Monday, February 1, 2016

When God Wants You To Wait



This is the time of year when I'm always in a funk.

Christmas seems forever ago and summer is light years away. I feel stuck in the middle, lost in a torrent of blandness and school work. There is so much to do before the school year ends. Things seem kind of pointless, and I wonder why I'm doing certain things. Laziness and procrastination tempt me to fall into their clutches. The weather doesn't help either, promising spring but clinging to winter.

Everything is just blegh. From the brown grass, the ever-sinking sun, the abundance of boring papers. Everyone is on edge and cold and just ready for some warmth.

Waiting. Waiting for summer, waiting for things to get done. Waiting to shake off the gloominess that holds us down.

Most people seem to think of waiting as a bad thing. In our culture, immediacy and instant gratification are our favorite words. The motto "all good things to those who wait" has been turned into "if you have to wait, it's not good". Instant internet access, instant texts back, instant feedback. When we don't get it, we get cranky.

We like our lives like we like our movies-- exciting, fast paced, surprising, and dramatic (even if we won't always admit it). When none of these adjectives apply to our lives, we sometimes wonder what we're doing wrong.

God does not subscribe to the world's negative view. In fact, sometimes God does His greatest work in us and with us in the waiting periods of our lives.

It is in the waiting that God changes our hearts. In the mundane, He wants to fill us. He wants to strengthen us, to prepare us. There is so much He longs to teach us in these waiting periods! He wants to refine our hearts, to direct us towards Him.

In our faith, are we clinging to God only when we feel high emotions? When things in our lives are crazy, either crazy good or crazy bad? When we reach interim periods, do we continue to trust Him, to turn to Him?

What about when we're waiting on Him? When we're waiting for an answer, for a sign...do our praises and gratitude turn to grumbling and complaints? When we don't feel anything, do we "not even bother" with prayer?

We do not follow God because of what He does for us, because of how He makes us feel. We follow Him because of who He is.

God is mighty to save. He is Love. He is all powerful. He is in control.

Right now, I'm waiting on a lot of things. I don't know where I'll be or what I'll be doing even four months from now. But I do know that my God is faithful. I know that He is working in this time, that He has a plan that He will execute perfectly, for my good. So, meanwhile, I will worship Him.

Is God asking you to wait on Him? Never believe for a moment that He is not active. Find Him in the waiting. Surrender more fully. Be faithful to Him. Try to outdo Him in faithfulness, and watch the splendor that unfolds.


"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." -Romans 8:28


4 comments:

  1. Today is the first day of school and I'm already waiting for the holidays. I'm waiting for school to just end for good. It's interesting how we seem to need to do something, anything every day. Life needs to move quickly, event after event, or it just becomes boring. I'm already bored. Thanks for reminding me that waiting is okay, and sometimes you need mundane days to make the interesting ones interesting.

    -M
    The Life of Little Me

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  2. I'm waiting too, I think it also shows your faith in Him when you wait. It's much harder than doing.

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  3. This is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you for writing this.

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