I want. Please make it happen...right now.
I want. Can you show me that you are working on this?
That is what I tell God. "I trust you will do what I want, right away."
"Yes, but....I have something more for you."
Grrr. I really do want to be in His will. I really do want what He wants for my life. But I have found I have something in common with Corrie ten Boom. In her book "Tramp for the Lord" she talks about how she had a tendency to lay out all the plans and then ask for God's endorsement. She learned that it was much better to have Him draft up the plans and her just sign on the dotted line.
I still struggle with that. If what I want is a worthy, good thing that is in line with His Word...why can't I have it....now? Wow. How impatient am I?!
He has clearly shown me this week that His answer is not necessarily no...He just has other things He is working out first. So I sit. And wait. And trust. And watch Him do things in the process that I never imagined could be done.
While I am waiting, He is working.
He is teaching me right now. Teaching me that He doesn't hold out on you just to show you He can. He is working. He is orchestrating. He is refining you. He is using your experience to touch others. He is putting all the pieces in place. He is removing your notion that you have the ability to do it all on your own. He is giving you time to realize that He has the power to work the miracles, not you. He wants to bless you.
"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Isaiah 30:18
Blessed are all who wait for him. Blessed.
I must admit, it doesn't feel like a blessing to wait. But maybe my waiting is blessing others. And maybe someday I will look back at my time of waiting and be able to see the full picture of the blessing in my own life as well.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
God helps us through our struggles so that we may help others. These two verses speak of God as being a God of compassion. Dictionary.com defines compassion as "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." God does not desire for us to stay in the difficulty. He works to alleviate the suffering. He sends others who understand to help us, so that the waiting will be bearable.
How thankful I am of dear friends who understand! I can never fully express how much they help! And I hope that I can be that help to others as well.
I have been finding so many amazing scriptures of comfort and hope and encouragement. Scriptures that show me how amazing and powerful God is. It is not through my strength, my wit, my wisdom, my abilities that anything happens. It is all God. I pray that the process, the journey, the waiting, and whatever comes of it all, will glorify Him. And that at some point, I might get better at this waiting thing and learn to let Him draft up the plans for me to sign on the dotted line!
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory...for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21
2 comments:
This is so true - I find waiting on our Father can be one of the hardest things to do, but the most rewarding. He, alone, knows what is best for us and many times that is to wait and learn patience.
Thank you for posting these wonderful things. They have spoken so close to home.
Thanks for the encouragement, Angie. This really struck a chord with me in our so far 4-year long secondary infertility trial.
~Laura Phelps
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