Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Waiting

Do you ever find yourself in the middle of a book skipping paragraphs or pages because you just want to know what happens?  Okay, maybe I'm the only one who does that.  Maybe that's my problem.  I find it very difficult to wait.  Yet, that is exactly what God calls us to do much of the time.........wait.  Here are  just a few of the times that God said to wait.  There was Noah on the ark in Genesis 8; he sends out a dove and it comes back and he waited.........he sent it out again and it came back with a branch and he still had to wait.....finally, he sends it out and it doesn't come back.  Then he waits at least 2 more months before God tells him to get off of the boat.  Now if ever there were someone that was tired of waiting, it should have been Noah.  He waited for years for it to start raining while everyone around thought he was crazy. Then he finds himself waiting again to get off of the boat. Scripture does not record Noah's thoughts on the matter.  All the picture Bibles show a smiling Noah with the dove.  I wonder if he was really smiling.........he could have been; he was that kind of guy with that kind of relationship with God.  I'm afraid I much more like the Israelites in Exodus 24.  First in v.7 they say "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey".  In v. 14 they are told to "wait for us until we come back to you."  But they are not good 'waiters'.  Chapter 32 opens with these words....."When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said,'Come, make us gods who will go before us.  As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.'"  What happened to the obeying and doing everything God said????  What happened to the waiting for Moses to return????

Hi, I'm Amy, and I'm an Israelite.  I say to God, "I will obey and do everything you have said."  But somewhere along the way, I seem to have forgotten that He said, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still" (Exodus 14:14) and "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) and "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him" (Psalm 37:7) and "Those who WAIT upon the Lord will renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31).  I looked and I can't seem to find a passage that says run ahead and do it your way and God will bless it.  There is no "God helps those who help themselves" verse in the Bible.  Just like the Israelites, I can't have it both ways.  In my humanness I sometimes rationalize that there is no way that God just expects me to sit around and do nothing.  And often that is true.  But what I am discovering is that there are many times when God says "Be still and wait" and that is EXACTLY what he means.  That's hard for me, but I'm learning............slowly, but surely learning.  Thankfully God is an abundantly patient teacher!

                                             Amy

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful post, Amy. Yes, thankful also that God is so patient...else I'd be in trouble!! :)

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