"It's a Patience thing"
"They that wait up the Lord shall renew their strength...”
As a human being, waiting is not necessarily in my character design. It’s something I have to practice, train myself, and learn in-depth to appreciate it.
We live in a society where we want everything right now. Patience is not a strong suit taught today, but rather entitlement has taken its place.
I, myself, am not the most patient oriented person. Depending on what I am waiting for or how important the need for it is, it’s hard to wait. Maybe you are someone struggling financially and bills just keep piling up suffocating you. Perhaps you’re looking for educational direction in life but doors keep closing; maybe starting a family is on the top of the list, but for whatever reason the results keep coming back negative. Perhaps physical needs tend to scream at you every day and the discomfort just won’t go away. There may be answers yet to be resolved—the unknown factor, possibly emotional distress has you knotted up inside, and getting your mind and thoughts straight seem to be an unending battle to unscramble. There are SO many, many needs. So many miracles we desire to see. This is not wrong, we were created to need, to desire, to long for change in our situations, however, patience has not been programmed into us, but rather something God saw the need for us to learn as we go, to obtain.
Have you ever stopped and thought about what “waiting” is? The definition for Waiting is, “the action of staying where one is or delaying action until a particular time or until something else happens.”
Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.”
What happens when you wait? You find rest. And in rest comes peace of mind. In order to rest, you shut out everything, every distraction and focus on ONE thing, resting. When you rest you regain your composure, you catch your breath (so the speak), and you regain your energy to move forward. Waiting gives your body and mind the opportunity to become prepared, to refocus. Think of it. I mean, that typically why people take vacations because they desire to get rested.
When all you do is go, go, go, go, and do, do, do, do the frazzle day factor becomes HIGH and you get hurt. Some of us have that mentality that we just have to keep at it, CHARGE! You get in that mind set that you think you HAVE to keep going and allow everything to fall on your shoulders. You feel you HAVE to make things happen because apparently God isn’t moving, so that means I’ve got too “create the miracle myself”. You get that mentality that with out YOU nothing will transpire: goals, dreams, desires, ambitions etc...will ALL become forever lost IF you slack. Sadly, I’ve been this person to the tee. They only thing I had to show for my self-efforts was HIGH stress and mental turmoil, I wasn’t a happy person.
The reality of it is, sometimes our “gunhoe” attitude places our lives in a stalemate position where nothing moves in our lives, nothing changes or happens. We become hamsters in that plastic ball just going around in circles hoping we will get somewhere somehow, but all we do is EXHAUST ourselves out. When exhaustion becomes the picture, clear thinking goes out the window, emotions sky rocket, and God becomes the one with whom we have an issue—the blamed one. “Why God are you not hearing me?! I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and even weped before you! I’ve been trying so hard for you!!!”
STOP!!!! And wait....The most powerful miracles that took place where in the silence and there can only be silence when you wait my friend.
Habakkuk 2:3, “For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
I like this verse because it says, “for an appointed time...”. There is a time and a season for everything in our lives. Eccls 3:1, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven...”
Waiting is NOT easy at all especially if your a “make it happen now” person like I am, but God is sovereign and He sees the entire picture and at times in our lives God sees our need to wait on Him and the valuable lessons we are to learn during that time frame. Perspective is everything my friend. Perhaps you’re time, your season is to “Wait Upon the Lord”. Stand back and see the salvation of the Lord. God has not left you, nor abandon you, He’s just asking you to wait. Can you do this? Will you do this?
What are the promises of waiting? Renewed strength and with this strength the ability to press on in Christ. God is not slack, but rather His thoughts towards YOU are that you prosper. Let this encourage you as you wait my friends.
Lamentations 3:25, “The LORD [is] good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.”
God Bless...