The Lesson In Waiting

Are you waiting for something in your life? Something that you have been praying for? 

A new job? A husband? To Start a Family? For your spouse to come to Christ? For God to use you for his work? 

Are you waiting, but life feels stagnate? Stuck in this place of waiting where nothing seems to be happening and you don't think God is working in your life.

Where is he? When will it all finally happen? When will this waiting period end? 

I find myself asking these questions because nothing seems to be moving forward. I am stuck in a place where all I want is for God to work in my life and in my family life. 

The problem though in asking these questions is that we expect God to go by our own timeline, when we think things should happen. We expect Him to change his plan just so that we don't have to wait any longer. 

That's not how it works because it isn't about us. 

It's about God and his plan. His Timing, Not Ours. 

The truth of the matter is that this world and Gods plan, doesn't revolve around us and our wants. Everything that God does is for the good of ALL and for the completion of his plan. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

So, instead of begging, pleading for God to just let everything happen now. 

We need to be asking God: 

What lesson are you teaching me as I wait? 

What qualities in me is He changing so that I am ready when it is time?

God is always working in you and your life. We may not see it because we have a limited view. We don't have the whole picture. But, God does, and everything he is doing is on his time and we must have faith that He is preparing something so much better for our lives that what we could ever plan ourselves. 

We must be patient because he is trying to grow and mature us in this time. 

Have you ever looked back at your life and thought, wow God was really changing me during that. Or I learned so much from that experience. Most of the time, you won't be able to see what God is doing while he is doing it. Whether you are dealing with a tough home life, a job you hate, or you want to start a family but nothings happening. Once you get to the end of your long wait, His plan is always a million times better than you could ever dream of. 

"Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told."

Habakkuk 1:5

Take Esther for example. Xerxes dethroned Vashti in the third year of his reign. Called for the virgins of all the land to compete for the crown and they were brought to the palace. However, they had to undergo 12 months each of beauty treatments: 6 months of training and treatments in oil and myrrh and 6 months with perfumes and cosmetics. But it wasn't until the seventh year of his reign that Xerxes crowned Esther Queen. 

She had to wait not only her whole life but then once brought to the palace, 4 more years of not knowing what God's plan for her life was. Four years of actively waiting. 

Though she was waiting God was still getting everything into place, and when the day finally came and she became Queen I am sure she looked back and saw God's hand in everything too. 

photo credit: Mancha Extraña via photopin cc photo credit: JD Hancock via photopin cc