Some of my clearest childhood
memories are of Christmas Eve. Baking
goodies with Mom, family gatherings, my little brother thinking reindeer would
fall through the roof into HIS bed while mine would be perfectly safe (right up
until he was 11 years old), and who could forget the presents? Each year they mysteriously appeared under
our tree on Christmas Eve, seldom a day sooner.
You see my Mother is somewhat of a procrastinator in this area (sorry
Mom), yet the gifts were always wrapped just in time for my day of torture. That’s right, torture. Boxes of green and red torture bound
together with yards of beautiful, shiny, torturous ribbon.
Being a curious child I would
immediately beg (and beg and beg) to open just one present. Just one.
Naturally, my Mother would somehow manage to ignore my whiny requests
until she finally looked me square in the eye and said “You’re just going to
have to wait.”
Wait? Wait!?!
What is that? That word was
so not in my vocabulary as a child.
Ok…so it’s still somewhat buried in the cobweb covered recesses of my
adult dictionary as well.
Today, I find that Jesus is much
like my Mother on Christmas Eve and I am still much like that impatient
child. When I want something I want it yesterday. I don’t want to acknowledge that I have the
word ‘wait’ even hidden in my vocabulary, much less use it! I often find myself trying to fix my
problems only to have Jesus stop me dead in my tracks, look me square in the
eye and say “You’re just going to have to wait.”
I’ve learned many hard lessons by not waiting on
God’s timing, as I know I should.
Because of this stubborn little streak I have, I didn’t receive the
blessings I would have if I had only been strong enough in my faith to
wait. We have to be willing to be
patient and look for God’s answers in many different ways in order to draw
closer to Him. Often we find ourselves
at the end of our own efforts until we have no choice except to depend on
Him. Waiting involves trust in God.
Webster’s dictionary defines trust as “placing
confidence in something without fear or misgiving.” Wait
without fear? That’s a tough pill to
swallow in the midst of trials, but often the greatest growth we experience in
our relationship with God stems from trials we face. As tough as the trials are, the rewards are
beyond measure. When we act on our
beliefs and humble ourselves before God, we find strength to wait. When praying, don’t ask for patience, be
faithful and ask for strength to wait on God.
Psalm 27:14 tells us “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall
strengthen your heart...”
God has compassion for our pain
because He loves us so dearly. He will
handle our situations and bless us in the process, but only if we have the
strength to leave them with Him in faith and, yes, wait. It’s not a question of will God take care of
our problems, it’s a question of will we let Him?
