Waiting
I don't know about you, but I really don't like waiting. Our culture avoids it at all costs and has invented so many ways to never experience it: self-check outs, drive throughs, 5g LTE (or whatever that fancy name is for phone speeds...), pre-check TSA lines at the airport, HOV lanes, etc. We are just not a culture of waiting.
As I'm trying to prepare and finish raising the funds and partners for missions, I'm beginning to understand that waiting is not one of my strong skills.
I get anxious. I get nauseas. I give myself mini panic attacks. I try to find any and all ways I can control it and lessen the waiting. I analyze everything and don't understand why it can't just happen. I get envious of others who don't have to wait. I compare my journey to theirs.
I start questioning God. Does He not understand He needs to hurry up? Does He not understand I have a little timeline in my mind and that He needs to get on board with that? Does He not understand that I don't need to learn another lesson here - there's time for that another day?
Yea......those are all the questions I've been asking Him recently. It sounds awful when you lay it all out there doesn't it? It's easy to keep those thoughts hidden in your own head and heart. When they're hidden and you don't tell anyone, you can just think them to yourself and no one will no any better! Although this isn't the main point of this post, it's important to point out that God knows all of those thoughts, whether you say them out loud or not. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that nothing is hidden from God's sight - nothing!
As I've been studying God's Word the past few days, I keep getting pulled to verses that talk about waiting on the Lord. I don't like those right now, so I skim past them. Yet God keeps bringing them up over, and over, and over again. I'm finding they're literally all over the Bible, which means I haven't been able to avoid them.
So I stubbornly decided to pay attention to the Spirit's nudging, and now my heart is overwhelmed with just HOW much God knows and sees, and how waiting can really produce the most beautiful reliance on Him!
Isaiah 40 is just a beautiful chapter in general, but verses 25 - 31 spoke to many of my questions and anxiousness in waiting:
God tells me in His Word that we can't compare anything to Him. He created all of this beauty Himself - there isn't one thing that is missing! God knows it all. He sees it all. He created it all. Perfectly! That means that He knows every detail of our life, and knows when we are struggling and wanting for something.
He tells us that He will never grow faint, or tired, or weary. He won't be worn out from anxiousness like we are prone to do. Even as a youth - supposedly full of energy and at my prime - I get tired. So easily, especially with the stress of waiting! Knowing this, God gives us power and strength! He doesn't leave us to ourselves - praise the Lord!
See how it says we renew our strength? By waiting for the Lord! That was the piece that I skimmed over out of frustration. It doesn't just say that we get strength from waiting, either. It tells us that by waiting on the Lord, we will have wings like EAGLES. We will run and not grow weary (which is crazy because I get tired of running pretty darn quick...). We will walk and not faint.
I can trust that my Father, as the Creator of all of the universe, knows that I'm struggling. He knows my questions, fears, and the timeline I've set up. He also knows that I grow weary when I wait. So, He points me back to the truth that by waiting on Him, I gain strength like an eagle with perseverance unknown to man.
God's Word is truly living and active, and above all else - absolutely beautiful.
As I'm trying to prepare and finish raising the funds and partners for missions, I'm beginning to understand that waiting is not one of my strong skills.
I get anxious. I get nauseas. I give myself mini panic attacks. I try to find any and all ways I can control it and lessen the waiting. I analyze everything and don't understand why it can't just happen. I get envious of others who don't have to wait. I compare my journey to theirs.
I start questioning God. Does He not understand He needs to hurry up? Does He not understand I have a little timeline in my mind and that He needs to get on board with that? Does He not understand that I don't need to learn another lesson here - there's time for that another day?
Yea......those are all the questions I've been asking Him recently. It sounds awful when you lay it all out there doesn't it? It's easy to keep those thoughts hidden in your own head and heart. When they're hidden and you don't tell anyone, you can just think them to yourself and no one will no any better! Although this isn't the main point of this post, it's important to point out that God knows all of those thoughts, whether you say them out loud or not. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that nothing is hidden from God's sight - nothing!
But back to the waiting.....
As I've been studying God's Word the past few days, I keep getting pulled to verses that talk about waiting on the Lord. I don't like those right now, so I skim past them. Yet God keeps bringing them up over, and over, and over again. I'm finding they're literally all over the Bible, which means I haven't been able to avoid them.
So I stubbornly decided to pay attention to the Spirit's nudging, and now my heart is overwhelmed with just HOW much God knows and sees, and how waiting can really produce the most beautiful reliance on Him!
Isaiah 40 is just a beautiful chapter in general, but verses 25 - 31 spoke to many of my questions and anxiousness in waiting:
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
God tells me in His Word that we can't compare anything to Him. He created all of this beauty Himself - there isn't one thing that is missing! God knows it all. He sees it all. He created it all. Perfectly! That means that He knows every detail of our life, and knows when we are struggling and wanting for something.
He tells us that He will never grow faint, or tired, or weary. He won't be worn out from anxiousness like we are prone to do. Even as a youth - supposedly full of energy and at my prime - I get tired. So easily, especially with the stress of waiting! Knowing this, God gives us power and strength! He doesn't leave us to ourselves - praise the Lord!
See how it says we renew our strength? By waiting for the Lord! That was the piece that I skimmed over out of frustration. It doesn't just say that we get strength from waiting, either. It tells us that by waiting on the Lord, we will have wings like EAGLES. We will run and not grow weary (which is crazy because I get tired of running pretty darn quick...). We will walk and not faint.
I can trust that my Father, as the Creator of all of the universe, knows that I'm struggling. He knows my questions, fears, and the timeline I've set up. He also knows that I grow weary when I wait. So, He points me back to the truth that by waiting on Him, I gain strength like an eagle with perseverance unknown to man.
God's Word is truly living and active, and above all else - absolutely beautiful.
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