Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14
Impatient. Is that a word that would describe you? I will be the first to answer that question with a big ol’ yes! I think most of us would agree that as a society in whole, it seems we are getting more and more impatient and when we want things, we want them now!! We tend to thrive and even demand instant gratification.
With all the new technology, one area I find myself with less patience in is watching TV. I have gotten so accustomed to streaming my favorite shows and in doing so that means I can fast forward through all the commercials. When I sit down and watch a live show with commercials that I cannot speed through, well my impatient side tends to show its ugly head. How about you? What is that one thing that can make you irritable if you have to wait? Don’t get me wrong, I am sure I could make a list of stuff that tests my patience but the TV is just the one that came to mind at this moment.
In our lives, each one of us will face moments of waiting. It may be waiting on test results from a doctor visit. Waiting on God to open a door to a new career path. Waiting on that answer to a prayer that you have been praying for months, maybe even years. We pray. We wait. We pray some more. We look for any signs that God may be moving on our behalf and we continue to wait. Sometimes we may get restless and try to take matters into our own hands but more times than not, the outcome will be a disaster because we chose not to wait. We are called to wait upon the Lord but that concept is so hard or is it just me?
What if we looked at those seasons of waiting as opportunities to grow and be polished up by our Creator. What if those moments are actually for our benefit if we allow them? In waiting, I always see it as an occasion to grow in patience. Do I enjoy it? Nope, but patience is a Fruit of the Spirit, so it has to be good for me to gain more of it. But what if there is more to it? What if these waiting periods are a chance for me to surrender the weight that I didn’t even realize I had been carrying around whether it be my concerns about the present or my desires for the future. We all have expectations of how we want our lives to pan out. You know, those plans we have put in place in our minds that we want to see carried out in a specific way. But what if the process is more about letting go of that detailed timeline of the life we have all planned out in our heads, and fully surrendering it over to God?
Listen, there are going to be times in your life when you may feel so behind in your journey. This may occur in your teens, twenties or thirties. I fall into the forties group and I can tell you, it happens there too. You may currently feel like you are in the waiting room of life where everyone around you seems to be moving forward and you are just stuck. Waiting. May I just encourage you to hang on a little longer because one day the tide will turn for you. Circumstances will get better and your day will come when the sun shines a little brighter for you. Do not get discouraged and listen to the lies of your enemy. Oftentimes in the waiting rooms of our lives, we feel alone so you better believe the enemy is going to come at you. He knows when we feel isolated, we are an easier target. Do not listen to him. God cares for you. He loves you. He is working on your story. He hasn’t forgotten you or your dreams. He has good plans for you, so just hang tight and remember God is not bound by our timeline. We can get so wrapped in what we think our future plans should be and how our dreams should unfold that instead of leaning on God and his will for our lives, we try to force it to happen all on our own. It never works out well when we try to take the reins. We must learn to surrender our wants, desires and dreams over to our Creator for he knows what is best for us. We also need to ask for his help in aligning our will with his will.
His ways > Our ways
Around eighteen years ago, my family was looking for a newer home with more space for our growing family. God ended up putting us in a nice house in a subdivision. To be honest, we really didn’t want to move there but I knew in my heart it was where God wanted us to go at that time. During the eight years we lived there our hope and dream was to one day be back out in the country with a few acres. We discussed it from time to time and I knew that if that was what was best for us then God would open a door for us one day, so we had to learn to wait. That day came about and was in a period when we weren’t even looking to move. I had a friend tell me about a house and I casually looked it up online and we discussed going to look at it. From there it all just fell into place very quickly. God’s hand was in the whole process. The new house and property checked so many boxes we had when it came to our ideal home. It has become our little sanctuary here on Earth. I do feel like if we wouldn’t have waited on God those years we lived in the subdivision, who knows where we would have ended up and we would have missed what God had planned for us.
I tell you this to encourage you that God sees you and He knows your hearts desires. Trust him. His ways are always better and can outshine your wildest dreams if you will surrender them over to him and yes, WAIT UPON HIM.
Whatever you do, keep moving forward!
Hayley W
Unpolished & Imperfect 