Always Working

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:17 (NIV)

As I walked into the room, he looked up. He asked me to come talk to him. When he started talking he said “I know God is part of your life. I need advice and I would like you to pray and ask God what I am supposed to do.” I responded with “That’s not how it works. You are supposed to pray and ask God what He wants you to do“. My friend went on to tell me that he walked away from God many years ago. He was sure God wouldn’t want to talk to him. 

We talked. I shared that I knew God wanted to talk to him....that God wanted to have a relationship with him and if he was interested in getting to know God, I would be happy to meet with him and share. 

A few weeks later he called. He wanted to start his journey. We started meeting and my friend has fallen in love with Jesus and is seeking to grow closer to Him. PRAISE!

I share this story because I think, pray and talk a lot about waiting on God. It almost gives the impression that while I am waiting, God isn’t doing anything. Which is so far from the truth. God is always working. He is always talking and moving in people’s hearts. Sure, I am waiting on specific things but all around my waiting are these amazing miracles. Any time someone is convinced that God is there and He is involved, it is a miracle.

Like the woman who was doing something at work that she felt was wrong. One day she decided she had to stand for what she believed in. She committed to going to work that week and talking to her boss. Before she even got to that point, she lost her job. But guess what? She had a job the very next day working for someone who prays over her business decisions. God was at work.

A young man was looking for a job. He commented that God is not involved in our everyday lives. We prayed together. The next week he went on three interviews and got a job offer at all three. During one of the interviews the owner of the business talked about God and something God said during prayer. This young man took that job. Later he said “I guess God is interested in what is happening in my life.”

Another woman had an addiction. She knew she wasn’t happy and she wanted more. She started on the journey to know Jesus. She’s been free of her addiction for 11 months! God is working in her life and she is beginning the process of helping others who have addictions. 

God is always working. He is moving in hearts and lives to call as many of His children into a relationship with Him. He wants them all to respond to His invitation. Won’t you come? Come and know the boundless love of your Father. Do you already know? If so, come join with Him to point people to Jesus. There is work to do in the waiting.

Can we get there already?

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25 (ESV)

We were standing in the kitchen. I was explaining the weekend schedule to my two teenage children and my son said “We always have something planned. Can’t we ever be spontaneous?” I said “Sure!” I walked over to the calendar hanging on the wall and as I was pointing at it I said “We can be spontaneous on this weekend.” My son looked at me and said “Obviously, you don’t know what the word spontaneous means. You don’t schedule it.”

This is a true story. We look back now and laugh but in truth, this is who I am. I like to plan. I like to know what is happening, when it’s happening and if I can know how it will happen, I am even happier.

Lately, God has been teaching me that my plans mean nothing and his “spontaneity” in my life is the actual plan. What do I mean by this? As a Jesus Girl I have come to learn there is a lot of waiting involved. I can plan all I want to but the majority of my time is now spent waiting on Him. There doesn’t seem to be a defined schedule, a plan of action or any sort of rhyme or reason to when something happens. As you can imagine, this is a little frustrating for me. 

I have thoughts like ‘Can we please just do something?’ or ‘Can we please move this along a little faster?’ And then like a child I repeat “What are we doing?” Kind of like “Are we there yet?” Except it probably sounds more like “Can we get there already?” I thank God for His patience with me.

I was sharing these thoughts with my son the other day and I said “There is no plan.” He said “Oh there is a plan. You just don’t know what it is. It’s kind of like when you were a child. You follow along with what your parents are doing not knowing the plan and all of a sudden you end up at the beach.” 

Not only did this make me smile but I realized he’s right. When we follow along and go with God’s plan, even when we have no idea where we are going, suddenly we catch a glimpse of Him. Suddenly, we get to see His hand at work and we are exceedingly blessed. I don’t have the waiting thing down yet. I’m not sure I ever will but I am getting better at knowing. I am getting better at knowing if I wait and keep looking, all of a sudden I will get to experience Jesus. It is always worth the wait. Always.

Wait Well

I will climb up to my watchtower
and stand at my guard post.
There I will wait to see what the Lord says
and how he will answer my complaint. Habakkuk 2:1 (NLT)

Habakkuk was being honest with God. In his conversation he says “Don’t you see what is happening here? Why aren’t you doing something!? Your people are a mess. We need help.” God says, “I am helping. I’m sending your enemies to destroy your land.” Habakkuk’s response was “Excuse me? Why would you do that? They are worse than we are!”

After Habakkuk tells God he thinks this is a bad idea, he waits. He basically says “I don’t know what you are doing but I’m going to stand here and wait for your response.”

When what God is doing doesn’t make sense, when it seems like he is leading you in the wrong direction, what is your response? Do you decide that he’s taking too long to do something? Do you make your own plans and move out without him? Or do you wait to see what he says?

As Habakkuk waited, God responded and his response produced praise. Habakkuk basically says, I’ve heard about you. And I remember all that you can do and I remember who you are. At the end he says this:

Fig trees may not grow figs,
and there may be no grapes on the vines.
There may be no olives growing
and no food growing in the fields.
There may be no sheep in the pens
and no cattle in the barns.
But I will still be glad in the Lord;
I will rejoice in God my Savior.
The Lord God is my strength.
He makes me like a deer that does not stumble
so I can walk on the steep mountains. v 17-19 (NCV)

In summary, no matter what happens, no matter how bad it looks, you are my strength. In you I will be glad.

As you face this week, I pray you, like Habakkuk, do the same.

Waiting Not So Well

Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:30-31 (NLT)

Someone recently asked me what it looked like to wait well. My first thought was “How would I know. I don’t wait well.” Let me explain.

God has had me waiting for some time now. It feels like I am stuck in this place that I don’t want to be and every time I want to “take care of it”, I am told to wait. I believe I can fix this if I do certain things but he is telling me to stay put.

So I wait. But I don’t do it well. There are days when I walk away from my time with God sure of who he is and what he wants. I am confident that this will work out. It’s all good.

The next day (or even sometimes later that same day), I am an anxious mess. I feel like curling into the fetal position and hiding somewhere where I don’t have to face what is hard. I am not sure if I am hearing God correctly. I question everything I am doing. Obviously, these days are not a good representation of someone who trusts God.

This process is a journey. I don’t think in my lifetime I will ever be 100% sure of what God is doing. And I don’t think all my days will look stellar. And that’s OK. What I am learning is to lean on who God is, not what I can or cannot do.

On my particularly messy days, I remind myself of God’s promises in the Bible. I remind myself that I believe that he will do what he says he will do. I remember that even Jesus didn’t want to walk through what he walked through but he did it. He kept walking; believing.

I know God loves me. I know he loves you too. If you are in a time of waiting, keep doing what he last told you to do and trust that this time is important. Lean into it. Surrender to it and his infallible timing.Someone recently asked me what it looked like to wait well. My first thought was “How would I know. I don’t wait well.” Let me explain.

God has had me waiting for some time now. It feels like I am stuck in this place that I don’t want to be and every time I want to “take care of it”, I am told to wait. I believe I can fix this if I do certain things but he is telling me to stay put.

So I wait. But I don’t do it well. There are days when I walk away from my time with God sure of who he is and what he wants. I am confident that this will work out. It’s all good.

The next day (or even sometimes later that same day), I am an anxious mess. I feel like curling into the fetal position and hiding somewhere where I don’t have to face what is hard. I am not sure if I am hearing God correctly. I question everything I am doing. Obviously, these days are not a good representation of someone who trusts God.

This process is a journey. I don’t think in my lifetime I will ever be 100% sure of what God is doing. And I don’t think all my days will look stellar. And that’s OK. What I am learning is to lean on who God is, not what I can or cannot do.

On my particularly messy days, I remind myself of God’s promises in the Bible. I remind myself that I believe that he will do what he says he will do. I remember that even Jesus didn’t want to walk through what he walked through but he did it. He kept walking; believing.

I know God loves me. I know he loves you too. If you are in a time of waiting, keep doing what he last told you to do and trust that this time is important. Lean into it. Surrender to it and his infallible timing.

Show me the right path, O Lord;
point out the road for me to follow.
Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you. Psalm 25:4-5

Not So Patiently Waiting

Wait patiently for the Lord.
    Be brave and courageous.
    Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 (NLT)

Ever notice that when you follow God there is a lot of waiting. We wait for an answer to prayer. We wait for guidance. We wait while we try to figure out what God wants.

Waiting is not my strongest trait. As a matter of fact, I think I am pretty terrible at it. On a pretty regular basis I complain to God (and my friends) about the waiting. I feel that I have been waiting on God for a couple years now.

What am I waiting for? I am waiting on some idea I have in my mind about how things are supposed to look. And they don’t look like that. Where did I get that idea? Good question. Somewhere in my head I formed this idea about what life is supposed to look like. It doesn’t so I am expecting God to change it.

Maybe that’s where the next line in today’s text comes in. Be brave and courageous. Sometimes we feel that waiting is a bad thing. But in all honesty, it takes courage. When you wait, you acknowledge that you are not going to “fix” it by yourself. In this case, I am waiting on God to step in. I am surrendering the outcome to him not knowing his next move.

Surrendering is hard. It requires courage to trust God and let him run the show.

There is one word in this text that I am still working on; patiently. I am learning to wait. God’s been telling me to wait for a while now. While I wait, I am learning to trust. But the patiently part still eludes me on a pretty regular basis.

Good thing God has the “patiently” part down! He is very patiently waiting for me to learn this lesson.

Dipping and Soaring!

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (NLT)

Recently this text got stuck in my head. Maybe because some days I feel so tired! Don’t we all? We run here and there, do this, do that. Our lists are never ending. Right? I kept thinking about the wings like eagles….what would that feel like? I dug into it a little and as usual, it’s beautiful. This may have to be one of the texts that I hang around the house so I can remember it.

God starts off asking them if they don’t remember what he’s done and how he has provided what they need in the past. Almost a little sarcastically really “Have you not heard?” Of course they heard! The stories of his rescue from Egypt were told over and over again. It’s who they were! But, it seems like they forgot. Glad we don’t do that.

Then he goes on to tell them (again) that he gives the power. When you are totally done, can’t take any more he will give you the strength that you need. He says that when we wait for the Lord, not go ahead and try to do it ourselves but wait for the Lord, we will get all the strength and power we need.

Another really cool thing is the word renew. It means to exchange (like a suit of clothes.) In other words, you have to take off what you are carrying around and put on what God has to give you.

When we do that, we will soar! We will take off and fly gliding on the winds, dipping and circling and soaring again! I can’t help but think if we allow God to be our strength, it will be a lot more fun than a never-ending “to do” list.

Waiting Is Hard.....Still

Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?”
Saul replied, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help!’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.” 1 Samuel 13:10-12 (NLT)

Samuel: What have you done?
Saul: I saw my men leaving.
Samuel: You were supposed to wait.
Saul: But, you were late.
Samuel: You were supposed to wait.
Saul:  But, the Philistines are getting ready.
Samuel: You were supposed to wait.
Saul: But, I haven't even asked God myself.

Fast Forward to today.

Holy Spirit: What have you done?
Us: I saw all the activity around this.
Holy Spirit: You were supposed to wait.
Us: But, nothing was happening.
Holy Spirit: You were supposed to wait.
Us: But, folks were taking action. I didn't want to miss out.
Holy Spirit: You were supposed to wait.
Us: But, aren't I supposed to do something? Don't I have a role here?
Holy Spirit: Yes, your role right now is to wait.
Us: But.......

You'd Think I'd Get It By Now

Wait patiently for the Lord.  Psalm 27:14 (NLT)

Last night I had a dream. I dreamt that I was supposed to stand up in front of people and say something about my experience with God. I prayed and prayed and asked God what he wanted me to say but the answer never came.

In my dream, I was stressed and worried. I kept trying to figure out what God wanted. Sounds like a nightmare doesn't it? The clock was slowly clicking down and pretty soon it was my turn. When I stood up, I knew exactly what to say. It was all there, clear as a bell.

When I woke up, today's text was in my head. It reminded me of two things. One, to wait on the Lord doesn't mean to stand around and do nothing. It means to continue to seek him and listen to what he has to say. Two, it also means not to stress about what you are waiting for. While you are seeking God, stop worrying.

God always shows up. He may do it in the last second before you need it but he always shows up. Maybe that's where the word patiently comes in. This seems to be the same lesson I have to learn over and over again. Wait and trust. Trust and wait. Somewhere along the way I forget and have to relearn it.

The amazing lesson I've learning in all this trusting and waiting? That when God does show up, his plan was better than mine. He works everything out according to his divine purpose and that nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible.