Pathway To Peace....Day Eight...Wait

Day Eight     Wait

When God gave me the word wait, may I say quite some time before I sat down to actually write, I called out like Jonah,” Are you kidding? You know I don’t know how to wait.  How can I possibly write a devotional that helps someone else learn how to do something I cannot do myself!”  I battled sitting down to create this page, thinking that if I ‘waited’ God would magically give me the answer, or maybe resend his choice of words.
How ironic that I was ‘waiting’ to write this page while I tried to figure out how to wait. Made me wonder if the key to waiting was patience or courage? Or does the combination of these two terms give us the power to wait on the Lord to fix the messes we make when we don’t wait on him.  The bible uses this term in over 150 verses. Most of these verses show what happens when we don’t wait, but several verses seem to show the importance of combining our courage with patience. They were written by Paul, the old testament prophets, the wise Solomon, and David who testified of its power over and over in the Psalms.

 Isaiah 40:31:

   ³¹But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Proverbs 20:22:

   ²²Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

Psalm 25:5:

   ⁵Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou

 art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

Psalm 27:14:

   ¹⁴Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Romans 8:23:

   ²³And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Romans 8:25:

   ²⁵But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

When I get impatient and go ahead and fix it the way I think he wants me too, I set myself up for failure from the start.  My human view of things is so limited…I simply cannot see the bigger picture that God is welding together in my favor.  What I need to do is refuse to act on anything till I get a clear word from God. I need to let God work the timeline that only he knows. I must rest in his word…and I am learning that nothing should ever be done without first searching in God’s manual for my answer. God is the patience in my impatience.
But this is so hard for us…we want answers right now…we want our rewards now…just like the prodigal son …we request our fortunes and end up squandering them on things that don’t satisfy us in the end.  We realize too late the mistake we made and are apprehensive about approaching the father for forgiveness.
God makes it so simple and yet we make it so hard…how many times must he have shaken his head at me and used the same words spoken to the disciples.

John 3:12:

¹²If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

You see, I don’t have to wait, he will do it for me if I ask. He can also give me the courage to live my next moments without every answer to why I was only granted a mere three months with my Mitchell. I am thinking now, that since I have given in to his desire to write this page, that I had the answer all along. After all, when God grants me passage to that glorious home called heaven, I am thinking I won’t have the questions anymore. I will be so caught up in the reunion of the many loved ones already there that I won’t need them.
How exciting to think that all I have to do is ask, and he will release immeasurable power to me to deal with any trial that still awaits me! The power to wait doesn’t exist in me, it is another one of the amazing gifts he gives free with our salvation.  No wonder Paul penned these great words in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”