Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Waiting

     We have all been taught the word "wait".  When I was little it sounded like this: "Wait, I'm still playing with it", "wait, mommy's working on it", "wait, we are almost ready to leave", "wait for your birthday and the new toy", "wait for the right guy", "wait for vacation", "wait to graduate", "wait for marriage", etc...  I'm glad my parents taught me how to wait for things when I was a young person, so that when I became an adult I could face my grown up waiting periods a little better.

     I mentioned in an earlier blog about our job loss almost 6 years ago now.  When we went through that trial there was only one book besides the Bible that I could bring myself to read.  It was called Morning and Evening  by Charles Spurgeon.  Its a devotional book filled with many great truths.  We had received it from our church as a present a few years prior.  Wes and I were  having our devotions together on the morning of August 30, 2006. I was feeling very emotional about what I thought was our bleak situation.  Wes started to read and this phrase caught my attention:

August 30- Morning
"Wait on the Lord."  Psalm 27:14
"It may seem an easy thing to wait--but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier cannot learn, without years of teaching.  Marching and fighting are much easier to God's warriors--than standing still.  There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not which part to take.  Then what shall it do?  Vex itself by despair?  Fly backwards in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption?  No--but simply WAIT."   
~Charles Spurgeon~ 

         I was so convicted by what we read that I copied it out and put it on our refrigerator.  At the time I was wanting to run in all directions to fix our job "problem".  I read this portion every day for the next 90 some days!  It helped me with my waiting.  I came across this again while packing.  I have been "waiting" for nearly 6 years to be a normal family again.  During this time Wes and I had plenty of opportunities to climb the ladder of success and move to different locations.  We choose to wait.  We have lived with this crazy commuting because we choose to, not because it was a forced situation. We were simply waiting for God's direction and perfect peace.  I'm glad we waited.  I think that God was seeing how long we could could stand still, with a good attitude, and wait on Him...even if it seemed difficult at times.  Waiting has lead us to go where Wes has always wanted to go.  I wonder if we had been hasty and found a different job somewhere else, if we would still be waiting for God to let us go to Papua New Guinea.  Thank you Lord for teaching us to WAIT.






2 comments:

  1. I like this.
    I remember reading that book...
    We're going through a 'waiting' time right now, so this was an encouragement to me.

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad this was an encouragement! I'll keep you in prayer regarding your waiting as well.

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