Make Your Waiting Times Productive Times

I witnessed a funny sight the other day as I made hospital rounds. When I arrived at the elevators, a woman stood there waiting ahead of me.  Since the up arrow light was on, I knew she had mashed the button at least once. While we waited for what must have been about 60 seconds, she mashed the button again four times – as if the more she mashed the button the faster the elevator would descend.  Finally, just as she mashed it the fourth time, the doors opened.  She probably still thinks the door opened when it did because she mashed the button for that fourth time.

waiting

We spend a lot of time waiting, doctors even have a room specifically for waiting. I guess that’s why they call us patients, because the we have to wait patiently for our appointment.  We wait in checkout lines, we wait at traffic lights, we wait for customer service, we wait for the preacher to get through (and wait, and wait, and wait).  We despise waiting, but since it is inevitable, why not learn to make waiting work for us.  After all, the Bible speaks highly of waiting.

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Winning the Waiting Game

I hate waiting. Red is a beautiful color EXCEPT on a traffic light in my lane. I avoid a certain unnamed big box discount retail establishment because it is notorious for long waits in the checkout line. Doctors’ offices stretch the capacity of my attention span unlike any other place. I ate at a restaurant the other day where my server could more aptly be called by the previous nomenclature of “waiter,” because wait is what I did.

I know that in Isaiah 40:31, God promises that those who wait for Him will received renewed strength, but waiting does not come naturally for me. Waiting is something that we all must do from time to time; it is one of those necessary evils in life.

I ran across something while reading my Bible the other day, however, that has given me new encouragement for my seasons of waiting, and I hope it will be helpful to you. When Jesus was ready to ascend back to heaven, he met with his disciples one last time on the Mount of Olives and gave them an order to wait.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father… – Acts 1:4a

They expected Jesus to overthrow the Roman government and establish their idea of kingdom, but instead he told them to… wait. The object of their waiting, though, was a great encouragement – the promise of the Father.

So, they obeyed. Had they gotten impatient and left Jerusalem and went about doing their own thing, they would have missed the promise of the Father. Instead, they stayed where they were, faithful day in and day out to the little things of life. They faithfully obeyed the last instructions until they received new ones. In Acts 2, the promise of the Father came and the Holy Spirit poured out in them and empowered them for ministry that changed the world.

Our church is in a season where we are waiting on God’s promises to us, and I know many individuals who also are in waiting mode. As we wait, let’s be faithful day in and day out to obey what we know God has already instructed us. Don’t miss out on the promise of the Father for your life or your church because you were not faithful in the waiting.

What have you learned while waiting on God? Feel free to share in the comment section.

Don’t Just Do Something…Sit There!

Don’t just sit there… DO SOMETHING! I’m sure you’ve heard that or even used it. We sense urgency in a situation and immediately feel like we must DO SOMETHING to FIX IT. It DEMANDS our action. That approach got King Saul in a lot of trouble and it can us as well.

You can read the story in 1 Samuel 13:1-14, but I’ll summarize for you. The Philistines lined up in an impressive battle array for battle against Israel. The Israelite army trembled in fear. Saul sent for God’s prophet Samuel who would offer burnt offerings seeking God’s intervention on their behalf. Saul grew impatient waiting on Samuel and offered the sacrifices himself. The Philistines were threatening. They didn’t have time to wait. It seemed to him that time was running out and if he didn’t act, they would not make it. He couldn’t just sit there…he had to DO SOMETHING.

Bad choice. No sooner had he placed the offering on the altar Samuel arrived and was furious that Saul had acted rashly. Moreover, because he had acted in this manner and reacted in the flesh, God removed the family of Saul from the throne of Israel. After his reign, his children would not succeed him, but as we know now, David would take the throne. Just like us sometimes, he couldn’t just sit there…he had to DO SOMETHING.

Many times in the Bible, God encourages us to wait – Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 27:14, Proverbs 3:5-6, and my personal favorite Psalm 46:10 just to name a few. Take a few moments and read them.

I am now in a waiting season in my life. What should I do in this time? As I wait I will pray, seek God, watch for Him to work around me. Biblical waiting is not passive.

Waiting on God does not mean we sit idly by but rather we actively engage God by asking, seeking, and knocking and not moving until we are sure He has answered, revealed, and opened. (Matthew 7:7) The worse thing I could do is jump before God says jump. Getting ahead of God is just as bad as lagging behind, either way you’re not following Him.

Are you tempted to DO SOMETHING to fix a perceived threat or danger? It may well be that the time for action has come, but before you act, make sure you have heard from God and that it is HE who has told you to move and not your desire to fix the situation.

Don’t just do something…SIT THERE.

Perspective That Only Time Can Bring

I am afraid that we fail to grasp fully the significance of the events of life when they are happening. Only after some time has passed and we have the opportunity to view those events in their context of related events in our life do we come to fully appreciate the role those circumstances play in shaping who we are.

I have recently thought about how differently I view certain difficulties now that I can relate them to my entire life context. What at one point may have seemed pointless and painful has proved instead to be necessary and beneficial. God has a way of revealing things to us in stages, illustrated in the way in which He healed the blind man of Bethsaida:weird-tree

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” 

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8:22-25)

In a couple of different ways, Jesus put off the man’s healing, creating drama in the story. He led the man out of town, away from the crowd, no chance of using the man and his condition to promote Himself. His first touch (a gross one at that) only partially did the job; the man did not fully regain his vision until after Jesus touched him the second time.

He works that way in our lives sometimes too. We ask for His help, His deliverance, His provision and He seems to delay the answer, separating us from our request by the distance of time. Then we wonder if what we see is really an answer to our prayer. After all, He is perfectly capable of fixing our problem in one fell swoop, so apparently what we see is either our imagination, rationalization, or just blind chance and coincidence. What we are really seeing is our own circumstantial equivalent of men who look like trees walking around.

All the while, God is revealing Himself to us, bit by bit, stage by stage, so as to build drama and test our faith and our resolve. Eventually He places His final touch on our need and we are able to see more clearly. We see that the difficulty that we went through was instrumental in teaching us about God and His purposes and ways in our lives.

Don’t be so quick to curse your hardships and suffering. Don’t be hasty in assuming God has not our will not answer your prayer and meet your need. Hang in there. Give God time and space to work. You will marvel at what He accomplishes in your life.

What Are You Waiting For?

waiting room

My curiosity compelled me to do the math.  There were 50 days between Passover and Pentecost.  Three days between Passover and Jesus’ resurrection, and 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension to heaven.  That leaves a gap of 7 days.

Before He ascended to heaven, Jesus instructed them to return to Jerusalem and wait for “the promise of the Father.”  This was a reference to His teaching concerning the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16) We know what was going on in the upper room during those 7 days – they were “devoting themselves to prayer,” (Acts 1:14) but what was going on from heaven’s viewpoint?  Why did God make them wait seven days before He poured out His Spirit on them?

Travelers from all over the known world would assemble on Jerusalem during the Feast of Pentecost.  When God poured His Spirit into His believers they would speak boldly in testimony to Jesus.  What seemed like a 7-day delay was instead God’s perfect providence positioning His disciples to make a maximum impact.  In fact, we know that on the Day of Pentecost, 3000 people responded to Peter’s extemporaneous street-side sermon about Jesus. (Acts 2:41)  The 7-day wait proved to be perfect timing.

As my thoughts turned to my own prayer life, I thought of how many times I had given up praying for things.  I wrongly assumed that since God did not affirmatively answer my request in a reasonably short amount of time, His answer must be “no.”  In truth, God ALWAYS answers our prayers in one of three ways: yes, no, or not yet.  We often mistake a “not yet” for a “no,” and we give up praying all too soon.

Yet all the while, God’s “not yet” could simply be His omnisciently provident way of setting the stage for doing something even beyond the wildest imagining of my comparatively timid prayer life.  Maybe God is using the interim between my request and His delivery to set up something so great that He gets the glory in it.  (Ephesians 3:20-21)

So, fellow disciple, will you join me in renewing our commitment to persistent prayer?  We give up too soon and too easily.  Jesus told a story that made a hero out of woman who hounded a judge until he gave her what she wanted.  He compared that to the benefit of persistent prayer. (Luke 18:1-8)

Lord, help me “always to pray and not lose heart.”  I may have to wait 7 days, 7 months, 7 years, or any amount of time, but if I pray through, I too will receive what God wants to give me.

For Those Who Hate to Wait

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waitI am by nature an impatient person.  I hate to wait.  Doesn’t matter if it is a traffic light, check-out line, delivery, or even a date on the calendar; I find waiting to be one of my life’s most difficult tasks.

Yesterday morning while reading in Genesis 7, I came across something I have missed in my previous readings, something that made me stop and think.  There it was in black and white in Genesis 7:10 –

And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

For seven days after Noah, his family, and all the animals boarded the ark they had to sit there on that waiting for God to deliver on a promise.

  • Just like the blind man to whom Jesus restored sight could only see men looking like trees walking about and had to wait a little longer for his full vision to come to him.
  • Just like Mary and Martha had to wait four days for Jesus to come to Bethany while their brother laid in a tomb developing the stench of rigor mortis.
  • Just like Jesus’ disciples had to wait three days after His death to see the fulfillment of the promised resurrection.

Waiting is never easy and seldom fun, but we can rest assured that while we wait God works.

  • Perhaps we wait while God prepares us for the greater work He desires to do in us.
  • Perhaps we wait while God arranges circumstances so that He will receive greater glory.
  • Perhaps we wait while God tests our faith and in that testing strengthens us.
  • Perhaps we will NEVER know why we wait, but if He says wait, then wait we must, and that waiting is good.

So on what promise of God do you wait today?  Don’t get bored, distracted, or discouraged.  Trust God and seek Him all throughout the moments of your wait.  AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME God will deliver the goods.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you
will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. – Philippians 1:6