Weekend Words

From Be Still and Know...

"And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement: blessed are all they that wait for him" (Isaiah 30:18)

Today people are impatient.  Before the traffic light is completely changed, the car behind has honked to hurry us up. When we enter a store or office we want immediate service.

This same impatience often carries over into our relationship with God.  We bring a request to Him and expect an immediate answer.  We become impatient when it is not forthcoming.

However, God knows the importance of our learning the lesson of waiting, not only our waiting on God, but His waiting on us.  He may allow us to wait that we may be better prepared for the answer to our request.  He may let us wait that our capacity to receive His answer may be enlarged.  He may have things to accomplish in the lives of others before He can give us what we are asking.  He may know that we are still too self-sufficient.  But our waiting is never in vain.

There may be lessons of patience to learn which come only through waiting.  "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:4).  Sometimes we want our own way and are not willing to wait for His plan to be revealed to us.  In our impatience we choose our way instead of God's.  We miss God's best because of our unwillingness to wait.

To have a harvest of fruit, there must be a waiting period for fruit to form and ripen on the trees.  God often has to give us a waiting period for spiritual fruit to be produced in our lives.  We may think He has forgotten us, but He knows when we are ready.  He is never ahead of schedule, never late, but always on time.  Remember, if He waits longer than you wish, it is only to make the blessing more abundant when it comes.

"God's delays are not always denials!"

From Amish Peace...

God's Job Description for You

"Jesus told [the crowd], "this is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent." - John 6:29

Sometimes I dream about buying a farm, baking my own bread, and sewing my own clothes.  The world is noisy at times with television, radio, bloggers, newspaper columnists - just to start the list.  Endless information is at our fingertips, and it fills my mind with static ... Oh, to drown out the noise!

Yet it wouldn't take six months on the farm for me to start buying my bread again, look for a different house without all the extra chores, and dream of living closer to the grocery store.  Does that mean I'm lazy?  No, it just means I know myself.  I also know that the level of my devotion to a particular idea can be seen in the day in, day out of my life.

We may like the idea of quieter lives, but our true devotion is to be serving God in the daily tasks we already have.  There is no end to the various ways we can labor.  And no matter where we live, each of us has the ability to "turn down the noise."  The important thing is to remember that the work God wants from us it to "believe in the one he has sent."  What an amazingly simple - and very demanding - job description!

Much of the noise around us consists of messages that tell us to do more, be more, and devote ourselves to more of what we can see.  Believing means allowing God to still our souls and to tune out the voices that don't matter.  We don't have to run away and buy a farm so this can happen.  In fact, sometimes our belief is strongest when we discover Jesus in the midst of the noise.

And I came across this lovely song recently from Sounds Like Reign.

Enjoy!