How many of you are waiting for something? Waiting for something to happen, come, start, stop, or change? Waiting for a check. Waiting for an acceptance letter. Waiting for results. Waiting for the weekend. Waiting for pay. Waiting to stay. Waiting to see. Waiting to be. Be a doctor. A student. An employee. A boss. A parent. A spouse. Waiting. Life is full of waiting.
We sometimes wait, what seems or actually is, a lifetime. We go through cycles of being hopeful, being patient, being angry, being discouraged, being impatient, becoming complacent, becoming despondent, and giving up -- only to realize that no matter how we feel, feelings cannot hurry the waiting process. Patience and faith are the only remedy to pains of waiting, and time is the ultimate victor. The wait will be the wait for the determined wait period.
Go from waiting to doing. To wait does not mean to stop. Many of us become paralyzed or stagnant is all areas of our lives because we are waiting for something in one area of our lives. Don't let having to wait steal precious time from you that you can use toward your purpose -- even if what you are waiting for is tied to your purpose, it is not the only purpose related activity you can do. To "wait on the Lord" does not mean to sit still and do nothing. The Psalm 46:10 verse, "Be still, and know that I am God", is encouragement from the Lord to be reflective and meditative on the fact that He is indeed God - sovereign and in total control. When we are still, we submit and surrender to God's power and His will. We wait on Him to act on our behalves.
Don't jump ahead. Trust me, the results are never good when you skip the waiting period. You risk walking away empty-handed, getting something still in its incubation stage, getting the wrong item, or getting a poor or inadequate substitute. The consequences of impatience and premature action are equally far reaching and lasting as the benefits of waiting. Do not start a chain of events that you will look back on with regret, only wishing (in hindsight, of course) that you had waited in the first place. Jumping ahead can cause you to miss the mark. As the adage says, it's better to be safe than sorry. Don't be tempted to skip steps and push the "fast forward" button. Instead, patiently wait on the Lord and hit the bulls-eye.
Change your stance. If you change your stance from replying on your own efforts to make something happen to truly waiting on the Lord, you will see better results. Waiting on God invigorates you instead of deflating you. Isaiah 40:31 says, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Waiting on God means standing in faith and believing that God will provide whatever you are waiting for. Now, this takes major trust and the willingness to forgo the exact thing that you want for the precise thing that God wants to give you. Sometimes, what you are awaiting will take on a different size, shape, color, or life. This is because God's sees the big picture and connect the dots far better than you ever could. When He makes the arrangements, He is thinking of everything and everyone that is impacted by the thing that you are awaiting. God is broad in His scope. Change your stance to "big picture" thinking and reliance on and trust in the Lord, and you will be energized and motivated to wait for His best.
Go ahead -- GIVE UP! Okay, this is not what you think. I am not encouraging you to lose hope and faith while waiting. Faith is the activator to receiving that for which you wait. I am not talking about everyday waiting -- like waiting for the food in the microwave to heat up; waiting for the traffic light to change; or waiting in line at the grocery store. I am talking about faith strengthening, life changing, purpose filled, God sanctioned waiting. When you are doing this kind of waiting, it is easy to get discouraged and want to give up -- give up the hope of "it" happening and give up faith in God. That is not what I am encouraging here. I am encouraging the RELEASE kind of GIVE UP. Conceptually, you would be going in the right direction, but the difference is your heart and your head. With the release kind of give up, you are releasing the obsession of wanting to have or make "it" happen. You are giving up the desire to jump ahead of God. You are releasing the pain, effort, crying days, sleepless nights, wandering thoughts that you are putting into the waiting process -- trying to move it along. I am encouraging you to STOP! GIVE UP! RELEASE! This is when you will see some traction -- when you act like you don't care (but you still really do). The best analogy that I can give you is when a child is with his or parent, he or she does not really have a care in the world. The child is safe, fed, clothed, housed, loved, and attended to. In a normal situation, the child does not have to "do" anything extra to get these things. Waiting requires a child-like faith, knowing that no matter how long you wait, God will give you what you're waiting for -- in the form that is best for you, at the time that you need it.
Jacinta M. Gray,
The Couch Coach