He’s taking too long to answer your prayer. It feels when you pray, that you’re just breathing air. You’ve cried to the Lord, but He has not appeared. You fall to the ground and cry out in fear; Lord, I need you now; I cannot wait. Oh, I need you now. But, Lord, you’re late. I needed you yesterday to take this away. Still, I’m waiting; Come Lord, today! This is not the topic I’ve planned on writing on, or even one I already have sketched out. But rather, a late-night study i needed, thus, I write. :) Waiting is something us humans naturally dislike. Patience rarely comes easy. We hate to wait. Microwaves, fast food, drive-thrus, and DVR’s only prove my point. Waiting is one of the hardest things God asks us to do. But what happens when it seems God ‘pushes the pause button’ on us; what happens when He tells us to wait? Personally, those are some of the hardest times for me. When things are coming at us, we cry out to Him, but He doesn’t arrive on cue. He’s silent. You pray, and do all you know to do... but still, nothing. Life is turned upside down, life has not gone how you planned, you need Him, but... where is He? Where is that promised strength and grace? Where is His presence? Why isn’t He riding in and taking care of everything? Honestly, this is something I am still learning and trying to understand. But, God has been trying to teach me many lessons throughout it all. So, why does He make us wait? Reason number one: He’s God. He does what He wants, when He wants, for the purpose He wants, even if the reason is often times unknown to us. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. We don’t know what God knows. He does what He does for our good, so why worry about it? Reason number two: through waiting, He teaches us patience. Waiting is never for God, it is for us. God has a way, and His way is more important than our time whether we understand it or not. One of the hardest things the people of God have to do is learn how to wait. When we’re a child, we want to be a teenager. When we’re a teenager, we can’t wait to graduate high school. When we’re in college, we can’t wait to get out into the real world. When we’re single, we can’t wait to get married. The devil has us deceived into thinking that if we wait, it’s going to destroy our life. Waiting is not weakening, it’s strengthening. Most of us know we need patience, we just want to hurry up and learn it right now. We don’t mind learning patience as long as we don’t have to wait to learn it. “The biggest test of your Christianity sometimes will be, will you be faithful while you’re waiting on God to do what you think He ought to be doing? Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Keep serving God.”-unknown Reason number three: Through waiting, He teaches us that His way, and timing, is best. His way is not always reasonable or logical to our minds. It may not make any sense to us whatsoever. (Proverbs 3.5-6) God hasn’t asked us to figure out what He’s doing, He just wants us to trust and obey. Reason number four: Through waiting, it makes it relevant that, of ourselves, we cannot win the battle. Why does God make us wait? Sometimes it is to get us to realize our own helplessness. Without God, we are nothing. We can’t do anything without God’s help.(John 15.5) God can do without man, but man cannot do without God. Reason number five: Through the waiting, through silence, it causes us to grow and become closer to Him. The silence, the waiting, causes us to crave Him more, to seek Him, and cry out to Him. Every struggle, every burden, is a precious lesson placed into our care. Though they cause us pain and grief, they were meant to us for gain. Each one, in love from Heaven sent, and always just for blessing meant. Sometimes we must be flat on our back before we will look to Him. Even if you already are seeking Him, silence in the trials causes and increased intimacy and closeness with Him. Reason number six: Through the waiting, you prove your faithfulness, or faithlessness. The trial of our faith is much more precious than gold. Silence and waiting grows your faith. Ask God to grow your faith and He more than likely will not make everything go smoothly, in fact, probably it will be the opposite. When you are in a circumstance that you have no control over, it grows your faith. You must look to Him for everything, you must trust Him, there is no other way. Tomorrow morning, my church’s ladies group are singing called “At the right time”. “At a time of God's own choosing He came When we the fight were losing He came Long before we knew Him When we were lost in sin At the right time at the best time He came . When the night was cold and dreary He came To His children worn and weary He came To bring us out of darkness To make us His again At the right time at the best time He came ....” Throughout practices, I thought I understood the song, but a few weeks ago, I saw it in a different way. I always thought this song was in reference to when He came and brought us salvation, but, I no longer see it that way. Now, to my heart, it is an everyday application. We who are saved, when we are loosing in the battle of our life, He comes. When we are drowning in sin, He comes. When we are worn out, down, and completely in darkness, He comes, brings us back to Himself, and restores our relationship. At the right time, at the best time; in His time, He comes. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Times like this, we just have to hold onto what we know is true; claim His promises. Read them, re-read them, then read them again. One of my favorite songs, four days late. It has brought much comfort to my heart. Life doesn’t always play out the way we have it planned in our head. We may think God should have already come and taken care of the situation. But, He has a different plan. The reason, we may never know. But He doesn’t ask us to figure it out, He just asks us to trust Him and obey. Sometimes, He just asks us to wait.
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Lizzy parkerMarriage.
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January 2023
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