I have never had issues with swallowing until the past 12 months. In January we were out celebrating Thomas’ birthday. In the middle of dinner…I swallowed and the food just would not go down…it got stuck…it was very scary.
I stood up and walked around thinking somehow if I just stood, the food would drop to my stomach. Because of prior episodes, I have learned panicking makes it worse so I walked around and tried to squeeze air down my throat. After a while, the food passed but once an episode hits, I don’t eat any more food. The meal is over for me. It happens off and on. It happened recently with a glass of water.
Thankfully, I had a friend over who had just come by to visit when the swallowing episode occurred. It was so bad that we had to get help. We waited in one doctor’s office for 45 minutes just to find out we couldn’t be seen. We left and, thankfully, were seen by Thomas’ new ENT who recently took charge when Thomas had staph in his nose. I look back and reflect on how God provided for me…through Thomas’ emergency just a few months ago.
While we were waiting in the second doctor’s office, I was confidently sitting and waiting on this ENT…because of my past experience with him!
Today’s post…is about Waiting!!
I have realized in my walk with God in the Back 9 that waiting…when we get the “not yets” from God are good things. In my younger days when I got a “not yet,” I was frustrated and impatient. I was in a hurry but God was not! I have learned as I have matured in my walk with God that “WAITING” is a major part of His plan. With God a day can truly be like a “thousand years to us.” I have learned that when we sow seeds there is always a “waiting” period for the harvest. In others words, we sow seeds which we don’t harvest in the same month…there has to be time for “Growth!”
A great analogy is being pregnant. We know the baby is there even though we don’t see the baby. We prepare. We wait expectantly while the baby grows. I have learned that the “waiting” is used by God to teach us…to grow our faith…to increase our dependence on Him and not ourselves or others. It develops the fruits of the spirit–peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
God uses waiting to test us. In fact, waiting is always a test. It tests our character, our faith, our trust and our endurance. Romans 8:24-28, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
In a time of waiting, we are to do several things. I have learned these things over time and have found them to be helpful as we grow in Christ during that time of waiting!
1. We pray.
2. We journal what we are learning so that we don’t forget what we learn.
3. We prepare and expect God to answer in His time…just like when we are pregnant, we prepare and wait…expectantly.
4. We keep sowing seeds…so we will have a continual harvest.
5. We don’t sit down..we keep moving.
2 Timothy 3:14-16, “But as for you, CONTINUE in what you have LEARNED and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it. and how from infancy you have know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God breathed and is USEFUL for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly EQUIPPED for every good work” [emphasis added].
In a time of waiting…God is NOT ABSENT.
In fact, He is very present and it is in that waiting room when He does great works in us…so waiting doesn’t mean NO…it means NOT YET. While in the waiting room…WE have much to do!
We should pray like David prayed in Psalm 119:33, “Teach me Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.”
Waiting is a part of FINISHING STRONG….
“I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait. When you do enter your room, you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light…” ~C. S. Lewis