When God Is The One Who's Waiting

It was meant to encourage me, but something about what my friend had written in her message made me uncomfortable.

I read it again.

‘Keep strong until you learn what God has in store from all that has happened.’

I winced. There it was again. The uneasiness. The feeling of undue responsibility.

My eyes fell on these three small yet heavy words… ‘until you learn’.

I thought about all that I had learned over the past couple of years. Years where one disappointment after the other ran headlong into the other. Yes, it had been a difficult time, but I had not wasted the pain (or so I thought). I had learned…

That God is indeed sovereign.

That He keeps His promise never to leave me or forsake me.

That He is far better to me than I deserve.  

Those were major lessons. Ones that had etched their way into my being.

Was there more for me to learn yet? What was I missing?

But as I read her words again, I realized something. My friend was not chiding me to learn more lessons, more pearls of wisdom unearthed through the murkiness of life, no she wanted me to keep my eyes open, waiting to see what God has in store for me.

But it was that simple word ‘until’ that really unnerved me. It spoke of the passage of time. It symbolized that there would be waiting involved.

And I don’t know if you know, but waiting is hard.

Oh, it’s not so bad in the beginning or when you know exactly how long you’ll be waiting for. 

But when the time is uncertain and all you could hear is ‘the slow-moving tick of nothing really getting much better’, waiting becomes painful.

‘The slow-moving tick of nothing really getting much better’ – those were my daughter’s words written as she explained what it’s like living in a post disaster zone. But they apply to mostly all of waiting. Nothing changing. Nothing getting better. Just waiting.

Waiting to see how God takes the messiness and works it out for good. Waiting for your ‘purpose’ to become clear. Waiting to live that dream you know is tucked somewhere inside of you. Waiting to get your act together. Waiting to live fully… once you find the secret to balancing it all. Waiting for that elusive future you wish could be your present. Waiting to be happy. 

Just waiting.

So, that was it then. That was what disturbed me about my friend’s encouragement.  I was not looking forward to anymore w-a-i-t-i-n-g.

How long before God shows me what He has in store?

I have tried to be brave. I have fallen on my knees in surrender. I have promised to trust His timing.

But how much longer? Why won’t He show me now? What is He waiting on?

And then one morning, as I climbed out of bed to face another day of waiting, it struck me.

What if God is the One who’s waiting on me?

Waiting on me to stop waiting.

To simply step up and take what He has told me is already mine.

Consider what He has told me:

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature… 2 Peter 1:3-4

Did you get that?

Please read that again slowly paying particular attention to the words I highlighted in bold. 

He isn’t planning to give to me. He gave to me... that I may partake in the divine nature.

And this:

I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

There it is again.

God has placed LIFE squarely in front of me. On a silver platter if you will.

LIFE- 'the very highest blessedness of the saint in communion with God'.

A LIFE where sin has no control, where fear does not rule and where love and power overflow. A LIFE that breathes peace and exudes contentment, where each breath dances in glad surrender to a sovereign God. A God who is good… who has made it possible for us to have this LIFE in spite of the messiness of life.

I struggle to find the words to describe the blessedness of this LIFE.

Yet many mornings I get up and choose my own cocktail of life. Life filled with doing, with striving, with planning, with waiting.

While the offer remains. LIFE. Abundantly overflowing LIFE. Fresh every morning… every moment.

Just waiting for me to reach out and grasp it.

So why don’t I?

Why don’t you?

I invite you to pause and consider. 

In your waiting… yes, I know… I know you’re waiting, you’re like me, we’re always waiting for something, so, in your waiting have you settled for your own cocktail of life, the one that’s not mixed quite right, that leaves you yearning for more, or have you claimed the highest and best LIFE that God has in store for you?

It’s right there, my friend. Everything that we need. 

What’s stopping us from reaching out and laying hold of what is already ours?

Blessings,

Carlie

Linking up this week also at #HeartEncouragement. Looks like a fun place to be.

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When God Is The One Who's Waiting