A Simple Song. A Mature Perspective.
I wanted to share a portion of an article written by Joyce Meyer regarding how to wait on God. I know it's something I need to be reminded of consistently...
Two Ways to Wait
All of us will wait passively, or we'll wait expectantly. A passive person hopes something good will happen and is willing to sit around waiting to see if it does. After a short time, he gives up, saying, "That’s it! I've waited and waited and nothing's happened." The passive person has a lot of wishbone but not much backbone!
The expectant person, on the other hand, is hopeful, believing the answer is just around the corner, due to arrive any minute. His belief is not a passive thing. His heart is full of hope, expecting his problem to be solved at any moment. He wakes up every morning expecting to find his answer. He may wait and wait, but suddenly what he’s been waiting for happens.
Expect It to Happen
It’s just like when a woman is pregnant; it's said that she is expecting a baby. She carries inside her the promise of a baby, and even though she can’t see it, she knows it's there. The moment she learns of her pregnancy, she begins to plan for her baby's arrival. She starts collecting items she'll need and busily gets the nursery ready. She actively prepares for the arrival of the baby because she knows the promise will be fulfilled—it's just a matter of time. She is expectant and she'll wait as long as it takes.
We know the word wait means "to expect" or "to look for." But remember, it also means "to serve" — just like a waiter waits on your table at a restaurant. Our act of waiting isn’t supposed to be spent sitting around passively hoping that something will happen sometime soon. I think this is particularly interesting.
Be Eager with Faith
Once we've asked God to answer a question or solve a problem, we need to be eagerly awaiting His answer. We need to be serving actively, aggressively and expectantly. When our hearts are eager to hear from God, He loves to rush in suddenly with His solution. In many cases this waiting period actually serves as a time of preparation for the answer. If God answered right away, many of us would be ill-prepared to handle His solution.
Sometimes we find ourselves in such horrible messes that it's hard to imagine waiting one more second. But we need to keep waiting on God and trusting Him with a sweet and simple faith. Then, in a way we never could've figured out—God moves suddenly!
When we are young, we are taught to look at the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How in order to find solutions. Most (or all) of these areas become huge question marks during our young years. Most of the obvious facts are missing during times when we are trying to plan for our future and figure out what path to take.
Who will I marry? Who should I be friends with? Who should I listen to? Who is truly wise?
What should I do with my life? What college? What major? What job?
When should I go? When should I stay? When should I commit? When should I let go? When should I trust? When should I invest? When should I steer clear? When should I be realistic? When should take risks? When should I accept help? When should I be independent? When should I give? When should I save?
Where should I be going? Where does God want me to be? Where do I want to be? Where do my parents want me to be?
Why? **insert any question here regarding past, present or future. Why now? Why me? Why did God allow this?
How do I get to where I want to be? How do I know where God wants me to be? How do I decide? How do I, and should I, prioritize? How will I afford this? How do I do this?
I feel as though many of the questions that I face on a daily basis hinge on the When.
I may not know what exactly or where I need to be, why I'm there or how to do something, but I typically have an easier time trusting God to direct my steps in those areas. Perhaps it's because I can see God's provision when it comes to people and places and things, but not so much when it comes to His timing.
How do we prepare for the unknown? How do we plan for things when we can't see the end goal? How do we know if the path we've chosen is right if we can't see the end result?
We just do.
We get out of bed every day. We work hard. We do our best. We learn to say no to things that we know will hurt us and yes to those that help us grow. We pray that God helps us distinguish between the two. We are good stewards of the things we've been given. We don't compare ourselves to others. We keep our options open. We investigate opportunities and pray that God closes the doors we aren't supposed to walk through. We keep an attitude of thanks and focus on being content with what we have today, this moment.
Easy to say. Hard to live by. One of the keys though is prayer. We may not be able to entirely trust our decision making skills, given the many missing facts, but we simply have to trust that if we are constantly in prayer, God is entirely capable of directing our hearts and minds.
My prayers typically go something like this...
Please God, help my heart and my mind to become more in tune with you. Help me to not let my emotions discourage me. Help me to feel strong. Help me seek what you want for me and let go of the things that you don't want. Help me to wait on your timing and truly trust in it's perfection.
I so needed to read this. You're amazing. <3
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