Waiting | Patiently Waiting on God

The Mundane Becomes the Magnificent

I have a little calendar of quotes on my desk that I get to enjoy every morning. And yesterday’s quote was: “Time is a very precious gift of God; so precious that it’s only given to us moment by moment.” – Amelia Barr

And something struck me….that quote resonated deep within my heart. Not in the way it might have in the past where although I may have appreciated the meaning of the quote, there would also be a slight irked feeling where I would challenge the author to walk in my shoes and all the time I spent waiting.

But yesterday was different. I appreciated the quote. I savored the quote. The quote from Ms. Barr reminded me that time is precious, and it’s a precious gift…even the time spent in waiting.

I don’t know why God has asked me to wait as long as He has for the deepest desires of my heart to be fulfilled. But I trust Him. I don’t know why I have received promises from my dear Heavenly Father that remain unfulfilled up to this point in time. But I love Him.

And in my waiting, the mundane has become the magnificent. I am appreciating every second of every day and trying to literally suck the life out of each and every second I have, living life to its fullest…..even while I wait…especially while I wait.

Downshifting

I just recently bought a hybrid bicycle, and am in love with this new-found sport. The speed (I am a total adrenaline junkie), the freedom, the quiet…..all so exhilarating.

But it’s funny how you think you are in shape until you try a different sport. And then all of a sudden, after one big hill, your lungs are on fire, your legs are burning, and your heart is about to burst out of your chest. (I will reserve my conversation about the whole topic of spandex for another post!)

So what have I learned? I have to downshift. My bike has different gears, and when I am full of energy and feeling great, I can push hard on my higher gears. But when I am working to get up a hill, and my body is drained of energy, it is time to downshift until I regain my energy and momentum.

I have found the same to be true in waiting. There are some days I am rolling along in my “higher gears”…..a picture of waiting well….a stalwart of patience….a testimony to God’s love and grace and strength. But then I hit a hill, and it’s a big one, and my energy starts to slip away. It may be that the constant praying for a loved one to finally surrender to the Lord has just drained me. (The Lord said these were intense battles!) It may be a couple of untimely comments from people who don’t know what I am battling every day or the trials that I have faced that have tested my soul and my very faith.

Just like cycling, when I hit these hills in my personal life, it is time for me to downshift. It is time to find those things which energize my soul. It is time to find a respite from the hill until I regain my energy to hit my higher gears again.

And that will come, and I will be flying like the wind again before I know it. And so will you. But we have to give ourselves the grace to rest and downshift.

Burning Brightly in Our Waiting

For me, one of the hardest things about waiting is feeling like I am not DOING anything. I am a doer by nature. I have To Do Lists for my To Do Lists. And waiting makes me feel like I am doing nothing. Absolutely NOTHING.

But then I look at the Bible and how the Lord took so many of His children away to do what seemed like nothing to prepare them for what He wanted them to do next. The list is long, but just a few that quickly come to mind are Moses, Joseph, Paul, and even Jesus.

And some days the pain of waiting for the promise can be crippling at worst, and just a constant dull hurt at best. That alone is frustrating to me as it seems pointless when God could bring the waiting to an end with the blink of His eye or the nod of His head.

So, as I struggle with my own need to do, and the pain that waiting for something so anticipated causes me, I was much encouraged by my devotional the other morning. Hopefully it will be as encouraging to you.

Streams in the Desert – April 26th Devotional:

“Light is always costly and comes at the expense of that which produces it. An unlit candle does not shine, for burning must come before the light. And we can be of little use to others without a cost to ourselves. Burning suggests suffering and we try to avoid pain.

We tend to feel we are doing the greatest in the world when we are strong and fit for active duty and when our hearts and hands are busy with kind acts of service. Therefore when we are set aside to suffer…when we are consumed with pain, and when all of our activities have been stopped, we feel we are no long of any use and are accomplishing nothing.

Yet if we will be patient and submissive, it is almost certain we will be a greater blessing to the world around us during our time of suffering and pain than we were when we thought we were doing our greatest work. Then we are burning, and shining brightly as a result of the fire.

The glory of tomorrow is rooted in the drudgery of today.”

He will do this…..

I was extremely encouraged by this “Streams in the Desert” April 18th devotional and thought I would share it.

He will do this. (Psalm 37:5)

“I once believed that after I prayed, it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to bring about the answer. Yet God taught me a better way and showed me that self-effort hinders His work. He also revealed that when I prayed and had confident trust in Him for something, He simply wanted me to wait in an attitude of praise and do only what He told me. Sitting still, doing nothing except trusting in the Lord, causes a feeling of uncertainty, and there is often a tremendous temptation to take the battle into our own hands.

We all know how difficult it is to rescue a drowning person who tries to help his rescuer, and it is equally difficult for the Lord to fight our battles for us when we insist upon trying to fight them ourselves. It is not that God will not but that He cannot, for our interference hinders his work.

Spiritual forces cannot work while we are trusting earthly forces.

Often we fail to give God an opportunity to work, not realizing that it takes time for Him to answer prayer. It takes time for God to color a rose or to grow a great oak tree. And it takes time for Him to make bread from wheat fields. He takes the soil, then grinds and softens it. He enriches it and wets it with rain showers and with dew. Then He brings the warmth of life to the small blade of grass, later grows the stalk and the amber grain, and finally provides bread for the hungry.

And all this takes time. Therefore we sow the seed, till the ground, and then wait and trust until God’s purpose has been fulfilled. We understand this principle when it comes to planting a field, and we need to learn the same lesson regarding our prayer life. It takes time for God to answer prayer.”

The Difficulty of Waiting

I wish I could tell you that waiting is easy. But it’s not. There are moments of darkness and despair that are all-encompassing. But the light will shine through again. There are moments of pain and suffering that seem unbearable. But you can make it. There are times when it appears that the trial of your waiting will continue on forever. But it won’t. I promise.

In the meantime, my purpose in writing this blog is to provide you with hope and insight as you enter those times of darkness, despair, pain, suffering, and facing what feels like a never-ending trial. In the most difficult moments of my own waiting period, there were days that I didn’t think I could take one more step, and then God would provide some amazing encouragement on the internet, through a song on the way to work, in a devotional that just captured exactly what I was feeling, or through a family member or friend’s words of encouragement. Those moments of light gave me that little bit of hope I needed to keep pressing on. My prayer is that you too will experience those moments of light in your darkness, and keep pressing on one more day until your waiting is over.

Cycle of Desires: Waiting – Part 3 of 5

Waiting

God’s Promises are a signed, sealed guarantee, but often so is the waiting that accompanies them. Like we see with Abraham, sometimes God gives us promises far in advance of their fulfillment to give us hope for our future and stability during our present pain. But He still makes us wait and wait and wait for them – to the point we honestly believe our hearts will explode with anxiety or pain. See, it’s in our hearts where our deepest desires reside and therefore it is the most vulnerable of places for us.

But because those desires are in the most vulnerable of places and are often the most important to us, they are also of utmost importance to God. And He is never inactive in our waiting time, even when He calls us to be still. In fact, He absolutely loves to work for those who will wait for Him.

Although He may not explain all of His purposes to us as He has us in this season of waiting, there is always a reason. I am sure that Abraham would have gladly relived each and every day of waiting, knowing the joy that his son Isaac brought him for the rest of his days. Even though the waiting felt like an eternity, Isaac was worth waiting for.

God has something worth us waiting for too. I was driving to a function the other day, and praying while I drove. Much of my time spent driving involves me praying that I don’t get a ticket, but on this particular trip I was bearing my soul to the Lord in terms of my desires and longing for a family. And that’s when the Lord laid it on my heart, “I am making you wait because there is something worth waiting for.” There is something worth waiting for. It’s kind of hard to argue with that, and so I have no choice but to wait.

There are days I feel much like I am sure Sarai felt….a bit past my prime in terms of the timeline of my hopes and dreams…a bit on the wrong side of where I would like to be. But that’s when God does something to remind me of the promises He has given me. That’s when He reminds me that my waiting will produce a joy that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

“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

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