In The Waiting

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  Lamentations 3:25
​

It’s really hard to practice patient waiting when things like Amazon Prime, Door Dash and drive-through everything are a common part of our daily lives.  We really don’t have to wait for much of anything but here we are in the second week of Advent where the goal of the whole season is to wait patiently, and we struggle.  The Father loves us so much we begin each new church year with a season designed to help us brush up on our “waiting”.  All three of my kids were overdue but so worth every minute of the extra wait but even though I was pregnant seven extra weeks and had three amazing kids,  I still didn’t learn my “waiting is good” lesson and  I still struggle with being a patient waiter so I’m pretty sure Advent was invented for me! In case patient waiting is tough for you too, here are some things we can do to get better at it.

*Give God permission to make the decisions and do the heavy lifting in your life.  There is a huge difference between waiting FOR God to do something and waiting WITH God while He orchestrates the plan he has for our life.

*When impatience creeps in, trade it for prayer.  Let your prayers be prayers of surrender as you wait.  Sometimes our prayer can simply be a conversation where we advise or counsel God about what we need but the kind of prayer that helps our waiting be fruitful happens when the root of our prayer is; “You are God and I am not!”

*When you feel like rushing instead of lingering, ask the big question…” Where am I WINNING and where am I SINNING?”  The first questions helps us see all the places God is busy in our lives and leads our hearts to be grateful.  When we ponder the second question and invite God into those places, we grow closer to him and depend on him to help us turn our sins into his wins.

* Think outside yourself.  My mom was the master of cutting to the quick and she would often remind me that “life wasn’t all about me”.  Often our impatience or unsettledness is because we’re caught up waiting for God to do what we want and we forget he might be working through us and our circumstances to bless someone else.  If you find yourself stuck in a “woe is me” funk the greatest way to snap out of it is to do something kind and generous for someone else and remember God will never be outdone in generosity.

*When considering if waiting is worth it, consider whether you’d like to feel closer to Jesus on Christmas Eve than you did at the beginning of Advent.  The difference will come from what you allow into the middle.  One of my favorite lines from the Chosen series was after the demons had been cast out of Mary Magdalene and she said, “I can’t explain it, I was one way and now I am completely different and the only thing in between was Him.” 

Learning to wait for the Lord is a blessing…let’s use the remainder of this Advent season to allow Him to be “in between” where we are and where we’re He’s leading us.

A Seed To Plant:  On a scale of 1 to 10 how good are you at waiting?  If you’d like to bump up your score, choose one of the ideas above and put it into action this week.

Blessings on your day!