Waiting
I can稚 believe I left a book out of yesterday痴 list! How could I ever forget a book on waiting?!! LOL
So, I have A Time To Wait: Biblical Insights On Trusting God痴 Timing, by Liz Morris, a slim paperback that looks deceptively lightweight.
Waiting痴 never easy, but if you look into the Bible, God seems to be forever telling us to wait�
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:14)
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. (Psalm 37:7)
Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. (Psalm 37:34)
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:25-26)
Saul, King of Israel, got into trouble coz he couldn稚 (or wouldn稚) wait. A huge army was preparing to go to war against his nation, but he was told to wait seven days for the prophet Samuel to arrive. He waited and waited and waited� in the meantime, his men began to get restless. The Bible records, 鄭ll the troops with him were quaking with fear� (I Samuel 13:7); some even left! On the seventh day, Saul couldn稚 wait any longer and decided to take things into his own hands. Just as he finished making the offering to God, Samuel arrived.
添ou acted foolishly,� Samuel said. 添ou have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, He would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of His people, because you have not kept the Lord痴 command.� (v13-14). Ouch.
As I was reading A Time To Wait, Morris pointed out that Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years to see the fulfillment of God痴 promise, 的 will make you into a great nation,� (Genesis 12:2). How could Abraham father a great nation when he was childless? His son, Isaac, was conceived when Sarah was waaaaay past child-bearing age, and Abraham himself 99 years old!
Joseph waited approximately 22 years to see the completion of God痴 plan in his life. As a young boy, he had been given two dreams that hinted at a future of power and influence. Yet his brothers sold him as a slave, he was falsely accused of seducing his master痴 wife, and, in what was probably the lowest point of his life, he was left to languish in prison. Then, God decided that it was time, and the next thing Joseph knew, he was being appointed prime minister of Egypt!
Moses knew that he was destined to help the Israelites, who were enslaved by the Egyptians. An Israelite himself, he would have been killed as a baby, except that his mother hid him in a basket along the Nile riverbank. Pharaoh痴 daughter discovered the infant and decided to adopt him. Years later, all grown up, Moses tried to take matters into his own hands, killed an Egyptian, and had to flee. He then spent 40 years in the desert looking after sheep before God called him and told him to go rescue the Israelites.
FORTY YEARS! Forty years spent waiting. I知 like, 鏑ord, pleeeeeeaaaase don稚 make me wait forty years�� *rueful smile*
But I致e discovered something interesting. Abraham, Joseph and Moses all had something to wait for. Each of them walked under a sense of destiny, holding onto a promise from God. Now I, on the other hand, don稚 have a clue about what on earth I知 waiting for!
I have been feeling more and more strongly lately that God is doing something in my life right now, preparing me for something new. But I don稚 know what it is, and I don稚 have the faintest idea what direction I知 heading in. It痴 like fumbling around in the dark.
Still, I figure God probably knows what He痴 doing (*grin*), coz it痴 all I can do to simply walk with Him one day at a time. Every morning, I make a fresh commitment to live for Him for just that day itself. Let me not worry about yesterday, for I致e been forgiven; nor tomorrow, for it痴 not yet here. Let me just live today for Him. Amen.
(also see The Waiting Prayer)