recently started a study on the book of Luke. In the first two chapters there are three people mentioned that brought to mind a struggle I used to have with waiting. First, there was Zechariah who was a priest. Him and his wife Elizabeth were righteous in the sight of God and faithfully observed the Lord's commands and decrees. They were, in God's own words, very old and childless, which in those days carried great shame as people in their culture assumed being barren was a result of God withholding blessing from a couple because of sin. In spite of their childlessness and all that would come with that, they remained faithful for years and years. 

Second, there was a man named Simeon who was living in Jerusalem. He was waiting faithfully for the consolation of Israel. That would be the equivalent of believers like us living with an expectation and a longing for Jesus's return. Simeon was filled with the Holy Spirit, who had revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. 

Third, there a prophet named Anna. She, like Simeon and Zechariah, was very old. She had not had an easy life. She had the joy of getting married, but her husband had only lived for seven years after the wedding. She was a widow for eighty-four years and had never left the temple after he died. She was someone who worshipped night and day, and someone who fasted and prayed. Before I tell you more about these people, I want to tell you why I am so drawn to and in awe of them. 

For years I had struggled with the waits we all have in this Christian life we live. When I prayed for something, I could easily accept yes or no answers. But it was the waits that would cause me to spiral into a funk and I didn't know why. Then one night at our couple's Bible Study the pastor said that instead of our usual discussion he wanted to talk about waiting on God. After he opened us in prayer, he asked us what was hard about waiting. Everyone was giving great answers, but I couldn't identify what was so difficult about it for me. As he progressed through the Bible Study, he shared a verse from Psalms that says that God has His ear turned to those who wait on Him. I immediately blurted out that's it! The pastor asked what I meant. I told him, that whenever I prayed for something or discovered a promise that had a wait attached to it, I often felt unheard, overlooked, maybe even invisible. I am an extreme extrovert and as a young person if I made a request or asked for something and no one responded I believed I didn't matter enough for others to meet the needs and didn't matter enough to make the request more assertively. 

That night I realized that if God had His ears turned towards me in the waiting that it was an open invitation to keep asking. It was also an invitation to keep talking to Him until all the lies I had believed about Him or myself , had been replaced by truth. It was an invitation to keep talking until all the unbelief with which I struggled had been identified and replaced by a much deeper faith and until I had expressed to Him any pain experienced and let Him melt it away with the soothing balm of His perfect, extravagant love. I admit I haven't always been as faithful as Zechariah, Simeon, or Anna, but I am getting better at it. 

Let's look at the results of our faithful trio of waiters. In Zechariah's faithful waiting he got to meet an angel at the altar of incense. The angel told him he and his wife would have son named John who would bring great joy to them and be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb. John's job was going to be to call Israel to return to the Lord after 400 long years of silence and He would pave the way for our Jesus. Because of Zechariah's faithfulness, John, leapt in his mother's womb, immediately recognizing Jesus in Mary's womb. John wrote beautiful words, declaring that the God of Israel had visited and redeemed his people by raising up a horn of salvation for them and that they might be able to serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness and that his son as a prophet would give knowledge of salvation to his people for the forgiveness of their sins. 

Simeon in his faithful waiting, was able to take Jesus into His arms and bless Him who he had been faithfully looking for, declaring that he would be able to depart this world in peace for he had seen with his own eyes God's salvation prepared in the presence of all people as a light for Gentiles and the gory of God's people the Israelites. 

And then sweet Anna, who as a widow faithfully served in the temple. She, like Simeon, was in the temple when they brought the baby Jesus for the purification ceremony and immediately recognized the Christ and gave thanks to God and began speaking of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Israel. declared for all to hear. 

And there are others we know who experienced long waits. Abraham and Sarah waited a long time for a child, Israel waited a long time for a land for His people, and the host of faithful people listed in Hebrews 11, many of which waited for God to save them. Some of them suffered and died in their waiting. They were tortured, refused to accept release, knowing in the resurrection they would have a better life. Some were stoned, some sawn in two, some killed by the sword, and some were destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. And God, Himself, commended their faith and declared that this world was not worthy of them and that they had been made perfect. 

It was important that I shared that not every faithful waiter has the same outcome in this life as Zechariah, Simeon, and Anna because so often we are a people who attempt to bargain with our God, believing that if we serve Him, if we attend church every week, if we have quiet times built into our lives, if we pray often enough, and a host of other religious activities that God is obligated to answer our prayers as we want him to. 

What if it is the waiting that purifies our faith and takes us from a people who are content with God's benefits to a people who are not satisfied by anything but Him?  That is what we see in the faithful waiters described at the end of Hebrews 11 of the people who were found faithful even unto death. 

     

The Struggle with Waiting

I've always struggled with waiting, which can make life hard because, as believers, we are living in season of waiting. There are all kinds of waits in this life. Some of my waits have been for exciting things--things like my graduation from college, my wedding day, the first day at my first post-college job, and the due dates of my children. Those waits were hard because of the excitement I felt about those upcoming events. Those waits were also hard because I tend to be a fearful person and I was afraid something might get in the way of those events happening. Those fears were exposed by the "what if's" running through my mind. What if I flunked one of my finals? What if my loved one died in an accident before we could marry or what if he changed his mind about marrying me? What if my new boss realized I wasn't good enough for the job he was offering me or what if he realized someone else was more qualified than I? What if I miscarried or one of the babies wasn't healthy?

Looking back, I wish I had known better how to live in the present moments during those waits instead of the land of "what if's." I see now that I could have done that by acknowledging my fears and relishing each day and each season of my life. I wouldn't have wanted to rush to the next thing. Instead, I would have lived each day cherishing each season. I would have enjoyed school more with all of its opportunities to learn, to interact with friends, and to grow as a person. I would have enjoyed more the seasons of dating and being engaged, drawing near to God as He prepared me to be a wife. I would have treasured more the enjoyment of each pregnancy with all of the flutters, kicks, wiggles, and overwhelming love growing in my heart, using the seasons of pregnancy to pray specifically for each child growing close to my heart.

There are some waits that are hard because they don't seem fair. I have hated sitting in a doctor's offices waiting for hours. Don't get me wrong, if it happens occasionally, I understand he or she has had an emergency and I am gracious, knowing I would want their full attention in an emergency. Many of my doctors have been timely and apologetic when they run behind. However, a couple kept patients waiting on a regular basis, I believed those docs overbook, not caring about my time. In those cases I found myself speculating that the doc wouldn't have time to listen to my concerns and began to what I would tell him. I grew resentful, knowing I would be charged for missed appointments and be required to reschedule if I were late. That kind of wait is really hard because it resurfaces an old core belief that I am unimportant and invisible or it triggers a strong sense of entitlement that shows itself in rude behaviors and messy "attitude."

I have learned that it is okay to use personal power to shop for respectful doctors. I have also learned that if it is a doctor I can't opt out of to go prepared so I can make use of the wait. I choose to be gracious and kind to the staff while praying for patients sharing the wait. I can enjoy that book I never get to at home, catch up on email, or practice simply relaxing. One night my son and I were stuck in an emergency room for hours. About the time my patience was grew thin a family came in who had several teenagers with them. I could tell things were serious for the family and without knowing them I felt burdened to pray for them. Later in the week I had coffee with a friend who asked me to pray for her daughter who had a close friend lose her mother to a stroke that week. As we talked about the details we realized it was the family I was praying for. Her daughter was comforted by the fact that it seemed like God had brought a prayer warrior into the emergency room to pray over their family that night.

There are some waits that are hard because the end of the wait results in sure pain. People in our community know they're losing jobs, but don't know when and its scary. Some have lost jobs and are waiting for houses to sale and waiting for upcoming moves not desired, knowing the pain of goodbyes looms big. The wait of lab tests to confirm cancer are unbearable, as one wonders if its possible to survive cancer or the cure. The wait of a major surgery is hard once the need of surgery is known. It would be easier to just get the pain over with. The end stages of illnesses are hard waits because we are conflicted with the desire to hold on to loved ones and the desire to see their suffering end. The long waits involved in early onset Alzheimer's are hard because bodies are strong, while minds fade. We anticipate the hard future, struggling with with desire for time to move slow to savor the person or to speed up to end the pain of a slow goodbye. These kinds of waits induce all kinds of fears--the fear of not being able to provide, the fear of being inadequate for the situations we find ourselves in, the fear of future losses, the fear of great emotional pain, and the fear of watching loved ones diminish and suffer.

For me, learning to navigate some of these waits has required I be willing to grow and  I get real with God, pouring my heart out to Him for the duration. They require I be open to anything and everything He might teach me about Him, myself, others, and about life in the wait. They require I choose to navigate one day at a time looking honestly both at what is hard and what is good about each day, giving thanks for both. It requires that we accept our limitations and grow humble, learning to trust God's sovereignty and redemptive plan.

There is still another kind of waiting to be acknowledged and that is waiting on God. As Paul Trip said in his devotional, New Morning Mercies, waiting on God is not meaningless waiting because he is not over booked. Nor has He lost sight of me as I live in His waiting room. Waiting on Him is not meant to be tortuous or stir up feeling of not being important.

In fact, one of His names is El Roi, which is the God who sees. He sees circumstances. He sees my heart. He sees me.

Another one of His names is Jehovah Shama which means the God who hears. The Scriptures say God has His ears turned toward those who are waiting on Him. That means that every wait is an invitation for me to pour my heart out to Him and to keep pouring it out until...

   ...all buried hurt is replaced with joy
      ...compassion and emotions shut down are resurrected
         ...lies believed are exposed and replaced with His truth
            ...areas of doubt surface and are replaced with confident faith
               ...I face my sin and cry out for His mercy to be fulfilled in me
                  ...the desire to know Him is bigger than my desire to experience His gifts
                     ...He fully has my heart.  

As a believer, I'm called to have confidence in God as I wait. The truth is the Christian life is a season of waiting. Jesus has come and bought me out of the slave market of sin, but I am still waiting for Him to fully remove remove sin from my life. Jesus has defeated the enemy, but I am waiting for the enemy to quit thrashing around like a snake with his head cut off, whispering His hideous lies. Even though Jesus has defeated sin the earth itself is groaning under the weight of it and I am waiting for it to be made new again. Jesus is preparing my future home, but I am waiting for Him to return for me. I've been given the Holy Spirit, but I'm waiting for Him to complete His work in me. I've been given grace, but am waiting to be living fully in its presence.

This waiting is hard, but it is good for me. I am learning to be courageous in the hard. I am learning to act on what is to come rather than what is right now. These waits I am learning to handle with confident also defeat the enemy bit because it silences his lies that cast doubt on God's goodness and grace. The struggle with waiting has developed Godly character in me, drawing me closer to the heart of the One for whom I will never tire waiting.

How Long the Wait

I am reading the Sacred echo*, by Margret Feinberg. Her third chapter is titled "how long?" I love the chapter because it speaks to one of the struggles I've had with prayer--"the waits." For years it seemed like I would pray and then just wait and wait and wait to see if the prayer was answered. When the waiting got long, I found myself giving up because I felt invisible, unloved, ignored, and unworthy. I also found that unanswered prayer often left me filled with shame and guilt because I had heard pastors say unanswered prayers indicated that there was sin in our lives. I don't know how many times I would find myself waiting on God and find the shame and guilt rising in my soul leaving me obsessively searching my heart for the hidden sin. Over time I learned more about prayer, but occasionally the guilt would come flooding back--

• like it did when I prayed my parents' marriage would be healed, but it ended in divorce
• like it did when I had been praying for a friend to receive Christ and he died in unbelief
• like it did when I had been praying for a friend to conceive but she died with ever bearing a child
• like it did when I'd been  praying for a friend to find a mate and it never came to be 
• like it did the time I'd been praying for healing for a friend battling cancer, but it eventually took it toll and friends and family said good by 
• like it did when I prayed for God to heal a friend's sick heart, but she died of congestive heart failure
• like it did when I was praying for God to lift the fog of depression but it lingered for several years more
• like it did when I was praying a friendship would be restored only to realize it won't happen this side of heaven      

Don't get me wrong, I can fill pages with answered prayers--a son who survived a ruptured spleen, a thriving granddaughter who survived a traumatic birth three months early, a friend who shared how God had healed her grieving heart after losing three babies, allowing her to enjoy the two she had, infertile couples conceiving when they were told conception was impossible, our friends' grandson surviving leukemia, other friends' grandson surviving liver cancer, addicts walking in victory, victims finding voices, wounded souls finding deep joy, lost souls finding salvation, prodigals returning to serve, deep healing conversations at just the right time, and words of affirmation that have filled hungry souls and imputed God's hope just as souls were running dry.

Margret shares in her book that she has learned to look for themes that have played out in her life because they teach her things that God may be doing in her life. One of the themes she'd noticed was the theme of waiting and she began to ask the question "Why so much waiting?" As she searched the Scriptures she saw that it is a theme that was woven through out the Scriptures. God is waiting, Creation is waiting. We are waiting. One of the things that makes waiting hard is that we tend to forget that God is waiting with us. She also found that many before her asked, "How long must we wait?" In fact the first person to ask how long was God, Himself. In Exodus  10:3 God asks Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron, "How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me."

After finishing the chapter, I have been thinking about the waiting and realized the waiting has done some significant transforming work in my life. First, it has exposed areas of unbelief that I didn't know existed. Sometimes the unbelief had to do with God's character. I could say God was good, but there were times in the waits God showed me I doubted His goodness. I could say God is love, but in the waits God showed me I was not believing He loved me in a real and personal way. I could say God is all powerful, but in the midst of the waits God showed me that at times I doubted He had the power to do what I was asking. If someone was really sick, I prayed half heartedly for healing, because it was the right thing to do, but in my heart of hearts I struggled to believe He could and/or would heal broken bodies.

Many years ago when we moved from Mississippi a friend called often to see how I was adjusting. We spent a good part of the time talking about God, His character, His power, and how He acted in the days the Bible was being written. I believe she had the spiritual gift of faith and I soaked up godly wisdom from those conversations. I began to pattern my prayers after her prayers and after the prayers found in the Scriptures and I began to see a difference in me as my eyes and heart became more open to what God was doing when He seemed active and when He seemed inactive.

A few years into the journey I realized I struggled with unbelief in that I didn't fully believe what God said about me in His word. This made it difficult for me to come boldly to the throne of grace. It made it hard for me to persist in prayer as God instructs us to. When I began to choose to embrace my God-given identity, I began to pray more often, more persistently, and more expectantly.  

Second, after my faith began to develop I realized the waiting stirred up passion in me that was new and exciting. The first time I became aware of this was on a short-term mission trip in Mexico. We had prepared our students to teach and minister to children in Mexico through a student lead Vacation Bible School. We helped the students prepare and we prayed with them that God would bring the children to the churches we would be at. The first day we went to the church we were assigned to and only a couple of children showed up where as in the past the church had been packed. Our students went back to base camp, defeated. At the worship service that night other sites were giving glowing reports of their day. Finally, a student stood up and said that she was glad they had had a good day, but then she began to cry and shared passionately how she longed to have a chance to shower the kids with love and to share Jesus with them. The more she shared, the more passionate and the more powerful her words were. When she sat down the leader looked over our team of hurting teens and gently said, "Your day was not wasted. God was still at work. He has used this day of waiting to grow a passion in you that was not there before." I don't think a student or an adult took a conversation, a teachable moment, or prayer request lightly the remainder of that week.

That was only a one day wait, but I have had other "waits" that went on much longer. In fact, I am still in the middle of some. As I continue to persist in prayer I find the passion still growing. I long for the lost to find God in ways I never have before. I don't just hope the prodigals will return, but passionately long for God to meet them on the horizon, bathing them in His lavish grace. I don't just kind of hope wounded hearts find healing, I crave it. I don't just hope married couples might be reconciled, I deeply long for it because in reconciliation they will see something of God they won't see any other way. I no longer just half heartedly lift up grieving souls who need God's comfort, I persistently and passionately pray they get to see His goodness in the pain of their grief, and will experience Him personally as the Comforter.

Third, I realize the "waits" help purify my heart. Before I prayed because it was the right thing to do. But when I pray during times of waiting, I find it builds compassion and love in a heart that was once numb and that drives me to pray more often. It purifies my motives because it brings me face to face with my pride and my desire to appear more Spiritual than I really am. The longer the wait the more the prayer becomes about God and the person for whom I am praying. I have realized that God has used the waits to help me learn to love the things He loves and to hate the things He hates. As He puts passion, Holy desires, and deep longings in my heart, I realize He is sharing His heart with me and I am longing for others to see His goodness in the darkness permeating this land. I am longing for His holiness to shine brightly in this sin-filled world. I am longing for His love to replace the hatred so prevalent today. 

Fourth, praying "during "the waits" have brought healing to my heart. I often share that in our home group that our pastor taught a lesson on waiting. He asked us at the beginning why waiting was so hard for us to do. I remember I couldn't answer the question for myself. When He shared that God has His hears turned towards those who wait upon Him, I realized why the waits were so hard for me. When I was waiting, I had this picture in my mind of God just walking right past me as I called out His name and requested something. I felt unheard, overlooked, and unloved. After I saw that He had his ears turned toward me, I began to picture the wait as an invitation to keep on talking to Him. And in those waits buried pain surfaced and was given to Him. In those waits doubts were expressed and cares were cast on Him. In those waits fear was faced and courage was found. And in those waits deep wounds were shared that only the Healer could heal. I think sometimes when we come to Christ and trust Him as Savior we get the idea that we are just to put on a happy face and pretend that life is perfect. But the reality is when we pretend we don't experience fully all that God is...the Healer, the Comforter, our source of strength, our source of power, our source of humility, our source of courage.

Finally, one of the best things I uncovered in the waits was intimacy with God. When my dear friend lost her babies and I lived far away, the only thing I could do was to pray for her and I did so daily. When a young friend walked away from God for a season, all could do for her was pray and I did so daily. When a couple in our Bible study struggled with infertility and longed for a child, all I could do was pray and I did so daily. When our granddaughter came early and was in the NICU for so long all I could do was pray. When far away friends were dying of cancer all I could do was pray so I prayed and I prayed and I prayed. As I write this another friend is terribly sick and has been in critical care for over twenty days and the passion I feel for him and his family overwhelms my soul and all I can do is pray--so I pray and pray and then pray some more. As I pray passion grows, doubts dissipate, pride melts and I find myself feeling closer to God, realizing as never before that God is just as much in the wait as He is in the activity. It reminds me most that we are all waiting for Christ to return so our redemption is complete. We are all waiting so there will be no more sickness, no more pain, no more death, and no more ungodly rulers for Jesus will reign perfectly. Sometimes God gives me glimpses of what He is doing during the waits, but other times the waits remain a mystery--a mystery with benefits--the benefit of transformation, of purification, of healing, of a growing faith, and a deeper sense of God's relational presence in our lives.

*the Sacred echo, Margaret Feinberg, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008)

The God of the Impossible

I am weary with my crying out;

My throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

 

Psalm 69:3

 

 

Those of us who have been apart of Christian circles for awhile, have heard that there are three answers to prayer. "Yes," "No," and "Wait." I have always been able to handle the "yes" and "no" answers, because they are immediate and the matter at hand feels settled. There is very little confusion in clear cut answers. It feels like I have been heard, and I know that I had been answered in a way that is best for me. 

 

On the other hand, the wait answers are hard. For a long while I wasn't sure why. Then our small group did a Bible study on the concept of waiting on God. The pastor opened the study by having each one of us share what we found difficult about waiting on God. Everyone gave that made sense, but in my heart of hearts I couldn't put my finger on why I found it so hard to wait. Later he shared a verse that essentially said that God has His ears turned to those who are waiting on Him. That really resonated with me and helped me see what was hard about waiting on God. When God didn't answer my prayers, I had been assuming that He didn't see me and that He chose not to hear me. If it was something I felt very passionate about, I would sometimes even envision myself climbing to a mountain top and crying out to Him in hopes of being seen and being heard.  

 

I realized for the first time that night that God's waits were an invitation for me to keep on talking to Him, not a sign that I had been neglected by God. His waits were not a reason to withdraw and gravitate to the lies that I am invisible and not worth listening to. His waits have been and continue to be an invitation to keep on talking...

 

   ...talking until any pain in my heart is turned to joy

   ...talking until the lies I believe are exposed and replaced with His truth 

   ...talking until my unbelief is transformed into belief

   ...talking until my desire for God is greater than my desire for His benefits

   ...talking until my will is perfectly aligned with His

   ...talking until by mustard seed-sized faith is big enough to move mountains

 

I now realize the waits don't mean I am neglected; they are periods of times that are designed by the wise Creator to mature and sanctify my oh so human heart.  

 

As I have been thinking about waiting, I realize that waiting on God to answer prayers isn't the only waiting to which we are called. There are times we wait for God to fulfill His promises. One of the most powerful examples of this found in the story of Abram and Sarai who were barren and unfortunately living in the midst of a people who worshiped fertility gods.   

 

Jehovah called Abram and Sarai out of that situation to a new land, promising to make them a great nation, which implied to them that they would become parents. That promise must have been like music to their ears. They left and were blessed abundantly with material possession...but, for a child they waited... and they waited...and then they waited some more.

 

During their long wait they had a few missteps and a few lapses of faith in which Abram lied about Sarai being his wife for fear he would be killed. In Genesis 15 we even get a glimpse of Abram trying to make sense of God's promise and the lack of it being filled promptly when he asks God if maybe his relative Eliezer was to be his heir. God restated His promise as a covenant contract with Abram trying to reassure Abram that He meant business. 

 

Later, Sarai tries to help God out as well. She gives Abram her handmaiden to raise up children for them, causing all sorts of problems. As Abram turns 99 and Sarai 90, God not only visits again and restates His promise, He changes their names. Abram became Abraham which means exalted Father and Sarai became Sarah meaning princess because kings would come out of her line. Then they waited some more. The Lord visits again and this time Sarah laughs when she hears the promise. If she is anything like me, the laughter probably wasn't born out of joy, but out of cynicism.    

 

I found that as I tried to put myself in their sandals for a bit I became less judgmental. I realize they were living a story as it was being penned and couldn't see the ending like I can. In the context of their story, their questions, their scheming, their actions, and even Sarai's laughter make sense because they're so human, just like me. Month after month, their hopes would rise and fall with her menstrual cycle. It probably even felt as if God were dangling their hearts' desire in their faces and then every month pulling it back.

 

Man, hadn't they already born the shame of infertility in a culture that idolized fertility? Hadn't they stepped out in faith and obeyed God by going to a new land? Hadn't a part of the promise been fulfilled in their amassed wealth? Why not it all?

 

So, the offer to help God out makes sense to me. In all honesty there are times that I do the same thing. When I am going through something that in my human mind doesn't seem match up to what I understand of God's Word, I try to reason it out to make it make sense. I really can't blame Sarai and Abram, for wondering, for misunderstanding, or for offering God solutions in how He could bring His promise to reality in their old age. Maybe they were trying to help God because they saw the situation as impossible. Yes, their view of God may have been small and they may have lacked spiritual understanding. But, sometimes my view is small, too.  

 

During the wait they experienced things that gave them a bigger and more accurate picture of their God. They saw Sodom judged and destroyed and Lot's life spared. They experienced God's intervention and protection when they told lies out of fear. They met King Melchizedek--the priest of the most High and defeated armies. 

 

Ironically, the couple who had been promised a child lived long enough for her life blood Sarah to cease and for all to know Abraham and Sarah's bodies were incapable of reproduction. They lived long enough for their unbelief to be exposed through her laughter...then and only then the God of grace acted. And in His acting God showed Himself to be the one true God, the Creator, and the Author of life. 

 

Hebrews 11 tells us that Sarah came to believe and because she believed she was able to conceive. Maybe a part of the wait served to purify their faith so that they could believe the unbelievable and maybe a part of the wait served to show them that Jehovah is the God of the Impossible! God resurrected their sexually dead bodies and gave them a child in old age, turning their grief to laughter and their scoffing to faith.

 

In acting God also reconnected their sexuality to their spirituality. For the chiasm between the later two happened during the fall and it had grown wider by man's  establishment of false religions that idolized fertility and sacrificed young girls as temple prostitutes. By His actions, God reestablished the purity of the marriage bed and the sanctity of the marriage covenant sealed spiritually by the sexual relationship. 

 

The story of Abraham and Sarah gives me such hope with all that is going on in this world --wars,  earthquakes, droughts, famines, tsunamis, persecutions. I know that Jesus promised to return and when things heat up in this world I find myself wondering just like the early church if God has forgotten his promise. But 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

 

It is so important to accept that the waits are intentionally designed by His love-scarred hands. My job during the waits is three fold. First, I am to be prayerful--pouring out my heart so that all that stands in the way of my faith is exposed and removed. Second, I am to be patient, believing that God is working both in the world and in the spiritual realms in ways that my human mind cannot understand. Third, I am  to be a promise seeker who diligently pours over His Words because they remind me of who He is and give me hope.

 

His Word says, "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." (2Peter 1:3-4). His promises are precious and they are great. He gives them to me so that I can become more like Him. The enemy will try to convince me that God is not listening. But the truth is His ears are always turned to those who belong to Him. There is no greater time to display faith to a dying world than when I am waiting for God to answer prayer or waiting for God to fulfill His promises. 

 

So, how are you doing at being prayerful, patient, and a promise seeker during the times that you are waiting on God? Some times I falter, but I am trying. I would love you to share what you have learned as you have waited on God! What did you learn about Him? What did you learn about yourself? And what did you learn about life?