Wait.

This week’s devotional is not based on “A Daybook of Grace”, but from God’s work in my own heart.  I pray that you will feel His love for you and understand how miraculous His plan is for your life.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you" says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me".

Waiting can be so frustrating. Whether it's waiting in line at the grocery store, on hold on the phone, or that big check to come in the mail, we've all had to experience the anguish and frustration of waiting.  We know what we want, but something seems to always stand in our way.  Sometimes it’s because of people or things getting in our way, other times it’s ourselves.  These are all very petty things when you think about it. But what about the more important things we must wait for?   
I find that the hardest thing for us to wait on is God.  We often find ourselves asking questions, wanting to know the why or how of things and seem to never receive a reply.  Or do we? I’m sure you can think of many instances in your life when you’ve wondered “why God?, why me?, why now?”, or often times “why not now?”.  We wait…on a job, on a house, for more money, for a spouse, for a child, for the sick to be healed…for answers. At the time it can feel as though God isn’t listening, or you feel distant from Him.  It’s during these times when God is silent that I feel myself becoming more intimate with Him. In waiting for answers I find myself searching my own heart and in turn getting to know His. In His time God always reveals to us the meaning of it all…Love. HIS LOVE.  Even when we feel as though He’s not there or we can’t bear another second of waiting God is waiting ever so patiently on us.  God has the most perfect and wonderful plan for your life.  He knows every part of us; our thoughts, our desires, our heart.  Psalm 139 is the best illustration of how intimately God knows us and loves us.  If you haven’t read it you should pause here and take a few minutes to do so now! It’s mind-boggling to think of how amazing He is.  His grace, love, and patience are absolutely overwhelming.  I pray that you will earnestly seek His will in your life and find yourself overwhelmed by His love for you while you wait for Him.

A wonderful friend of mine who, like all of us, has been struggling with waiting shared this poem with me this week, and I'd like to share it with you. I love you HS!

Wait

by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . .
And the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.

"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

"My future and all to which I relate

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?

I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,

Or even a 'no' to which I can resign.

"You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,

We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:

I'm weary of asking! I need a reply."

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,

As my Master replied again, "Wait."

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,

And grumbled to God, "So, I'm waiting for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . .

and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

"I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.

You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.

You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint.

You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;

You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.

You'd not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence are all you can see.

"You'd never experience the fullness of love

When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of my comfort late into the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight.

The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask

From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"You'd never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,

But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

"So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.

And though oft My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait."