When God Asks You to Wait

As I've gotten more mature spiritually, I am noticing a repeating theme in my life that I hadn't recognized before.  God will reveal a plan or direction for my life that is just so amazing...and then He makes me wait to deliver on that promise.  I must be the most impatient person in the world because He can make me wait a LONG time on some of those promises!  And waiting isn't a new thing, but I think I'm finally seeing it as a God thing over the past few years of my life and beginning to appreciate the wait and what it does in the time period.

This topic has been on my mind recently, and interestingly enough, in the past few weeks, everything I pick up and read, a devotion someone emails me, or a friend's blog all have the same topic...Why God Makes Us Wait!  After the bombardment of material, I began to realize, I think this is something God wants me to sit down and reflect on and not ignore!  There are some issues that I'm doing a lot of waiting on right now in my life, and for maybe even the first time, I see I am content in the waiting.  I'm not throwing a tantrum or just rushing ahead of God's timing and forcing things to happen...I'm waiting.  Novel concept for me in some ways.  I did a search on youversion.com Bible with the keyword "waiting"...do you want to guess how many verses came up?  184...guess I'm not the only one who needs a little encouragement in this department!

In this fast-paced, have it your way, do-it-yourself, instant gratification, microwave society we live in today, I want to share a few things that waiting has done in my life over the past year.

1.  Strengthened my faith:  There's something to be said for waiting on a promise for the Lord, and then seeing that promise come to fruition.  That causes your faith to shoot through the roof and the next time you wait,  it becomes a little bit easier and you have a lot more confidence in God's perfect timing.

2.  Disciplined me:  I'm not saying I've been good at waiting every time, but as I've waited, I see it as a form of discipline and a part of being obedient to what God is telling me to do vs. the world.

3.  Stripped me of self control:  I think a big part of waiting is denying self and walking in the spirit.  It has helped me to see that I for sure don't have all the answers, but I serve a God who does.

4.  Developed my quiet time:  Waiting and sticking to your guns involves a lot of prayer time and
reading of the Word to continue to seek direction and get assurance you are on the right path.  That's been huge in my life and a precious time every day.

5.  Slowed me down:  In the waiting, I've become more...mellow.  I'm not as wound up or highly stressed as I was and I crave a much slower pace.  I say no to a lot more things now because I believe I'm more focused, not as easily distracted.

6.  Quit caring about what others think:  God has asked me to do some hard things, that really made me look like a fool some would say if they looked at the situation with worldly eyes.  There's been so many lies, rumors and stories told about me that I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear them.  But, I've learned, slowly at times, to not care what people of this world think.  I serve one Master and if I'm doing what He's told me to, then to me, that's what matters.  I'm not saying things don't hurt me, but I'm saying I don't allow them to sink in and stay with me.  I know the truth, the Lord knows the truth, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

6.  Look for the lessons:  During the waiting, I've found there are ALWAYS lessons to be learned.  I think if there wasn't, then there wouldn't be a waiting period!  God uses that time to get our attention and teach us and then when we are ready, let us move on to the next step.  Sometimes, we are just not ready to get to the Promise Land.

7.  Be open to all possibilities:  When God reveals a plan, many times He's not real specific on the how-to's of the plan, just the end result.  I've learned to look for any open or shut doors to help me navigate and stay on course.  Most of the time, the Lord's ways aren't necessarily my way, but I've got to be open and willing to take that step of faith.

8.  Let Go:  By waiting on God, I've learned to let go of past mistakes and stay in the present.  Maybe I failed the waiting game last time, but that's not a reflection on how I wait this time around.  Grabbing on to second chances as they present themselves is huge.

9.  Victory and favor at the end of the wait:  When you are finally on the other side of waiting, the rewards and the outcome are worth any agony that you went through during the process.  Priceless.

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

I think Mark Batterson sums up why we wait best in his new book, Soulprint:  "Your day will come.  In the meantime, don't short-cirucit His plans and purposes by taking shortcuts.  God is setting you up.  He is making divine appointments.  But the bigger the opportunity, the longer it takes. The reason we get frustrated is because we think big without thinking long.  That is a recipe for disappointment.  Reevaluate your timeline.  And be encouraged when it takes longer than you exprected.  That simply means that God wants to do something immeasurabley more than all you can ask or imagine."

I'm learning the hard way, how to serve a crock-pot vs a microwave God.  It can be very easy to sit here and write about it but a whole different thing to live it.  So for those of you out there waiting, keep up the good fight.  Don't give up or give in...let the Lord bring about His desired purpose in your life.  You will be so glad you did!  Waiting is hard, even when you trust in God's timing, but I've learned that anything worth waiting for, is totally worth that wait.

JOY