The Waiting Game - Encouragement Café - October 31

The Waiting Game
 By Maria Drayton

For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.  Habakkuk 2:3

Waiting.  I do find it hard to wait and realize that God is creating in me, patience.  Instead of hating the wait, I’ve decided to enjoy the wait.  It hasn’t always been this way.  When I was younger (a year ago), I would’ve considered “wait” a bad word.

If I had a need, I wanted it fulfilled. Immediately.  My generation is “Generation X”, where we learned that the microwave could cook things in a 3rd of the time than an oven could.  The next thing that improved my “wait game” was the invention of the Internet.  Remember the pager?  And the cell phone is just a little piece of Heaven.  I am grateful for all of these inventions that allow me to cut time in half.  

But lately it’s always me that gets stuck behind the slow driver.  Or maybe it’s the grocery store line that I’m always stuck in.  Then again maybe it’s my son weekday mornings that I am waiting on.  Wherever I look, there’s a wait.  But the best thing that I’m waiting on is the Lord.

Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!  Psalm 27:14

It hadn’t always been like this.  This is a new season of waiting on the Lord.   I hadn’t always been waiting on Him.  About a month ago, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “You’re waiting on me but I’m waiting on you!”  The Holy Spirit had convicted me months before in an area and if I am honest - I’d been stuck.  I decided to do what He told me and now that I’m doing my part, I’m waiting for God to do His!

If this were a year ago, the wait would’ve bothered me.  But now it doesn’t.  I have hope in my wait.  I have faith in my wait.  I have joy in my wait.  I have expectation in my wait.  I have love in my wait.  I have hope in my wait.  While waiting I’ve decided to study scriptures that assist me in “waiting well.”

A few are:

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.  Psalm 25:21 

Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.  Psalm 33:20 

My soul, waits silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.  Psalm 62:5 

This new way of “waiting” even helps me with my husband.  Now, I can wait for him to fix the television, kill the bug, or replace the bulb.  Sometimes I even hear myself encouraging people to keep me waiting, “It’s fine, take your time!” I hear myself say.  Hardly believing that it’s me speaking.  And I’m learning that the wait is worth it!  I appreciate things so much more after the wait is over.  I haven’t completely arrived but I am on my way.  Are you waiting on God or is He waiting on You?

Thank you Father, for teaching me to learn to wait well.  You are my hope and my shield.  You teach me Your ways and I am grateful because you help me to be more like your Son.  Thank you for the examples of patience and peace around me.  You are my way-maker.   I don’t have to see Your hand to know that you are working on my behalf.  Thank you for your peace that surpasses all understanding while I wait. In Jesus’ name I thank you and am grateful, Amen. 

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31

For more encouragement, visit Maria at mariadrayton.com

©2019 by Maria Drayton.  All rights reserved.

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