WAITING IN THE WAITING

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Patience is a virtue? Whatever…

I have heard someone say that “patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” Come on…really?

I will be honest I don’t have much patience for patience.

Yet when I do a quick Bible search on patience, the Lord mentions it no less than 155 times. So being the “scholar”that I am, I am “just guessing” that GOD wants me to know I am not only called to be patient, but I need to exercise it at all times. It will be to my benefit He says…

Hebrews 10:36

You must be patient. After you have done what God wants, you will get what he promised you.

But that can be tough some days can’t it?

It is hard to be patient:

· When the job search has turned up nothing for the 10th week in a row.

· When the doctor’s most recent round of tests have provided no direction or diagnosis.

· When you are homeless and waiting for bed to open up at the shelter with 2 pennies in your pocket.

I had conversations with people just yesterday that covered all three of those challenging “exercises” in patience.

I am serious.
That doesn’t count the transplanted mom and her five kids who were“waiting” on approval for a house or the grandma dealing with her third denial of disability following a brutal bout of cancer and chemo.

While I encouraged each of them to “be patient”, it still can be a bitter pill to swallow and ring a little hollow.

But GOD promises the strength we need to face these challenges is “WAITING”in the “WAITING”!

It is!

Isaiah 40:31

But they who wait upon the Lord will get new strength. They will rise up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weak.

We must never forget that GOD’s BEST is found at the end of the waiting; that “GOD’s WILL” WILL be done when we exercise patience. It will turn out for our GOOD. GOD promises!

Max Lucado says it this way from his new book “You Will Get Through This”:

How long will God take with you? His history is redeemed, not in minutes, but in lifetimes. We fear the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Will this sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten?

Life in the pit stinks. Yet for all its rottenness, doesn’t it do this much? Doesn’t it force us to look upward? The Bible promises at the right time, in God’s hands, intended evil becomes eventual good. You will get through this!

Romans 8:28

We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan.

All it takes is a little patience. And the last time I "LOOKED UPWARD", I found it “waiting” right there for me.

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person’s life is love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney