Waiting Patiently or Taking Control?

Feb18

Do you get frustrated waiting for God to answer a prayer?  Lately I have been more and more aware of the “control” I want to take when things do not go the way I wish them to!  Yet at the same time I’m fully aware the Bible tells me to “wait patiently on the Lord, and He will bring it to pass.”  Why, then, is waiting so hard?

Obviously, part of the reason (maybe the main one!) is that we live is a society that is geared to NOW: we go through the fast food restaurant when we feel hunger pains (and get upset if the line is more than 3 cars long!); we hit ‘enter’ on the computer and then get irritated when the circle spins for more than ten seconds; we pull up to a red light with our left foot on the brake, the right on the accelerator in order to hit it as soon as green appears, and on and on.  Control in our eating habits, control on the road (and don’t we holler at other drivers–since they can’t hear us!–when they make us five seconds later than we want to be?!), control over the computer, —control, control, control.  You would have a hard time convincing me that most of our frustrations do not arise out of losing that control.

God does not work on our time table.  That may not surprise you, but at the same time, have you accepted it so that you can trust in peace?  Lately it has come to me as I’ve been reading in the Old Testament, trying to absorb the culture as I read that I do not have the faith of the old time saints.  Noah was faithful, spending many years building a boat–did he know what a boat was?  Did he know what it was for?  Did he understand rain?  I’m not sure–perhaps his faith was so great that he didn’t care about the unknown, since he had heard the voice of God telling him to build the ark.  How long would we have worked, while people jeered and taunted us for doing something “stupid?”  A day?  A week?

Abraham was told by God to go away from family to a place God was going to give him and that his descendants would outnumber the sand on the seashore; ten years later the covenant was renewed, and yet it was another fourteen years before Isaac was born.  Twenty four years!  It’s not a wonder that Sarah got frustrated with waiting, but yet there is no indication Abraham had anything except total trust in God.

David was anointed king by Samuel.  Did he take the throne immediately?  Not by any means!  He even was ‘hired’ by Saul to play on his instrument in order to quiet the insanity of Saul–an unknown king consoling a reigning king!  He had to run for his life for years before being anointed king, and then served faithfully in Judah before Israel became part of his kingdom as well.

All of these patriarchs point out that God definitely does NOT see as we see, nor is He tied to a time that says “do this immediately!”  Yes, there are times He acts quickly: Nehemiah, cupbearer to the king, showed a sadness in his face when he came before the king: an act that could have gotten him killed.  The king asks, “Why are you sad?” and Nehemiah prays! All he has time to say in his prayer is “HELP!”  He did not have the luxury of waiting ten minutes before answering the king! I’m convinced God gave him the words to speak truth to the king and gave it to him at that moment.  But that was God’s timing!

What can we learn from these?  That when God promises something, He will do it!  Which is more important to us–that we submit our will to His, or that we control God to get it done sooner, rather than later?  If I can order God around, He is not the right God!  My God does what He wants, when He knows He needs to, and not one second sooner.  He gives me faith to continue to serve Him even when I see nothing happening–or do I?  These are hard questions.  St. Augustine, one of the most famous of the early church fathers, had a mother who prayed for his salvation night and day–never giving up, never letting go of the hem of the garment of the One Who brought salvation, and eventually her prayer was answered.

It is a light-bulb moment for us when we realize that inactivity drives us up a wall, and that waiting patiently is adverse to everything in us: waiting for God to act seems fruitless when days become weeks, and nothing seems to have been done! So we say to God (perhaps not aloud!) “Here, just give it back to me, and I’ll work on this problem while You do something else.”  And God usually does! He’ll give it back, watch our fruitless actions, and wait patiently for us to come to the realization that all we’re trying to accomplish is only resulting in unrest, a lack of peace, and NO productivity! Years ago in high school I remember the analogy the teacher used for work: was pushing against a boulder or a building, with every muscle in you, pouring sweat in the process, red in the face, work or not work?  It was not work because it would end in nothing being accomplished.  So it is with our activity when it’s outside the realm of waiting on God.

May He find us faithful as we wait for Him to answer our prayers, our pleas, the desires of our hearts.  May we have enough trust in Him that we can rely on every promise He has ever made, knowing somehow good is coming from the waiting!  May we continue steadfast as we lift us wayward children who may be destined for hell, husbands who may be playing at church, fathers or mothers who want nothing to do with God, siblings who fight against serving God, and neighbors whose lifestyle slanders everything He is.  Let us serve Him for He is Holy, Faithful, and deserving of all we can give Him!

Father, I’m probably the worst of your children who gets impatient with waiting.  Help me to realize the stronghold this can have in my life, and let me give my problems completely over to You, and then wait patiently for You to bring good out of them! Send sowers to those we love who will plant seeds, water, fertilize and get the Gospel into their hearts, so that You can bring them to fruition!  Increase our faith, Lord! Amen

WILDERNESS OR PROMISED LAND?

Oct12

Recently I’ve been part of a Bible Study which has centered on the children of Israel being led out of Egypt into the wilderness on their way to the “Promised Land.”¹  This study has been remarkable to all of us who have been attending, as we’ve all been able to identify the wildernesses we have been in, are in, or getting ready to go into!  Yet in every case, God has not only allowed the experience, but has, in most cases, led us into them.  It’s hard to wrap your mind around that!  And it hit me–Jesus began His ministry being LED by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness!  Think of it, God the Father allowing God the Holy Spirit to LEAD God the Son into a wilderness to test Him!  And we complain?

As we have studied, it is easy to look back upon our own wilderness experiences of past times and identify the cause:  wrong choices which caused us to get off a narrow road we were on and follow a  small path that ended up in a wilderness; one of our “weights that doth so easily beset us” that caused us to need to go into a wilderness and be tested there, and many other reasons!  As we go through our own wilderness, are we seeing it as a time for grumbling and complaining–as the Israelites–or are we seeing it as a necessary test that God has to put us through in order to see that He has been working on our lives to produce in us someone who resembles Christ?  Doesn’t Christian mean “little Christs”?  We tend to criticize the Israelites: God had just put them between a rock and a hard place: the Red Sea on one side, and the army of Pharoh on the other, then miraculously opened the sea to let them pass through–yet very quickly they are screaming because they need water! Why didn’t they say, “WOW! God just opened the sea to let us walk over, why not ask Him in humility for water to drink?”  But no, they threw a tantrum.  He (in spite of their attitude) supplied sweet water from a rock.  A month later they are screaming for food!  What happened to the sea and the rock experience?  

A dear friend is in a wilderness–and has been for some time–and questioned every facet of it with “Why?”  But now, as the time is passing, she is learning to be content in her circumstances!  Not because they’ve become comfortable–they have not–but because she has grown in faith to look back at the faithfulness of God and see that He has her in this wilderness in order to bring her to a new level of faith.  Now that that is happening, I expect her to be coming out of that wilderness because God’s will is being accomplished!

Another dear friend has been tested by God for several years: yet I have seen an enormous change in the past year.  I have seen someone who was being faithful with big things suddenly lose those, and led to a wilderness.  In that journey, they were brought to the bottom.  Then God opened something “small.”  Instead of being arrogant and turning the small thing down, they took on the “small” and have been faithful with it.  Now it looks as though God is starting to work on the “vessel” He has been honing, and holding the potential for bigger things in His hand, with His arm outstretched!

What about you?  Are you in a wilderness during this time in your life, and kicking and screaming, or are you looking back at the years when God has faithfully brought you through other agonizing times?  If He was faithful in those, will He not be faithful in this?  Or are you in this wilderness because something in your life has to be removed so that God can be given the glory for you having a new life in Him?  James tells us that even if we are unfaithful, it will not result in God, also, becoming unfaithful, but on the contrary, He will still remain steadfast!

Search your heart and see if you can identify why you may be in a wilderness, then give it to God–completely!  Then, be content and full of expectation that He who has been faithful in the past still has you in the palm of His hand, and will work all things out for good!  He is holy, and calls us to be holy!

Father, God, how we love you!  And admittedly we don’t love the wildernesses in our lives, but as we look back, we can see You at work in our lives, refining the dross so that we can be presented to You as a glorious vessel!  Reveal those areas in our lives where we need change, and give us the courage to lay aside any weights that are causing us not to run our race with endurance!  We give You honor, glory and praise! Amen

¹Priscilla Shirer, “One In a Million” Lifeway, 2010

CLEANSE MY HEART, O GOD!

Sep25

One of my very favorite theologians is Dr. Harold Willmington of Liberty University.  As Dr. Willmington speaks, he is constantly interspersing hymn lyrics from the very old favorites into his theme.  This resonates strongly within me, as I was taught how to play the piano many, many years ago by an elderly woman who used the old Broadman Hymnal as her teaching guide!  Every time Dr. Willmington begins a quote from a hymn, my mind jumps those barriers to silently quote it with him.  

As I was pondering a very tough situation today, I kept thinking of the old hymn “Search me, O God, and know my heart today; try me, O Savior, and know my thoughts, I pray; see if there be some wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.” (James Orr, lyricist).   Today I desperately needed that cleansing.

Had you asked me yesterday, I would have said I try to keep short accounts, and believed, to the best of my knowledge, that I harbor no grudges.  Do I like everyone?  No.  But a continual grudge?  I thought not.

Then, last evening an email came to me from my old hometown: it was the obituary of an aged man who was eulogized with the most flowery of terms, his good deeds enumerated in a lengthy, glowing tribute to his life.  As I read the article, my mind went back to my young years, when I was as naive as anyone could possibly be.  I was a student under this man’s leadership, and he took advantage of my innocence.  Rape?  No, he stopped short of that.  The matter came before the principal, and the teacher was let go: the principal learned I was not the only student to have suffered at his hands.

As I read the obituary, suddenly all of the righteous indignation for his actions came swirling like fog around me!  I realized I was almost enjoying the satisfaction that perhaps now he was getting his just due from God!  I rebelled inside at the thought that perhaps he could have repented and be in heaven!  It has been like a burr in my shoe during this day, as I realized I had unforgiveness for this man, and, because the situation had not been thought of in years and years, I was not aware that I had never repented of the hatred of having been this man’s victim.   I found myself wanting to write those who had sent the message and let them know that while he was wearing his coat of good deeds, he was getting by with lascivious behavior!

Today I have had to pray diligently, Lord, please take this anger away from me, and melt my heart.  I’ve done so many things that have hurt someone, how can I “throw stones”?  After a long day of struggle, God has seen fit to ease my burden, to “cleanse me from [this] sin, and set me free!”

Was it a struggle?  Definitely!  In the flesh I did not want to give in and let him “get by” with what he had done.  But my spirit is much more important than my flesh, and my heart deeply desires to be like Christ–repentance was my only option for peace.

Whatever your cross is, He will see that you are freed from the burden and will set your feet on ‘high places!’

“Father, thank you for bringing this to light. I did not even realize it was a problem, yet it was buried under the debris of living, and was deep in my heart. You had to shine Your light upon it, so that I could clearly see it, and let You deal with. I thank You for Your amazing grace that truly has replaced the animosity with Your peace. I will hang this on the cross, Lord, and pray this man came to know You before he died. Thank You for the cross, Lord! Amen.”

LOST OR FOUND?

Aug27

It seems we all have a story to tell about getting lost, whether it was as a child or as an adult!  For most of us, the situation made deep impressions that have stayed with us for years!

When the severe storms hit the east coast and central Virginia this summer, our daughter tried to get home with her three youngest children.  It was very late, becoming pitch black as power lines were being torn down under the weight of uprooted trees, and every street she turned down seemed to have a tree blown across it with the hurricane-force winds. The more streets she tried to navigate, the more panicked she became, while her husband talked to her on her cell, trying to calm her.  As he kept asking her location, in her fright all she could say was that she was lost.  In reality, had she continued to drive, she would have eventually come across a known street and been okay.  Our city is not that large.

This past week my husband and I drove to Baltimore, Md.  We had a choice to either drive northeast on Interstates around or through Washington, D.C., or else go in a large loop west, then head north, coming south into Baltimore from the northwest side–but at least we would avoid the D.C. traffic!  Going up was no problem, but as we started the trip home, soon the maze of interstates and freeways became more than slightly confusing as our GPS died on us, and nowhere that we stopped was there a road map left to buy!  We traveled south–we thought on Rt. 29–for more than two hours before we realized we actually were lost!  The traffic was bumper to bumper, moving slowly, and we saw no road signs indicating a known route!  About the same time I saw “Delaware Ave.”, then “Indiana Ave.”, and as light bulbs started going off, I realized “Pennsylvania Ave.” was coming at us!  Sure enough, we were in the middle of Washington, D.C., in late afternoon traffic, with no clue how to get out! Several streets later a cop was sitting by the side of the street.   We pulled next to the vehicle, I rolled my window down, and explained, “We’re lost, we have no map, and our GPS  has died! Please! Point us South!”  The kind officer did better than that: gesturing for us to follow right behind, they led us several miles where we junctioned with a route to take us home!  The instant the police car got in front and started to lead us I felt such huge relief, knowing someone who knew the road system was now in control, and they would work the problem out!

It did not take long to realize that is how our relationship with Christ should be every moment.  We don’t have to wait for a situation where we lose control: we can bring Him every burden, every concern, every tear, and every moment, turning it over to Him to guide us safely through a day or a crisis. Why would we continue to carry those stressful feelings on our shoulders when He is so ready to show us the way? Pride?  He tells us to “Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!  Take My yoke upon you..”   Commit your way today, and see if He does not prove worthy of your trust!

Father, help us to be so trusting of You that we don’t hesitate to give You our day, knowing You will lead us safely through, as You  take us by ‘cool waters’ and ‘green pastures!’  Increase our faith, Lord!  In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen

BITTER OR BETTER?

Aug9

Many years ago my friend’s sister was murdered.  She was beautiful, smart, and the darling of four brothers and one other sister.   Her murderer was soon found, tried, and sentenced to prison.  Several months after the trial, the family was astounded and angered when the mother wrote a letter of forgiveness to the man who had been charged with the murder.  They ostracized her, withdrew from her, and had nothing but wrath for her action.  Nothing, they felt, was too bad for the man: he had taken their sister, and they wanted the death penalty.

Isn’t that so like us?  When someone hurts us, wounds our family, or violates us somehow, we want revenge and nothing short of death will compensate for our loss!  But if death comes to the person we have learned to hate, what then?  Are we all of a sudden “okay” and our world is right again?  Of course not!  The bitterness is still there.

When we have something in our past that created years of misery for people we love, the sad truth is, no amount of apologizing can atone for the act, no matter how sorry we are!  At that point we are faced with two types of people: those who are willing to forgive, and those who aren’t.  Those, as it is said today, who lets the circumstance cause them to become “bitter” or “better!”   Meanwhile, we live with the consequences every day.

How does this all tie in with our walk with Christ?  Because the sin in our past so often alienates some of those that we love, and they want nothing to do with a God who will not continue to punish us; they want not just revenge, but vindictiveness that continues to hurt, just as they still carry scars or open wounds.  Anything less, to them, will not satisfy.  And we are rendered helpless in trying to tell them that He sees their unforgiving spirit and bitterness as just as brutal a sin as the one which we committed.  We don’t want to alienate them further, so we keep quiet and watch the years roll by.

Oh, that they would come to know the grace and forgiveness of God!  That they would understand the freedom in His forgiveness and cleansing free from sin!  Can you get past the bitterness, and truly let go of it?  If you are the bitter one, can you not see that it is hurting not only you, but everyone who is close to you?  And would the death of the one who caused you misery make it “all better”?  Try to open your heart to God’s healing forgiveness, so that you can be happy again!  It won’t wipe away the years of scars, but it will begin a new day!

Dear Father, if anyone is reading this who has someone in their past that they have not forgiven, will You please help them to see that their unforgiveness creates a barrier between You and them?   And if someone has wronged others, and is genuinely repentant, please send them peace while they wait as years go by, and don’t let them become weary in praying for those they wronged.  Life is so difficult when we hurt, Lord, but we know that You–and You alone–can make us into new creations, and give us “hope, and a future”!  Amen

If you are hurting today, and need someone to talk to, you are welcome to write a note to me!

Sixteen year ol…

Aug4

Sixteen year olds are pretty special people!  My granddaughter is required to read the life of Henry David Thoreau this summer, and expressed her distaste for his lifestyle of living in the woods, alone with nature; she added, “I couldn’t do that–I need people around me!”  I thought of the years I desired to live a ‘hermit’s’ life but the truth is, I can’t go a day–or more than two at the most–without talking to some of my children!  And those that I can’t talk with often are always carried in my heart, thinking of them and longing to hear their voice.

Isn’t that the way it should be with our God?  We should be in such close relationship with Him that if we miss talking to Him, reading His love letters to us (His Word), or communing in some way with Him during a day, we feel a big void in our lives!  Yet He is there, being faithful, even when we get so busy that we don’t stop for that moment!  Are you His child?  If so, He probably dropped you a note today: was it through the voice of a loved friend, a smile from someone, a blessing you didn’t expect?  I had a call from a beloved cousin–which happens very rarely–who is a pastor and whose opinions I value highly.  God allowed us to chat and encourage one another for a short time, but what a blessing!  We both took something special with us as we hung up, knowing the struggles and dreams we each hold dear were important to the other!  That was a touch of God.  Look around–try to see yourself with the eyes of God, and think back over your day: was there a blessing in it that was unexpected?  That was a Love Note from God!  You can’t think of something?  You awoke this morning, you breathed, and you’re alive.  God isn’t finished with you yet, so draw near to Him and experience His times of refreshing!

Dear Father, I pray for those who may come to this blog; may they leave the world behind for a moment and find rest in You!  I pray for them, that their eyes would be open to everything You have created for us to enjoy, and for the blessings You pour out on us.  Let Your grace amaze them, Lord! In Christ, Amen

Romans 8:5:  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for the us.

Hello World!

Aug3

Welcome to WordPress.com! Thank you so much for taking time to visit!  This blog is to encourage, edify, and strengthen believers in their daily walk with Christ–which is not an easy walk!  Let me know how you’re doing, and how I can help point you to the Savior who gives “peace that passes understanding!”