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Wait it out

Several verses today that gave me pause:


"Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near" James 5:7-8.
The wise King Solomon wrote, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." Ecc 3:1.

His father David remarked, "Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord" Psalm 27:14.

The Proverbs say, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths" Prov 3:5-6.

I have a love-hate relationship with God's timing.  I love when it comes through and He is proven in control, yet one more time, over the affairs of life.  I hate how long it often it takes and how it never appears to be when "I think' it should occur.  There are plenty of times when I think that God rushing in on a white horse would clarify and explain, bring justice and the right conclusions, yet He waits.  He wait even though He clearly could make a difference.  His timing elicits the only response I can think of, "God what are you waiting for?"

My friend once said to me, "Don't see conflict as something between you and other people.  See is as a pathway for solution between you and God."  What I took away from that conversation, is that everything I was experiencing was God's tool to make me a stronger man, a better husband and father, and a better 'man of God'.  Whether it was fair or not didn't matter.  Whether I deserved it or not was the wrong question.  The answer was me seeing it for the season that it was.  God had allowed this in the hopes that we could turn the ugly into the beautiful...seeing this verse fulfilled"

To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3

Think of all the things in life that require waiting.  You can eat the raw components of a pie.  Doesn't it taste better when the ingredients are all cooked together?  Sex outside of marriage is almost a forgone conclusion in our culture today.  What has been seen statically of the results of waiting? 
You can eat a green tomato.  Don't you find it taste better on a sandwich if its red?

The farmer who plants today will go crazy if every day he is measuring the newly planted growth.
The christian who exercises faith today will go equally crazy if tomorrow he is measuring the increase of his life.

These things simply take time.

Look at the words that echo in the above verses:  (Patient, time, season. wait, courage and strength, trust)  There is a common theme - that I will put into a thesis statement as we conclude:

There are times and seasons when God allows us certain struggles.  The result of these struggles often turn us to being stronger, more bold and faithful believers.  The increase in these things breeds and increase in more of God. 

Wait is out - God is in the change business...







Comments

  1. susiearwineFebruary 14, 2018 at 11:58 AM

    This is so true.... but our timing is hard to get past and rest in His! Good Word PA!

    ReplyDelete

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