While I'm waiting

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.'" - Matthew 11:28

"Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him." - Psalm 62:5

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." - Philippians 4:6

"Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?" - Luke 12:25-26

"Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word." - Psalm 119:37

"I'm waiting, I'm waiting on You Lord
And I am hopeful, I'm waiting on You Lord
Though it is painful, but patiently I will wait

And I will move ahead bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience

While I'm waiting I will serve You
While I'm waiting I will worship
While I'm waiting I will not faint
I'll be running the race even while I wait."

- While I'm Waiting, John Waller

 

 

Being anxious and worrying is not something that God has in mind for us. But it seems like such a foreign concept sometime. Oh yeah, that's because it is. "Dear friends, I warn you as 'temporary residents and foreigners' to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls." - 1 Peter 2:11. "But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." - Hebrews 11:16. So sometimes thinking about resting in the Lord while I'm waiting or while I'm hurting seems impossible. I don't know what that looks like sometimes.

 

People in the bible did a lot of waiting too. God gave Joseph dreams of ruling Egypt, and then he waited years before seeing that promise fulfilled and in the meantime he was in slavery and in jail, separated from his family and in an unfamiliar land. God told Abraham he would finally have a son, but years went by and he still didn't have one... it took a long time, and Abraham's effort to speed up that process was a giant failure. Mary, Jesus' mother, was told that she was going to have the Son of God and that He would save the world, and she waited 30 years before seeing what Jesus was even doing on this earth! She might not have had any idea when he would perform miracles, and I know she didn't know the extent of what those miracles were! I feel like when he was 29 she would have thought, "Ok really God? Not much has happened in His 29 years of life so far."

 

Pulling vegetables out of the ground too early will give you unfinished vegetables. Stopping the oven too soon will give you unfinished cake. Throwing a flower away before the bud opens will make you miss the point of the flower. Turning off the TV before the show is over leads to confusion and unanswered questions because the show wasn't over yet.

 

I want the finished product, the solution, the answers, the beauty, the greatness of what is to come! But God's not ready for that yet. And just like in the John Waller song I posted above, I will still worship and serve Him while I'm waiting. I will still follow His commands to the best of my ability, I will still chose to love instead of giving up on people, and I will still seek to know Him better, so that when God says, "It's go time!" then I will hear His voice loud and clear, and be ready to go right then.