Waiting

I have never met anyone who likes to wait.

I have to confess…a week ago I was at our neighborhood Publix placing my order at the deli counter after waiting in line for about 10 minutes. I told the clerk I would be right back after picking out some fruit. I have done this countless times.

After picking out some fruit and veggies, I returned about 8 minutes later to pick up my deli meat. I asked the clerk where my order was and he sheepishly looked at me and told me he had been working on an online order and had not started mine. I went “lion on him.”

I am kind of embarrassed to confess this. At the time I felt humanly justified. I said to the poor clerk, “There is a real problem here. You just took my order and I assumed you were filling it. Why would you take my order and then fill an online order for someone who is not here WAITING?” There was a great crowd of witnesses too.

All of a sudden I realized….I had failed miserably at what I had been enjoying “victory” in…waiting and having patience. I felt I had waited patiently on my turn but then felt as if I had been “cut in front of.” There was a friend and former Clemson classmate standing there who tried to reshuffle my meltdown….but all in all it was a “fail” on my part. No way around it….sin.

As I have been really asking God to grow me in the area of being patient and WAITING on God, “dropping my hands,” deferring to His timing, not mine, which is God’s best…I am given the opportunity to be tested repeatedly. God has been so faithful to me, allowing me to make great progress in this area.

When I have “waited” patiently and prayerfully, I have seen amazing things happen in my life. I have learned that the daily tests God sends my way–at the grocery store, driving on the road, in my everyday life–help me see progress and regression. The 10 steps forward then 2 steps back…all forward progress. I have learned not to beat myself up but to quickly confess, apologize if needed and then refocus on “waiting” on God in all things.

It sounds exhausting to take everything to God in prayer but let me be a witness to you–it is worth it…so worth it! I take everything to God in prayer…down to what I should eat…when I should work out…and how to prioritize responding to emails. I prayed over every Christmas present this year, asking what I should buy, which came down to returning several things this week that God impressed upon me to return.

Sorry if this sounds crazy to you but I can tell you…it is the VERY BEST thing I have ever done.

WAITING ON GOD…with the big and the small. Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord, be STRONG and take heart, WAIT for the Lord” [emphasis mine]. I can honestly say…YOU HAVE TO BE STRONG. “Take heart” offers a very different hope than we often offer one another in moments of difficulty and disappointment. What makes this “take heart” different is that it’s a call to WAIT on the Lord.

It isn’t about trying to change emotions; rather it’s an invitation to rest in the one place where rest can really be found, in the Lord.

He’s the definition of love. Scripture says something amazing about the love of God.
……It doesn’t simply say that God is committed to faithful love.
…….It doesn’t just say that God loves you even when you don’t deserve his love.
………It doesn’t only say that He loves you better than anyone else will ever love you.

No, what the Bible says about God can’t be said about anyone else. It says that “God is love.” God is the essence, the source, the ultimate definition of love; and love that’s true love has God as its source. If there were no God, there would be no love.

I can “take heart” because my life is held in the hands of the One who is the essence of love. With this being said….learning to WAIT on the LORD and HIS timing is absolutely exhilarating and exhausting but well worth it. It is like giving birth…hard, exhausting but the RESULT is absolutely amazing and exhilarating.

I encourage you to SEEK GOD in 2017 in the BIG and the SMALL and seemingly insignificant. HE is in all the fibers of every detail in your life. The result? Stand back and be amazed!

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