Day Seventeen - Patience

Patience.

What a horrible word to hear when you are waiting, hoping, anxious, excited, filled with fear, or filled with blissful anticipation. I struggle here, no news to you about me, but what about you? Does anyone like to wait? Waiting on God is hard because we can't see what the delay might be.

When my wife is delayed, I can go see her, I can assume, I can text or call, I can send one of the kids to go check on her. If I am waiting for my food to come out of the kitchen at a restaurant, I can ask the waitress, get up and go look in the kitchen (which I have done - I don't recommend it), or I can look around and see if they are busy or short staffed. When we wait on God, we wonder if we have failed to communicate the need sufficiently, or if we have a sin issue that is hindering Him from providing. Sometimes we wonder if He is listening, cares, or is actually real.

Our level of frustration and panic varies based upon the urgency of the need. Some people never recover spiritually from God's delays and especially God's no's. Walking by faith instead of by sight is maybe our greatest challenge. I hear all the time, "If I just knew what God wanted, I would do it." Not sure that is always true, but that is at least what we say.

Can I implore you to remember something? Every spiritual problem/question has a Biblical solution/answer. Waiting on God is hard. Just listening for God's still, small voice is hard enough, but when we think we've done everything we know to do and still we wait, well, that is what separates us as believers sometimes. The casual will fall away if the wait goes on for long, but the Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, yielding saint to His Lordship will forge on knowing that our God will not forsake us. He has a plan, it's for our good, and, thus, we should trust Him.

Read Daniel 10:1-19

I could, and perhaps should, read this account every day. Twenty-one days, he fasted. On the twenty-fourth day, the messenger and the message arrived. Daniel did not know what was happening, but God had things well in hand.

When we fast and pray, Heaven takes notice. Don't ever give up on God. God's delays might be your salvation. God only knows how things would have turned out in our lives if we had received all we asked and prayed for. I can promise you that God has protected you from yourself far more often then you can imagine.

We don't like to wait, because it might bring about a struggle. Fire refines gold. Iron sharpens iron. We like water like the path of least resistance, but that resistance, that struggle, that heat, that valley, might just be what you need most. Learn and listen. Count the trials as joy. Look for God and His graces in these difficult times. Pearls are formed as a result of an irritant. most good in our lives come out of struggle; ask any mother, ask any athlete, ask any scholar and any artist: little effort = little reward.

God hears you. Yes, we always need to consider our circumstances, are other people with free will involved, is there a sin in my life that is hindering God, etc.. All great questions, of course, but could the issue be you? Yes! Could the issue be Satan hindering the process? Yes! FYI, the Prince of Persia is a clear reference to Satan.

 I just don't want you to give up in the wait of faith. There is the walk of faith, but the wait of faith is just as real.


In Christ,
Pastor Todd