WHEN WAITING IS
WEARYING
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Image Courtesy of www.josimarie.com |
There are times
in our lives when we need to move into new territories and abandon old ones.
These are times when we have to let go of the status quo and venture into new
waters. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s scary; it’s uncomfortable and it’s
threatening. However, when the
cost of staying where you are outweighs the cost of moving into the unknown the
only logical way is forward. And that’s easy because we rate our decision based
on a win-lose platform. What happens when it’s a status quo-unknown situation?
What does one do when there are no clear skies to land and there’s more tension
than vision? What happens when your current job is not where you are meant to
be but you’re afraid to move because jobs are scarce? Or you’re waiting on a
relationship matter? When God says to trust him wholly in such situations, we
begin to notice certain things about the Almighty that limit our response to
his trust offer. For instance, he’s invisible. When pushed to desperation,
it’s easier to trust a paycheck you can see than cattle on a thousand hills
that you cannot see. Yet that’s what makes this walk with Jesus beautiful.
Faith by not
what we see
It’s the way God
works. It’s how he relates with us. For the times we do not see the next step
and choose to act on faith, we also take a step towards growth. We grow our
spirit man, we grow our soul, we grow our character and we grow our love for
God. To choose to live by only what we see is to refuse to grow. A friend of
mine jokes when quoting Psalm 119:105. He says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet and not a floodlight unto my path.” Yet in that jest, a profound truth
rests. To walk by faith is to have the lamp just light the next step and it is
within our jurisdiction to take it without stressing over what the rest of the
path looks like. Not so with a floodlight that shows you feet ahead. It is the way our Lord works and it is
beautiful.
Human nature has
a knack to take things for granted and I believe Christ knows it too well. We
take the cross for granted after hearing the story for so long until we watch a
Mel Gibson movie. And even still, we say it’s just a movie and take it for
granted. We take nature for granted until we watch a video by Al Gore on how
we’ve killed mother earth. We take our spouses, our family and our friends for
granted with increase in familiarity until one of them rests on a deathbed. And
so do we take grace for granted having forgotten the depth of that very word. I
mean, you’re reading this and guess what? You’re not among the 3 billion
illiterate people in the world who cannot decipher the strokes of a pen. Have
you taken it for granted? And it might be possible that if we lived a life of
what we saw as opposed by faith, we would take Christ’s blessings and intervention
for granted. For a long time I believed that if only I had what I wanted, then
I’d be thankful. Yet, Christ impresses in my heart that if only I’d be thankful
for what I already have, will I then be happy. Having and lacking are dependent
on a zillion factors, more than half beyond our control. Being thankful is
within the control of one person, you. Happiness and Joy are dependent on
thankfulness. So happiness is just a thank you away or a wait-till-I-have-it
away. If you ask me, the latter may even never come.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
says, “Though the fig tree may not
blossom. Nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and
the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and
there be no herd in the stalls- yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in
the God of my salvation.”
You say, that’s
a nice verse Ernest but is God saying that he wants me to compare myself to
impoverished children in Africa and be content even if my lack is hurting me?
The answer is no. God, more than your mama and your Landlord, wants you to be
prosperous and successful. He says in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the
plans I have for you…plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Emphasis my own).
Then why doesn’t he? The oven needs to be cleaned before we bake a new cake.
The broom needs to be picked before it can sweep clean. The shirt needs to be
mended before we can put it on. And the human needs to have the right attitude
and standing with God before he can be in it for a blessing with a promise. Look
at Habakkuk 3:17-18 again.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 “Though the fig tree may not
blossom. Nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and
the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and
there be no herd in the stalls- yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in
the God of my salvation.”
I don’t think
the issue is your lack hurting you. I think the issue is you finding more
satisfaction in having what you lack than having satisfaction in the God of
your salvation. God is more interested in you being holy than in you being
rich. Hard truth huh? What if I even told you that God’s desire for marriage is
to make you holy before making you happy? You say, Ernest, you’re beginning a
cult here. Ok, let me quote some scripture then. God’s overall purpose for
humanity is to be conformed to the image of his son. What is that, you ask?
That means to become like JESUS in every way. And he will work everything (both
evil and good) to ensure that that happens. He purposed this even before the
dinosaurs roamed the earth. This is found in Romans 8:28-29.
Romans 8:28-29 “And we know that all things work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (NKJV)
His ultimate
course for you is to be as Christ Jesus was i.e. to be a Holy people. And by
holy I’m not talking about doing stuff to please God. God loves Ernest the same
way he loves Hitler. In fact Ernest may be worse than Hitler in the eyes of
God. His love for us is not based on us being good. But his rewards are based
on us being faithful. Holiness is not a state of taintless nature but a pursuit
towards being taintless. We can’t live taintless cause we sin even after we
receive Christ. The only person who can be taintless in a human body is God
a.k.a Jesus Christ.
What does that
have to do with paragraph one about waiting on God? Everything. As we wait on
God and take a step of faith where we do not see, our focus shouldn’t be on
waiting for the time to come so that we can move on. Our waiting is upon a
blessing, a door or a reward based on practicing holy living. Therefore our
waiting should be as God intends us to wait. Holy waiting, if you like. Wait, God has one of those? Yep. He pretty much has everything
figured out. That should comfort you if you have given your life to Christ cause
it means you are his child, like a blood relative (see John 1:12). So here’s
how we should wait.
1) We should seek
God by spending time in the word to know his will. God will speak more clearly
to you through his word than through a false preacher asking you to send
5000kes to receive your blessing. Believe me, you don’t even have to touch your
TV and spell the letters on your screen. I mean personal time. I don’t mean
Sunday’s powerful service. If you only depend on that for your week’s spiritual
nourishment, you are basically giving your spirit one meal per week. If we
could see our spirit bodies, yours may look worse than those impoverished
children in Africa. Feed your spirit man DAILY.
2) We should
wait patiently. There’s a reason why this is point number two. If you’ve
applied point number one diligently and faithfully, chances are that you KNOW
FOR SURE what God is saying about your situation. You will know if he really
wants you to change jobs or not. You will know if you should get married to him/her
or not. You will know because He speaks through his word, granted! (These
points won’t be applicable in one seating. It may take weeks to get to point 2)
So, point 2. We must wait patiently knowing that God will do what he said he
would do. For us humans, it may look like waiting, but to God it may be
something else. He says in Habakkuk 2:3 that the vision is for an appointed time
and though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not
tarry. So it’s not that God is holding it in his hand until he see’s you’ve
cooled off and learned patience. He’s purposed the reward, the blessing for the
PERFECT TIME and that time WILL come. He says in Ecclesiastes 3:11a “He has
made everything beautiful in its time.” (NKJV). So it will not only come, but
it will be beautiful as well. It simply has two options. To either come…or to
come. Wait patiently.
3) We should
wait on God alone. God shouldn’t be on a list of “Thing’s to try and make it work.” And even if you have that list,
God should not be number one. He should be the only one. The words in 1st
Corinthians 1:27 tells us that God uses the foolish things of this world to
shame the things that are mighty. You may have placed your hope in other things
as a back up plan, just in case God doesn’t come through. (It sounds bizarre to
be honest. How can the God who split the Red Sea fail your situation?).
However, God used murderers to split Red seas. He used unschooled folk to
spread Christianity and the love of the church. He used a pregnant teenager to
come on earth (not a famous politician or a King’s daughter or wife). And he used you to do his will. Yes,
you. You with all your frailties, you know your weaknesses. You know you’re not
that great and awesome. And still he used you. So, depend not on
chariots and horses. By the way, did you know that the middle verse in the
Bible is Psalm 118:8. It reads, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put
confidence in man (NKJV)” If that’s the middle of the Bible, it should be the
centre of my life cause the word is our life. It died on the cross to give us
that life. And it is alive. It is a HE. Trust in Him. Some trust in horses and
Ferraris but our trust in the creator of the Galaxy! Wait on God alone.
4) We should wait
awhile counting our blessings and being thankful. We covered most of that in
paragraph 3. Read it again if you must. However, I cannot belabour the point further
than that we owe Christ everything and he owes us nothing. GRACE. It’s why we have
eternal life for accepting him in our hearts. GRACE. It’s why we can mess up so
much and yet Christ can still forgive us. Think of the worst thing you’ve ever
done. Have you? Now, thank Jesus for forgiving that too. Isn’t he awesome? Find
out as far back as you can, how good he’s been. Nasty things may have befallen
us, but look at Job. Look at a man who was whipped with hooks and leather and
bled to death on a cross and see that though troubles and storms prevailed, we
are alive and we have the hope of renewing our lives. Think of the worst thing
that has happened to you. Have you? Now allow Jesus to heal that because he
can. He can heal rape trauma, he can heal infidelity, he can heal broken hearts
and he can heal physical diseases.
So say I to you,
“Be strong do not fear, tarry awhile, hold fast. He will come and save the
day.”
5) Finally, act
on His instruction. If you’ve been praying for a wife, waited and God brought
one, act on it. Do not just be a man of faith, be a faithful man and act. If
you’ve been waiting for University and God brought a response, or even maybe
three responses (lucky you!), start looking through their websites and choose
the one you desire. The funny thing about us is that after we’ve waited on God
for so long and we’ve fasted and prayed and cried, and God finally answers and
brings it at the appointed time, a beautiful thing, our response goes something
like, “I’m praying about it and waiting on God.” And I go like aaargghhh! You just read a whole blog about waiting and you still want to wait. Which leads me to
lead you to this other blog if you’re there. Click here: Men of Faith vs. Faithful Men.
Hope your internet doesn’t keep you waiting.