When Waiting Seems Impossible!
We are an impatient people. We are used to having what we want when we want it. And on top of this, in the amazon prime world “free two-day shipping,” we demand whatever “shipped free” to boot!Waiting is hard.
Waiting for God to answer is harder.
When it seems that nothing is happening and we have prayed and prayed and prayed...
When we’ve checked off our lists of living right and trying our best to be what He needs us to be in the ministry – waiting is not for the faint of heart.
When we have quoted scripture, stood firm, and have surrendered all that we know to surrender, waiting is brutal.
Waiting will either draw you closer to God or drive you away. Your choice, of course.
I submit that waiting can be what drives us away from the very intimacy He desires for us to experience with Him.
The people of God had long been waiting for the Messiah. A Savior.
They desired a conquering King. One to deliver them from their oppression and to set things right in their broken world. A Savior that would change their outlook on said world and help them take their rightful places. A place of freedom. A place where they would be free to live their lives as they saw fit.
Never would they ever imagined that this King would have come in the form of a baby. Never would the people of God have dreamt the Messiah they had waited for would arrive in the way that He did.
But isn’t that just like our God? His time is never my time, our time. C.S. Lewis said, “I am sure that God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.”
It’s been good for me to wait, though I don’t like it one bit. But it’s been in the waiting that I have learned of my Savior. I have experienced His faithful, fierce, forever, love. I have embraced His grace and mercy. I have bowed low and said, “You know what I don’t.” “You know more than I.” “You are my LORD!”
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Gal. 4:4-7
Perhaps this season finds you waiting.
- Maybe you are waiting for a paycheck – so you can purchase Christmas presents for your loved ones.
- You might be waiting to be recognized for a job well done or the next better ministry position.
- You could be waiting for the money to move to the next level of ministry.
- Or you are waiting for an answer to a medical test.
- Some are waiting for healing from emotional wounds, or
- praying and waiting for healing from a physical disease.
- Some have been waiting a long while for a prodigal to return home.
- Many are waiting for the healing of a broken marriage.
Life is FULL of waiting.
Waiting is hard, and most of the time seems impossible. Waiting involves us not having control. Waiting will almost always include someone else and the decisions they make. Therefore we cannot do one thing except, you guessed it, WAIT! And for those of us in ministry leadership – waiting is the one thing we don’t do well. Personally or ministerial, we are moving ahead. And yet, it’s the one thing we need to learn. We will not lead where we don’t know how to wait.
As leaders, waiting is done mostly through prayer and quiet. It involves laying everything we are waiting for before the Lord, surrendering our agendas, our methodologies, and confessing that His perfect will is best. Allowing God to bring the fullness of His time to our stories and surrendering the other people involved to Him as well.
Waiting is never easy. Never. But as we wait, if we allow Him, He will teach us more of Himself. He will teach us about HIS TIME and HIS WAITING.
As this month, races forward, may you and I wait knowing that in the fullness of time, Our Abba will answer.
Praying for you, Blessed Merry Christmas!
Diane
Diane Nix is the director and founder of Contagious Joy 4 Him, a network of encouragement to ministry wives around the globe. They are offering “Free Refresh Retreats” and a safe place for ministry wives to share their hearts with other like-minded women. Thirty-six years ago, she married her husband, pastor/professor, Dr. Preston Nix. He is a professor of evangelism and evangelistic preaching at NOBTS. They have two biological daughters, two spiritual-grown daughters, two grands, and two son’s in-laws. Diane’s life bears the scars of addiction, abuse, loss, and dysfunction. Read more….
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