Waiting on God
(I’m using a post from the Spiritually Unequal Marriage blog that I recently wrote and continues with the theme of waiting.)
God never ceases to amaze me in the intricate perfection of his work and plan. Have you found yourself in a place where you see how the details surrounding you are linked together and blooming like a flower? And as the petals open, the legitimacy of each event suddenly comes into view, perfectly planned and coordinated in an intricate pattern of destiny?
I love those moments. Though I’m sure I don’t see them all, I know I’d miss more if I didn’t constantly and intentionally draw closer to God. We need to stay in a place of yearning for more of God and less of this world.
Otherwise, we might miss what God’s doing in our lives.
I know I’ve said this before, but bear with me. Waiting is a big part of our Christian walk. Hard to do in a world so focused on how fast something can be done. We’re becoming a culture of impatient people. I see it in my own children. But I know from experience that waiting is critical in our walk with God.
Now I’m coming to understand a new dimension of waiting. For the last year, my constant question has been, “How do I rely on God’s strength instead of my own?” I run out of strength, then wonder what happened. What did I do wrong? How do I know when I’m operating in my own strength and not God’s?
I think I got part of the answer yesterday at Bible study. A very special group of ladies meets every week at my church. I love these women, because they are the most authentic and God-hungry women I know. Right now we’re studying Esther by Beth Moore.
Let me first confess that I’m a big Beth Moore fan. Her studies have impacted my life more than any others I’ve done, except for Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. But this Esther study by far exceeds them all. I think Beth crawled into my very situation and wrote it just for me. ?
Yesterday we received a nugget that I believe is key to answering this question I’ve had about God’s strength. Take a look at Isaiah 40:31 (ESV):
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Waiting and strength are linked here in a way I hadn’t thought of before until Beth said something like this:
“We will lose our strength when we wait on the event, thing, or person instead of waiting on God.”
Talk about a “whoa” moment. Suddenly the pieces fell into place. When do we feel like we can’t go any further because we have no more strength?
When we’ve prayed over and over again for our spouse to believe in Christ?
For a child to be healed?
For a job?
For a difficult situation to resolve and find a peaceful solution?
For a loved one to come back to us?
Add yours to the list. (Tell us about it in the comments.) Now ask yourself this. “What am I waiting on?” Did your answer look like one of these:
For my spouse to come to faith.
For my child to be healthy again.
For the right job.
For this situation to be fixed and go away.
For my loved one to come home.
Is your strength lagging? Are you tired and want to give up? Are you asking why God isn’t strengthening you? I know I have.
The key is right in the first line of Isaiah 40:31:
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.
Like Beth said, when we wait on our spouse to choose God, for our child to be okay, for a job, for peace, for restoration with a loved one, we’re waiting on that specific event, circumstance, or person. We’re waiting on it, and not God. And we lose our strength.
It always seems to come back to where we point our eyes, doesn’t it? Keeping our eyes on God and waiting on Him. Let’s put it to the test, shall we? See if it works? I’m ready to wait on God and let him renew my strength.
How about you?
Praying and believing,
Dineen
Bless you sweetie.
I needed to read that this morning, Dineen. Funny thing – I have verse 27:7a on my desktop for this month 🙂 “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…” I really need to stop running in front of Him.
Thank you so much for sharing these encouraging words with us today.
Dineen, in a world that is fast paced and in a hurry… waiting is not something we like to do. But waiting upon the Lord is something that we must learn to do. He has the world in the palm of His hands so why do we think we have to take our little bitty problem OUT OF His hands. We recently did the Beth Moore ESTHER study and it is awesome! I recommend every womens group to do it! -blessings.
I love that point – waiting on the Lord rather than an event. All to often I find myself in the reverse mode. I need to give this some prayer.
Thanks, Dineen.