Month: June 2015

The Gift of Waiting

Pink Present BoxI have come to a pretty huge revelation in the last 24 hours that I simply have to share. Now mind you, I have been patiently waiting for one of the most important desires of my heart for YEARS! And I don’t mean a few years, I mean many, long years. And those years have been hard years fraught with more suffering than joy.

I have questioned many things, and my faith at times has been shaken to the core.

But the Lord revealed something to me this morning that answered the question that has plagued me the most: Is the suffering in the waiting worth it? When all is said and done, and the promise you were given has been delivered, when the prayers for the desires of your heart have been answered, when the prodigal child finally comes home, was the suffering worth it?

I had to ask God this question because I have examined Job’s life in detail, and in my opinion, he appears to have suffered more than any other individual in the Bible other than Christ Himself. He LOST EVERYTHING – his children, his animals, his home, and his friends. EVERYTHING. And it was all taken in one fatal swoop of a day that Job didn’t think he would be able to make it through. The suffering that man felt in that one day is simply beyond my comprehension. Thankfully, the Lord didn’t end the story there, and we know that God blessed the latter years of Job’s life more than the former part (Job 42:12), and Job was a wealthy man in a number of different ways before this tragedy.

But did all those blessings really take away the pain and the suffering that Job felt on the one worst day of his life? I would say no. It simply isn’t possible, because the ache of what he lost, although dulled with time, was still there. Perhaps a family dinner would remind him that there were faces missing from the table. Perhaps a wayward child from the children God blessed him with after the tragedy, reminded him of one he lost that acted the same way.

So, I go back to my question and I ask it in a different manner…Is the suffering in the waiting, worth what we are waiting for? Hear me out as I answer no and explain why. The suffering in our waiting is never justified by the receipt of what we were waiting for, because often times that suffering is soul deep. It cannot be understood by anyone but our Savior. And the gift for which we were waiting – that long desired spouse, that baby to hold in our arms and love, that prodigal child returning home, that repentant spouse who asks for a second chance, that restored friendship we long thought was beyond salvaging, that long-awaited dream job – will at some point disappoint us, hurt us, and make us question what we suffered through.

Now, I don’t take away for one second ALL THE JOY that will come when our promise has been delivered or the desires of our heart met….but I believe there is FAR BIGGER GIFT in the waiting.

The gift of our suffering, and patiently waiting on God for the promises and desires of our heart, is an intimacy with the Lord that is indescribable. It is a relationship, that without the suffering, we would NEVER know. It is a dependency on Him and a craving of even the simple whisper of the Holy Spirit.

And that is the true gift of the suffering in waiting. It is not having the promise fulfilled. It is not the answer to the desires of our heart. It is FAR GREATER. The true gift of our suffering in waiting is a relationship with our Lord that leaves any other gift paling in comparison. It is a gift that will not disappoint, that will not fail us, and that sustains us no matter what our circumstances are.

 

 

 

The Requirements of Waiting

WAITINGWhile we are waiting on God’s timing for our heart’s desires, there are some very real and sometimes difficult requirements of waiting. I have found in my own personal waiting, that I have come across five:

1. Faith

Isaiah 55:8-9 makes it very clear that God’s ways and timing are not a thing like ours. Often, from our very human perspective, God’s timing is not what we expected, when we expected it, or quite honestly, what we would like. But His love for us is boundless, and because of that, we can trust that His timing is perfect.

2. Humility

To wait for the Lord’s very best requires humility as we acknowledge that He knows what we need far better than we ever could. And it gets kind of hard to charge ahead with our own plans in mind when we are fully surrendered to His plans for our lives.

3. Patience

Waiting on God, and for His perfect timing, requires a super human patience. (I keep looking for my Super Girl patience cape to help me out with this one, to no avail.) However, when we ask for it, God gives us the strength to stay when we want to go, and helps us grow and stretch into a patient person that we just may not recognize when the process is done.

4. Courage

Who would have thought that waiting takes courage? But it absolutely does, and it requires it in abundance. When those around us are pressuring us to move on, to act, to give up dreams, to let go, courage helps us stick to what we know is God’s chosen path for us. And the hardest valleys we encounter in our own doubts, questions, and fears, when all seems beyond bleak and dark, require an even deeper courage.

5. A Thick Skin

And lastly, I have found that waiting requires a thick skin. Sometimes strangers, friends, and even family may have the best intentions when they are talking to us and trying to encourage us in our periods of waiting, but they can say things that just bring us to our knees. And sometimes, the most innocent of statements from a well-meaning person, can be what Satan uses to hit straight to our hearts.

Waiting is for Warriors. It requires Faith, Humility, Patience, Courage, and a Thick Skin. So, let’s put on our armor of God and stay strong in the battle until the war has been won. And it will be won.