Waiting...Part 2

I started to think of Abraham in the Bible, a man who God made a big promise to. God told him that he would be a father of nations, that his children would be greater in number than the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore...He told him all that while for the past 80 years, him and his wife had been completely barren, not even having even one child of their own. Every night, Abraham could walk outside, look at the stars, and remember that promise...while his real circumstances looked completely different than what he was promised, and what he hoped for. He could have stopped hoping, he could have thrown in the towel, but instead, he kept doing what he had been doing for 80 years--try to have a child.

Waiting does not mean, "do nothing". There are times when God tells you to specifically do nothing, but then there are times when he tells you to wait. Many people hide their disappointment or their impatience by turning their waiting time into apathetic wanderings and grumblings. They do nothing, hoping that soon things will change. Waiting is not doing nothing.
In the words of a sweet friend of mine, "Waiting is a time to build the structure, that then God can come and inhabit". You are building the framework for what God wants to do in and through your life, and in the waiting, you are learning to trust. "Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!" (Psalms 27:14)

When we don't feel like waiting, when we start to feel like we are in a desert, like nothing is going to happen, we want to grab hold of the wheel and take charge. We don't trust. Abraham and Sarah did have an "uh-oh" moment in their waiting process. They didn't trust, and they sowed into creating an Ishmael instead of an Issac (sowing into a rival to the promise, aka partnering with hopelessness). But when they submitted to their waiting process, God counted it as righteousness, and they gave birth to their first child, Isaac, the first of their promised star-lit sky.We all know that God's promise to Abraham came true (shoot, you and I are sons and daughters of Abraham according to the Bible! ). So when you are in a "desert" spot, in one of those "waiting" in-between spaces in your life, don't decide to go off and take matters into your own hands. Its always better to trust. When walking through a desert, its always better to stay with the guy who has the water.

For those of you in your waiting, looking at your star-lit sky, but not yet seeing what God has promised you, keep building that place that God can come inhabit. The more I ponder this idea of waiting, the more I am beginning to embrace it, because my heart can feel how influential it is in growing my trust towards the One who is perfectly faithful. Let the words that He spoke to Abraham comfort your heart, "Don't be afraid. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward." (Genesis 15:1).

Go out tonight, look at the stars, and say to yourself, "His promises still exist."

" Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD [is] a God of justice; Blessed [are] all those who wait for Him." Isaiah 30:18