We've been exploring Isaiah in our Wednesday Panera Bible Study. This week we discovered together that there seems to be a correlation between trusting God and waiting on Him. While this may seem obvious at first, I think that my schedule and most schedules don't create much space for waiting. It is easy for me to say that I trust God, but it is not as easy for me to say that I wait on Him.It makes me question what I'm really trusting.
Is it the emails that I'm waiting to receive?
Is it the movie for which I'm waiting to be released?
Is it the vacation that is on the horizon?
Is it the phone call from my friend/family?
Is it the new gadget that is soon to arrive on the scene?
Now, I realize that not all waiting implies ultimate trust, but it does beg the question, "Do the things I'm waiting on have too weighty of significance in my life?" Which leads to the better question, "Are the things I'm waiting on those things that God desires?"
PS Click on the pic to see the artist's explanation of "They Are Waiting"
4 comments:
In rest and repentance is your salvation, In quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Isaiah 30:15
I've been chewing on that for 3 years.
Waiting on the Lord, counterintuitively, is probably the most active thing we do.
My pastor's wife, Debbie, shared that with me, and I immediately said, "Yes."
I think you ask a good question when you ask �am I waiting for the right things�? When I think of waiting I think of the commandment to wait given in the beginning of Acts. In this case they were waiting for the Spirit to give them power to be his witnesses. I think this means that they were empowered to display the character of Christ in their lives.
I am not sure anymore about waiting in the sense for God to do things. What I mean is waiting for God to open doors, shut windows, or pull my life strings to make particular circumstances move �according to his will�. I am not saying God can�t do these things but I think his will for my life has a lot more to do with reflecting and be connected to him then things like what job I might take. So to me the question is, as I go in life to I wait on him to empower me to love and act in love the way he leads me in.
Just some thoughts, I hope you guys are doing well. I�d love to hook up sometime.
Peace,
James
Hey Diggs!
Yeah, I'd echo what Tim said that waiting is probably the most active thing we do.
As I've been thinking about this pictures of waiting have come up in my mind about how to make waiting a spiritual habit. I think I read about this in a book sometime ago, but the author talked about using the regular times of waiting in our lives as reminders that we are waiting and expecting God in our lives. So, when we are waiting at the stoplight, in the grocery store, for the package to arrive in the mail, for the computer to boot up, we can use those types of times to ask ourselves if we are waiting with the same sense of expectancy on God.
I think that the story of the disciples waiting in Jerusalem is a great example.
In my original post I wasn't going this direction, but there are those (and I have been here) who are waiting for God's justice, for God's answer in regards to healing, for the Father's touch in restoring broken relationships. The stories of the Israelites in exile are appropriate for those people.
May we wait on...and move in...and expect...and be shaped by God's love and justice in all we do.
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