A lesson on Waiting

Greatest teachers of Godliness:

#1: Suffering

#2: Waiting

As 2012 has gotten underway, I have been looking forward to nothing more than attending church. I have also noticed that my soul craves for time in the Word more than it has before. Anytime I have free time, I want to read about Jesus, or Paul or a Psalm or some Proverbs. I really am seeing more and more how God is shifting my views of what is really important in life. I have a renewed passion for people coming to know Jesus as their Savior and my heart really grieves for those who do not understand what it means to have a personal relationship with the God of the Bible.

As I was praying this morning, I was reflecting on my spiritual birthday. It is days away where, I believe, I will be 6 years old J. I am so thankful to God for making His Word so real that my heart and soul felt complete the minute I finished praying. I think back on that moment a lot, the faith it took for my friend to step outside his comfort zone and tell me everything he knew about Jesus and the Bible so that I could repent. I’m so excited to get the opportunity to share Jesus’ love with others and even more excited to, God willing, get the opportunity to go across seas and oceans to bring His love to someone who may have never heard of Him.

And here I insert the sermon. It was titled, “Waiting for God’s promises” and preached by Pastor J. I could probably leave it at that and you would understand that I was obvious taught a lot. I really believe one of the hardest temptations we face is immediate gratification. I will speak for myself and say it is really really hard to wait for anything. For example, let’s say I’m shopping at the grocery store. As I go up and down the aisles I’m getting more hungry by the minute. I had planned to make a healthy dinner, some chicken, rice and green beans. However, the lure of a quicker meal arises and a purchase Mexican food on my way home because one: it sounds waaay better and two, I get to eat now. And this is only a small example. As the desire to go to the missions field was began to take surface and an organization was chosen and things started to move along, all of the sudden I wanted to know where I was going and more importantly when, sooner rather than later was my preference. I wanted all the answers. And God is teaching me to wait on His timing. I believe He has promised that I will go oversees at some point. Whether that is sometime this year, next year, 2-3 years from now, I don’t know. And it kills me to wait! At this point I am also waiting to see where I am going. I have been given possibilities, I have responded with questions about them in hopes that the decision will be made sooner rather than later. Once again, I just want to know. I’m waiting for a response to the email, I’m waiting for people to turn in their references, I’m waiting for the invitation to the May training, I’m waiting… and the list continues.

So as Pastor J spoke on Sarai having to wait for her promised son Isaac, I reflect on her timeline. 11 years after the “promise” by God was made, Sarai became impatient and came up with the grand idea that since God had not fulfilled his promise in her timing, she was going to take it upon herself and come up with this (what she thought was) brilliant idea to have her husband sleep with her maidservant to give her a child. Enter Ishmael (Gen 16). (Side note- Gen 16:5, Sarai blames Abraham for coming up with the idea!) It took another 14 years of waiting, a total of 25 years, until God fulfilled His promise to give Sarai and Abraham a son, Isaac (Gen 21). 25 years of waiting! My immediate reaction is, God, please not 25 years. All of the failures that Sarai faced: impatience, insubordination, intolerance and infidelity were ultimately repented of and she was able to conquer the impossibly, improbably, the inadequate, the inconsistency and infidelity of her situation through faith. Pastor J pointed out in his conclusion that suffering is the #1 teacher of Godliness and waiting is #2.

God best is worth waiting for, I do not doubt that ever. My prayer is that when it gets hard, I will remember this sermon, I will remember that God fulfills His promises. I will remember that trying to come up with my own idea to fulfill God’s promise is likely to only cause problems. I will remember that in waiting, I am learning what it means to be like Jesus. I will remember these verses when waiting seems difficult:

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. -Psalm 27:14   

LORD, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God. -Psalm 38:15

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. -Psalm 130:5

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.- Romans 8:25

  

Dear Jesus,

I cannot wait to be with You in Heaven. I cannot wait to Worship You with my hands raised all the days of Eternity. Waiting Lord is hard. And with all my heart I believe you understand exactly how I feel. Lord I thank about the time when you were in the garden, down on your knees asking God to take away what was coming if it was His will. You then waited as we nailed you to the cross and your human body began to fail. You then waited 3 days before returning to life and ultimately to Heaven. I believe you understand exactly what it means to wait on our Father, and Jesus I come to you tonight asking You to give me patience. Calm my anxious soul for answers, help me to remember that you are faithful in your timing with all that You have for me. Help me to store up the verses above in my heard and guard them so that I can carry them with me wherever I go. Jesus I love you, I love the moments where I feel your presence and since your direction. Thank you for this life in You. I deserve death, I deserve hell, and yet You died to allow me to be in communion with You always. May you Lord continue to use my hands and my feet as you will, in your perfect timing.

I love you Jesus.

Lyrics from Chris Tomlin’s “Our God is Greater”

Water You turned into wine
Open the eyes of the blind
There’s no one like You
None like You
Into the darkness You shine
Out of the ashes we rise
There’s no one like You
None like You

Our God is greater, our God is stronger
God You are higher than any other
Our God is Healer, awesome in power
Our God, Our God…

And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?
And if Our God is for us, then who could ever stop us
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against?
What can stand against?