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3 Things I Have Learned While Waiting

There was a commercial that was popular by JG Wentworth.  The slogan was: It's my money, and I need it now! Typically it was a person yelling this out a window proclaiming that it was their money.   I was in the generation that computers were introduced in mass numbers in school.  The typing class was a must. We learned how to find information on the web rather than in the library.  We learned that we were smarter than our predecessors, we learned there was a faster way, and that life didn't have to be hard.  It was exciting to be a part of the dot com era, we didn't have to wait the way our parents did, we could have things instantly at our fingertips.  It gave us almost a false sense of entitlement and security that life was going to be easy.   Is it any wonder that we struggle with waiting?  I have struggled with the dissonance of where I am and where I think I should be. Add into that my belief in Christ and God's Kingdom and sometimes I can get confused about the process.

    Reality sets in and when things don't come easy anymore, we wonder if God has abandoned us, we question our calling and our purpose based on external factors. How do we wait during storms, trials, and hard seasons?  Jesus said a wise man built his house on the rock and the wind and the rain came, and the house stood.  The foolish man built his house on the sand. The waves and the wind came, and the house was destroyed.  I want to talk with you today about learning to build your home on the firm foundation and waiting out the storms of this life.  I believe in Shallom, Gods Kingdoms product of peace, prosperity, and wholeness, but I think that we have confused God's Kingdom with the Disney Kingdom.   In God's Kingdom, you cannot pick your plan, schedule your whole life, and get fast passes, there are no fast passes in the kingdom of God. The Bible, again and again, talks about endurance and perseverance being strong and courageous.   I have been in a waiting season for the last seven years and at year two, after I got over my frustration, I began to really sit and learn the discipline of the wait.   Here are three things that I learned while waiting.
One: Waiting Grows my Faith
   I see so much of my personality in my youngest child, she is driven, self-sufficient, she challenges and asks questions.  But why, mom?!  It has made me want to apologize to my mother, but it has also taught me that waiting isn't a bad thing.  Many times I am frustrated with God on why things aren't coming together fast enough, why my life isn't going the way I thought it should.  I, at times, struggle to not be angry at God because God isn't fast enough.  When I am waiting, I don't trust God, and so, therefore, my faith is minuscule. I want answers and I don't want to trust anything out of my control. It is at this moment I cling to Proverbs 3: "Lean not on your own understanding but acknowledge me in your ways."  It is a clear marker that I need to wait and trust the Lord in the middle of the unknown.
Two: Waiting draws to the surface what needs to be changed in me.  
   In my waiting season, I am reminded that when muddy water is still the soot will go to the bottom.  Waiting allows me to see clearly and differentiate my areas of struggles. It usually allows me to see myself in all my weak areas.  Whether I am struggling with jealousy, insecurity, anger, envy resentment, many times, God will allow a season of waiting to reveal the areas he wants to purify in my heart.  I have to ask God to forgive me and invite Jesus into these damaged areas.
Three: Waiting makes me mature.
      We teach our toddlers to mature when they have emotional breakdowns, we don't give in to their tantrums. We forget as Christians, we can have spiritual toddler stages.  In the middle of our wait, we are growing in maturity, this maturity helps us help others.  Maturity allows us to produce good fruit, and good fruit can be consumed and allow others to grow stronger.  James 1:4 says But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing. I believe that when we live lives surrendered to God, maturity is a goal for our lives.
So today let me challenge you, what is an area in your life where you can grow in the middle of a season of waiting? Is there one of these three things that God may be trying to teach you?

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