Waiting on God

by Sue Huey
Used by permission

Who likes to wait?  No one that I know enjoys waiting.  We're so impatient.  In a world of instant and immediate gratification for so many things, waiting seems so tedious.  Why does everything have to take so long?  Sometimes we're waiting for God to work in our lives and we feel like nothing is happening.  Does He see me?  Does He hear me?  We feel like waiting on God is wasted time.  But I love this verse I read this morning.

Isaiah  64:4  Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Wow!  What a verse!  God is not just doing nothing while we are waiting.  He is up to something!  He's acting on my behalf while I am waiting!

Several years ago God gave me a perfect illustration of this. Clay bought me a beautiful plant for Mother’s Day. At that time I knew almost nothing about plants. Other than some purple petunias I recognized, I thought the rest was just different types of greenery. But a couple days later, some tiny yellow flowers popped out. Then a patch of bright pink flowers, and then some little white ones. I was so surprised to see the plants blooming when I thought it was just greenery. And then much later, another plant with very dark green leaves that I had been tempted to pull out because I thought it was not very pretty was suddenly bearing the most beautiful lavender flowers! What a surprise! I had no idea these late bursts of color were coming.

I felt like God spoke to my heart and said, “That is what I’m doing in your life. You sometimes feel like you are just wasting time and waiting for nothing. But you can’t always see what I’m doing, and so you have no idea of what I am planning while you are waiting. Just trust me. Not only are you growing, but what I am doing in your life will become more beautiful with time.”

I’m so thankful for this beautiful illustration that God gave me of His promises. God doesn’t work on our timetable, and sometimes things take way longer than we ever expected. In Ephesians 3:20 He tells us that He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. If God cares that much to surprise us in nature with flowers when we expect none, surely he wants to do so much more in our lives.

The Flow

Used with Permission by Michelle Gill

February 6, 2013
 

Lately I have been thinking about the flow of life.  Can you think of times that you pushed and strained to make things happen?  A relationship, a job, a house...  Then there are the times without any effort on your part, the ideas, His voice just flows.  You walk to the sound, the doors open and close, and you end up in the wide open place and you know in your deepest, this is where you are meant to be.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  What if we truly waited on His Spirit and committed to only walk in the flow of it?  I think it would make life a lot more simple, and there would be an ease to it, not easy but an ease.

When I was giving birth to my daughter, I pushed in the contractions.  I wanted her out already, so I pushed when there was no contraction.  The doctor stopped me and told me not to push except in the rhythm of contractions because I would end up injuring myself.  Isn't that the truth in life?  I am realizing now I have pushed most of my life in and out of contractions.  The results weren't always bad either but they trained me to not wait on God.  That life will happen regardless and sometimes something is better than nothing. What a lie and what a disadvantage to the Spirit adventure.

Yesterday in the sermon at church, Matt asked, "Do you have a backup plan for Jesus?"  Selah.  Pause and think about that one!  Why yes, I do, many.  That one question will not leave my head.  In my redesign I am learning to wait on His Spirit; but are you truly waiting if you have a backup plan?  If your faith has a backup plan, is it truly faith?

In the reconstruction of my life, I have been considering what direction to take my life. Maybe it is not about the "shoulds" and more about the "gentle blowing" (I Kings 19). Jesus said that even He does nothing on His own but as the Father instructs Him (Jn. 8:28). Wow, waiting, stepping in the Flow with no backup plan...  Most of the needs I have right now seem so important, so impossible, some even painful, and there is a fear in me that if I wait, He won't show up.  That is what I have to settle in my heart and my mind, He won't "show up" because He is already here.  He will never leave me or forsake me and if He is here, so is all His power and His person.  What more could I need?  So I listen to His gentle blowing, waiting, and waiting... and walking as It flows.

UPDATE:  May 16, 2016

At the time I wrote this, my husband had died two years prior and my daughter was six years old.  I was making decisions on where to live, what to do, money, a daddy for my daughter, a husband or not, so many decisions.  I had always made things happen but this time I actually did what I wrote above.  I waited and His Wind came to me and I walked in the Flow.  My Father did provide and I can state beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is faithful and He takes better care of my life than I ever could.

Can you feel it?  That's the Wind of His Spirit.  "You will hear a Voice behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it'"  (Isa. 30:21).

Wait, Patiently Wait

Author unknown

Wait, patiently wait,
God is never late;
Thy budding plans are in thy Father's holding,
And only wait His grand, divine unfolding.
Then wait, wait,
Patiently wait.

Trust, hopefully trust,

That God will adjust
Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all it's bright revealings.
Then trust, trust,
Hopefully trust.

Rest, peacefully rest
On thy Savior's breast;
Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,
And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.
Then rest, rest,
Peacefully rest!

Streams in the Desert

This powerful and encouraging devotional by Mrs. Charles Cowman can be delivered to your inbox each day by signing up to receive it at http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/

This is the devotional for January 26:

God is Waiting Upon Us

"And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you...blessed are all they that wait f or him" (Isa. 30:18).

We must not only think of our waiting upon God, but also of what is more wonderful still, of God's waiting upon us. The vision of Him waiting on us, will give new impulse and inspiration to our waiting upon Him. It will give us unspeakable confidence that our waiting cannot be in vain. Let us seek even now, at this moment, in the spirit of waiting on God, to find out something of what it means. He has inconceivably glorious purposes concerning every one of His children. And you ask, "How is it, if He waits to be gracious, that even after I come and wait upon Him, He does not give the. help I seek, but waits on longer and longer?"

God is a wise husbandman, "who waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it." He cannot gather the fruit till it is ripe. He knows when we are spiritually ready to receive the blessing to our profit and His glory. Waiting in the sunshine of His love is what will ripen the soul for His blessing. Waiting under the cloud of trial, that breaks in showers of blessings, is as needful. Be assured that if God waits longer than you could wish, it is only to make the blessing doubly precious. God waited four thousand years, till the fullness of time, ere He sent His Son. Our times are in His hands; He will avenge His elect speedily; He will make haste for our help, and not delay one hour too long.
--Andrew Murray

Waiting

The Circuit 'Riter, Michael Ullrich - http://www.In-His-Steps.com

Isaiah 40:28-31 "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Waiting is one of the hardest things for many in the western culture to do.  Remember the "good old days" when it might take a week to get a letter from a loved one? I made regular stops each day at my college mailbox hoping that a letter had arrived from the young woman who is now my wife. One time her letter got lost in the mail. Oh, the agony of that week!

Now days, I have trouble waiting for my e-mail to download. Somehow, I don't seem to have as much time as I used to, in spite of quicker communications.

Someone has said, "the only thing harder than waiting for God, is wishing you had!" God's people down through the ages have learned this, often the hard way. Isaiah had probably been through it himself as he prayed that Israel would listen to God's message and respond, but nothing seemed to happen.

Isaiah wrote, "but those who hope (put waiting trust) in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Is. 40:31).

Although waiting can be very hard, the consequences of hurrying before the Lord will far outweigh the pain of waiting. Additionally, the benefits are based in the promises of God! It is hard to wait, but, oh to know what it means to soar like an eagle!

The Church / Waiting

THE CHURCH
Author unknown - Thanks to Jalisa Wenger in Pennsylvania for passing this along.

The Church needs youth and older folks too.
The Church needs Timothys to succeed Paul to carry on the work of the Church.

The Church needs Moseses who use what capabilities God has given them.

The Church needs Daniels who have purpose of heart.

The Church needs people such as the Hebrew boys who will neither bend, budge nor burn.

The Church needs Lydias who are hospitable.

The Church needs Joshuas who are strong and courageous.

The Church needs Ruths who determine to take the right course.

The Church needs Samuels who will hear the voice of God.

The Church needs Davids who are men after God's own heart.

The Church needs Jonathan's with a working trust in God.

The Church needs Jeremiahs who will weep for lost souls.

The Church needs Agabuses who see the need of the Church to stay close to the Word.

The Church needs Barnabuses who are good men and full of the Holy Spirit.

The Church needs Marys who will sit at the feet of Jesus, who are willing to be taught by the Word.

The Church needs pillars and not leaners.

The church needs ... YOU!

WAITING
The Circuit 'Riter, Michael Ullrich
http://www.In-His-Steps.com - Used by permission

Isaiah 40:28-31 "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Waiting is one of the hardest things for many in the western culture to do. Remember the "good old days" when it might take a week to get a letter from a loved one? I made regular stops each day at my college mailbox hoping that a letter had arrived from the young woman who is now my wife. One time her letter got lost in the mail. Oh, the agony of that week!

Now days, I have trouble waiting for my e-mail to download. Somehow, I don't seem to have as much time as I used to, in spite of quicker communications.

Someone has said, "the only thing harder than waiting for God, is wishing you had!" God's people down through the ages have learned this, often the hard way. Isaiah had probably been through it himself as he prayed that Israel would listen to God's message and respond, but nothing seemed to happen.

Isaiah wrote, "but those who hope (put waiting trust) in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Is. 40:31).

Although waiting can be very hard, the consequences of hurrying before the Lord will far outweigh the pain of waiting. Additionally, the benefits are based in the promises of God! It is hard to wait, but, oh to know what it means to soar like an eagle!