Patiently Waiting on God

Cycle of Desires: God’s Promises – Part 2 of 5

Our God-given desires are bolstered by God’s Promises. Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”[i] This is God’s precious Promise to us…that when we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the very desires of our heart.

Psalm 145:19 reiterates that promise by telling us that “He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him.”[ii] I have always been encouraged by the fact that both verses use the word “desires” and not the word “desire.” I would hate to have to narrow my desire list down to my one or two favorites!

But I am even more encouraged by the fact that no desire is ever placed in us by the Holy Spirit unless He intends to fulfill it. He isn’t putting desires in our hearts just so He can squash our hopes and dreams like little bugs. No! He breathes heavenly life into our hearts so we continue to look forward with hope to the fulfillment of those things we long for the most.

We have a perfect example of God delivering on His Promises with Abraham. God promised Abraham in Genesis 12:1-2 that he would be the father of a “great nation”, and yet the months turned into years with no sign of fatherhood on the horizon.[iii] Eventually, Abraham bore a son with Hagar, but God again told him in Genesis 15:4, “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”[iv] Again, more years pass by with no son. At this point, the Lord called out to Abraham and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them…. [s]o shall your offspring be.”[v]

The years continue to drag on and at this point Abraham is 100 years old and Sarai, his wife, is 90 years old. Now granted, people lived very long lives back in this day and age. Even with that in mind, the 90-100 age range would not have one classified as a “spring chicken.” In fact, at this point in her life, Sarai was medically unable to bear a child.

But God perhaps knowing how human doubt can creep in, again returned to Abraham and said, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.¹⁶I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Not only was God specific about the blood line that would come from Sarah’s womb, he was also specific about the WHO and the WHEN. In terms of the WHO, God had specific instructions for Abraham regarding the boy’s name, saying “your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.^”[vi] In terms of the WHEN, God was even specific in the timing saying,^“I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”[vii]

In all, God came to Abraham four different times to reinforce His Promise for Abraham’s future. And those promises all came true…down to the very last detail. Even when everything looked bleak and the sun had set on what was medically possible, God’s promise was a guarantee.

[i] NIV Psalm 37:4

[ii] NIV Psalm 145:19

[iii] NIV Genesis 12:1-2

[iv] NIV Genesis 15:4

[v] NIV Genesis 15:5

[vi] NIV Genesis 17:15-19

[vii] NIV Genesis 18:10-14

“Just Wait”

I received this amazing letter of encouragement from a dear friend the other night…..and it was just what I needed just when I needed it!

I don’t know who the author is to give credit where credit is due, so if you know, please tell me!!!

JUST WAIT

By: Anonymous

Jesus could have come and healed Lazarus when he was still alive.

Instead, He waited to raise him from the dead when he was already in his grave.

God could have made David become king the day after he was anointed.

Instead, He waited 15 years to rise to the throne, many of those years spent fearing for his life, hiding out and running away from his own father-in-law.

God could have spoken to Moses in the desert about sending him to help free His people from slavery 40 days after he ran away from Egypt.

Instead, He made him wait for 40 long years.

God could have gotten Joseph out of prison one year after he was sentenced there.

Instead, he was stuck in that dungeon for 10 years before he was finally set free.

God could have given Abraham the son He promised him when he was still a young man.

Instead, He waited until he was 100 years old and because of physical reasons would have a more difficult time conceiving at that age.

God could have answered prayers and met the needs of these men of God much quicker, but He didn’t.

He made them wait instead.

And He often makes us do the same.

He makes us wait for healing to come after we’ve been praying for years and there is no sign of recovery.

He makes us wait to fulfill His call in our lives after He puts the desire and passion in our hearts to serve Him in a certain way.

He makes us wait to give us the desires of our hearts, whether it’s a baby, a spouse, or a new job.

He makes us wait for direction when we are stuck at a dead end and we don’t know where to go or what to do.

He could answer that same prayer that you’ve been praying for years every night in a millisecond.

That same prayer that has been bringing you to tears.

That same prayer that the longer that it goes unanswered, the more it makes you question whether He even hears.

He kept Moses in a desert for 40 years.

Joseph in a prison cell for 10 years.

Abraham without a child for 100 years.

David on the run for 15 years.

And maybe He is keeping you right where you’re at for the same reason He kept these men for so many years: to build your faith.

To build your faith in a dungeon cell, during the valley in your life where it’s too dark to see and too hard to believe.

To build your dependence on Him when you are barren and empty to see if He is truly all you desire and all you need.

To see how well you will trust and serve Him when you are still stuck in the background somewhere, doing seemingly nothing too significant for Him.

To build your trust in Him when the storm keeps raging, the battle keeps going and breakthrough and victory doesn’t seem near.

See… sometimes the waiting period of our lives is the most important time in our life.

It is during this period when nothing seems to be happening, when prayers seem to go unanswered, when God seems so far away that the most spiritual growth takes place in our lives. That we learn to become more like Him.

It is during this time that we build spiritual “muscle”.

That we grow in faith.

That we learn to only depend on Him.

What are you waiting for today?

What longing do you have that seems so far from ever being fulfilled?

What prayer do you keep on praying that seems to never reach God’s ears?

I want to remind you that God is not deaf to your prayers.

He is not blind to your constant tears, to your desires, and to your needs.

IF He is making you wait, there is a very good reason for it.

If He is telling you “no” today, maybe it’s because He has a better “yes” waiting for you tomorrow.

If He is keeping you in the same place you’ve always been today, maybe it’s because He’s helping build your faith before you enter your Promised Land tomorrow.

If He is not healing you or bringing you victory today, maybe it’s because you will have a greater testimony when He waits to help you be an overcomer tomorrow.

Wherever you are at today know that God is right beside you and that there is a purpose for you. Even if that purpose is to wait.

Don’t give up just because you don’t see anything happening today.

Maybe there is nothing physically happening that your eyes can see but there is definitely something happening in the spiritual realm as you learn to rely on Christ.

Don’t allow your waiting period to make you hopeless about what tomorrow will bring.

Instead, let it build your faith and give you even greater hope for what God has prepared for you.

He made some of the greatest men of faith wait.

Don’t be discouraged if He makes you wait as well.

He will come through for you, just like He came through for them.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” – Psalm 27:14

The God of Time

The reality of waiting is that it puts us face to face with the difference between our will, particularly around our own timeline, and God’s will. As a reader recently pointed out (thank you so much Jon!), even Jesus wrestled with that same difficulty as He faced down the cross. His will was different from that of His Father. Jesus knew the pain and agony that was coming, and it was terrifying. But God knew there was only way to save all of mankind….a sacrifice….that of His Only Son. Their wills were moving in opposite directions, but Jesus put His will on the altar of sacrifice before His Father who He knew He could trust.

Our waiting is often far less dramatic than facing down crucifixion, but the idea is the same in that waiting is our yielding to God’s clock and timeline. Easy? No. Painful? Absolutely. Time feels like our enemy as it slowly ticks by, seemingly mocking us. But God is God over everything….and that includes time. He made time standstill for Abraham and Sarah as He gave them a child when natural laws made it truly impossible. He made time the instrument of maturity as He prepped Joseph to become second in command over the land of Egypt. He used time to make a man after His own heart from a lowly shepherd boy named David. He is the GOD OF TIME.

And we too can trust the God of Time to use time, not to hurt us, but to bless us in ways that we could never have dreamed or imagined. We just have to lay our will down and trust that He wants only the very best for us. And sometimes that takes a great deal of time.

Cycle of Desires: God Given Desires – Part 1 of 5

One of the hardest things to do is to wait for the deepest desires and longings of our hearts to be fulfilled. We know that God is the Giver of Dreams and the One who has placed desires deep inside each one of our hearts. He has given us gifts, skills, and talents that we dream about using in different ways. He even gives us dreams about our future in terms of relationships and family. I am convinced that God allows desires to rise up at different times in different seasons of our lives. When we think about it, God perfectly times those desires in our lives. As an example, when we were in high school, our desire was to have fun, get good grades, and participate in different school activities. We weren’t focused on landing the right job, finding our mate, buying a house, or starting a family. Those type of desires would come, but they would come at the right time and in the right season. Sometimes the season is quickly upon us, and our desires hit with such urgency it is hard to fathom. It is almost as if the Lord literally allows them to be awakened out of a deep sleep. And we cry out to the Lord to have those desires met. I believe there is a process that we often go through that I will label the Cycle of Desires (Figure 1) that begins with those God-given desires.

Figure 1: Cycle of Desires

More on the Cycle of Desires later this week…….

“Just the Right Time”

My precious brother-in-law recently sent me this devotional from Louie Giglio and it was just what I needed that day! I hope you find it just as encouraging!

“Just the Right Time”

Reflection

“A Savior had been promised to God’s people for centuries. They longed and prayed for rescue. And then on the right day, in the right place, at the right time, Jesus was born. While God rarely comes at our appointed time, He always comes at the right time.

All of us are waiting on something, often wondering if God has forgotten us. In your waiting, let the birth of Christ encourage you. Just because God hasn’t come through (as far as you can see), it doesn’t mean He has abandoned you. To Him a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. This very minute He’s working for His glory and your good. Though circumstances say otherwise, God is going to come through, on schedule, fulfilling His long-appointed plans for you. Don’t give up before the time is right.

Take hope in the manger and know that you are loved and prized by the God who stepped down from heaven and arrived at the perfect time for you.

Prayer

Father, meet me in the waiting, the place where I long for what is not fully in view. Still my heart and give me the ability to know that You are near. I believe Your plans are good. I see it in the birth of Your only Son.

But sometimes I struggle to see beyond the haze that surrounds me. Renew my confidence as I lift my eyes to You. Be glorified in my life during this season of expectation. Amen.”

Excerpt from “Waiting Here for You: An Advent Journey of Hope” by Louie Giglio, November 26th Entry

What Does It Mean to Wait on the Lord

So, what does it mean to wait on the Lord? To wait on the Lord is to look to Him in expectation, and to eagerly anticipate what He is about to do. It sounds so easy right? I can look to the Lord in expectation of bringing my waiting to closure, and yes, I am eagerly anticipating what He is about to do and when He is about to do it. And yet, when that waiting lasts day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, it is one of the hardest things the Lord will ever ask us to do.

It’s not just about the waiting either. It’s often about WHAT we are waiting for, as we wait for different things at different times in our lives. Sometimes we are waiting for direction from God. Sometimes we are waiting for doors to be opened that only He has the power to open. Sometimes we are waiting for extremely murky and confusing situations to come clear. And sometimes we are waiting for the deepest needs and longings of our hearts to finally be fulfilled by God.

The one constant in all of our waiting on the Lord is the passage of time. In Psalm 130:5-6, the psalmist writes, ‘I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. ”[i]

The psalmist is comparing his own waiting to that of the night watchmen who eagerly anticipated the coming dawn of morning as that would signify their release from duty. The watchmen knew that the dawn would surely come, but it would only come with the passing of time. It is in the same way that we eagerly await the passing of time to bring our release from our waiting period.

During this time of waiting, we often have the opportunity (said with a very large smile on my face) to surrender our timing to God’s timing. We have the most wonderful ideas about when something in our lives should occur – down to the date and the time. I know I have been even so bold, and yes naïve, to share those wonderful ideas with the Lord. In fact, at this point in my life, I firmly believed, and shared with the Lord, that I would have a loving husband who I had been married to at least 10 years, 2 well-behaved kids – a boy and a girl, an awesome dog, and a great home. Well…….I have the great dog and home, but apparently my timing on the other desires of my heart was WAY off.

More often than not, however, our ideas on timing are light years apart from God’s plans. So we must surrender to His timing, and when we do, He can do amazing things in us and for us. The hard part is reminding ourselves that God acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. In fact, the Bible tells us, “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.”[ii]

Although the waiting is excruciatingly difficult and seems absolutely pointless, our waiting is never useless. Let me repeat that point because I think it is just that important! Although the waiting is excruciatingly difficult and seems absolutely pointless, our waiting is never useless!!! God is working behind the scenes and things are happening that we cannot even begin to fathom.

It’s as if our lives are the threads making up a beautiful tapestry. We often can only see the underside of the tapestry which is messy, with threads connected here and there in seemingly no rhyme or reason. Some threads even seem to disappear into a dead-end. But God has the design of the tapestry of our lives ever at the forefront of His mind. Each and every thread has a perfect place and has a purpose within the tapestry. When the tapestry is finally turned over, and God reveals His work, we will finally understand how every single thread of our lives came together to present the most breathtaking picture.

But far too often, we want to help the Lord with the weaving of tapestry because we are impatient. We don’t want to wait for Him to finish the last few threads on the tapestry or to tie the last few knots, so we grab it off the loom before it is completed. We don’t want to wait for Him to ripen the fruit, and so we pick it while it is still green. We don’t want to wait for the answers to our prayers, so we move ahead in the way we think is right. Our impatience and restlessness only result in one thing…more trouble in our lives. Our human interference will result in one outcome…it will make things messier than they already are…and it will exhaust us in the process.

Although our natural tendencies cry out for movement, we must will ourselves to wait. (And you have no idea how hard this is for me to say as a self-professed “get to it” kind of girl.) You and I must listen ever so closely to that still quiet voice (that I often wish was a still medium or still loud voice) of the Holy Spirit, guiding us in the way that we should go. We need to accept what the Lord is doing in our lives and trust Him to fulfill His perfect will for our lives. We need to wait with purposeful anticipation of God accomplishing all that He has promised.

[i] NIV Psalm 130:5-6

[ii] NIV Isaiah 64:4

We All Have Periods of Waiting

We all will have periods of waiting in our lives. That is a given! But before we dive in to this perplexing topic, let’s agree to define waiting as “the action of staying where one is or delaying action until a particular time.”[i]

Even in this age of modern technology and conveniences, waiting is still a big part of each and every one of our lives. You may start your day off by waiting for your coffee to brew. If you live in an area of high congestion like I do, you typically start off your trek into work by waiting in traffic. You may get to work only to continue to wait on your boss’ decision about a project you are working on. You will probably wait at a restaurant for lunch. You might have to wait in line to pick up your kids from school. You will probably wait on a service repairman to repair your broken washing machine or other major appliance, especially if they give you the lovely “window” of four or five hours for their arrival. And it would be small miracle if you did not have to wait in line at the grocery store. Of course you will absolutely have to wait in an airport terminal for your flight to board. The bottom line is you will wait in this life.

I would label these moments as our momentary, fleeting, or short-lived waiting events. Although they can be somewhat trying, we know approximately when our waiting will end. And their ending usually comes within a few hours, within the day, or within the week in which they occur. With these waiting events, we see the light at the end of the tunnel (and it doesn’t appear to be an oncoming train).

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have our continuing, long-lasting, or enduring waiting events. These events carry with them a far heavier emotional burden, and in some cases a burden so heavy it is difficult to make it through the day. These events are not kind enough to be short-lived, but rather last for days, weeks, months, and yes, even years.

You may find yourself in a job situation that’s beyond difficult to endure, and you do not know how much longer you can survive waiting for the conditions or the management to change. You may be out of a job and currently waiting on responses from the fifty resumes and applications you sent out. Perhaps you are having health issues and waiting for the pain to finally subside. It could be that you are single and waiting for Mr. or Ms. Right to finally come into your life. Or perhaps, you are waiting to finally become a parent, whether that occurs through your own pregnancy or through adoption.

I don’t know what your situation is, but I do know how heavy the burden is. And I do know how hard waiting is. I know that because I have personally been there and I understand the spiritual battle that can ensue. Unfortunately, we are a part of fallen humanity and our natural tendency is to take matters into our own hands, to fix what is broken, and to follow our own paths. So our natural tendency is NOT to “wait on the Lord,” resulting in an internal war of sorts when He asks us to wait on Him. At best it’s uncomfortable, and at worst, it’s excruciatingly painful, as “what we are” collides with “what God wants us to be.”

[i] Dictionary. com