Wait for the Lord

It is hard to wait for things as I am sure you well know. I cannot tell you how many times I burned my mouth because I did not wait for something delicious to cool. I know what will happen yet  I still bite into that hot, molten-chocolate brownie. There is something to be said for waiting. With brownies, it prevents burns. With God, waiting prevents burn out and misstep. Waiting and rest is a time of renewal and of strengthening and of realignment. 

God wants us to slow down and rest with Him. Isaiah 30 is a great example of this. Israel did not want to hear what God had to say so their 'unhearing' became like a hole in a dam. At any moment the dam would break and the pent up river would destroy the land. However, God promised to restore His people even then. "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength" (Isa 30:15). Even then, Israel did not want to listen. They tried to rely on their own strength. Instead of asking God to fix the dam they chose to run from its consequences. 

"Therefore, the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore, he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him... He will surly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it' when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left" (Isa 30:18, 19-22). 

Slow down and take time to rest with God. He renews our strength as we wait on Him and rest with Him (Isa 40:31). He does not shame us for asking direction and insight but loves talking with us (Isa 49:23). He loves the process. When we are still before the LORD and wait patiently for him, we can better see the desires of our heart (Ps 37). Rest with Him. Know His heartbeat. We do not need to try to run ahead of God's plan. You are not behind. He is right there with you. I do not care if you are eight or eighty, you are not washed up. God opens the way, and He can restore back the years you thought you lost.

Intro to Trust, Desire, Hope

God is teaching me a lot about hope. This summer has been an interesting one full of change and redirection. It did not look anything like I expected. I do not entirely know what I was expecting to learn but I know this was not it. Much of this summer was spent battling with the fact that my dreams and my circumstances do not match up. Endurance despite my circumstances was a big theme. All this has led me to study hope.

Before this summer all I knew about hope was that “Hope deferred makes the heart sick but longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Pr 13:12). It took me a while to remember that I do not have to live in the ‘hope deferred makes the heart sick’ part of the verse. I can be instead looking ahead to the ‘longing fulfilled is a tree of life.’ I do not have to look at my circumstances as a gauge of where I am spiritually.

Right now I know that I am coming closer and closer to longing fulfilled. I can see it on the horizon. I do not know how all this is going to work or what it will look like but I know I am getting closer and closer to stepping into them and living in the fullness of these dreams.

I have big dreams. I want to change the world. I want to see and bring about restoration. I want to cultivate a greater hunger for God in the church. I believe God has great plans for His people and right now He is preparing us to walk in the fullness of them. I believe He placed these desires for greatness within us so that they will drive us to Him because He is the one who can fulfill them.

Trust is the first step in this process. We need to trust that our Father will fulfill His word. When we can trust the Father, He can better grow desires and dreams within us. Hope is the longing for those desires to be fulfilled and the belief that they will be fulfilled.

These next several posts will be more about what I am learning about these things.