Psalm 40:1 NIVI waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.
We live in an age where everything is fast. We have fast
food, fast communication, fast everything. Just a couple of days ago a friend posted a picture on Facebook of his speedometer at 190 K as he was traveling on the autobahn! He said he was slow compared to those who were passing him.
With our rapid lifestyle it seems that God is moving in slow
motion. We are accustomed to instant communication via phone, internet or such and
we expect God to answer our prayers immediately. If He hasn’t answered quickly
we think oh He never heard me or He isn’t real or we take the matter into our
own hands and step outside of His will.
Waiting, though, can grow us in a way that nothing else can.
Abraham waited 20 years for God to fulfill His promise of a son and he never
did see the inheritance that God promised him. Abraham is known to be a man of
faith and it was the waiting on God’s timing that molded and fine-tuned his faith.
David too waited for the Lord to fulfill His promise to him of being king. In
fact as David was waiting on God’s timing, he was running for his life. A
couple of times he had the opportunity to take matters into his own hand and
kill Saul but David wouldn’t go there because he feared God. Yet even so, David
cried out to God…
Psalm 143:7 NIVAnswer me quickly, Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
With all the new technology and speed at our fingertips it
is us who are changing not God. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He
doesn’t answer prayer any slower than before; it is just that now we are even
more impatient then our ancestors.
Psalm 40:1-3 NIVI waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.
Psalm 27:14 NIVWait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Does God have you in a place of waiting? If so, let Him
sculpt you and mold you. This maybe a time of growing, a season of stretching;
take the opportunity to learn from Him how to be still and just wait.
James 1:2-4 NIVConsider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Blessings,
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The gratification and wisdom built in to the lesson of waiting is rarely thought about these days. Waiting is tough, but I haven't ever learned anything of lasting value without struggling in one way or the other. Great post and reminder.
ReplyDeleteHi Floyd,
DeleteI'm concerned for our young ones because they don't really have to wait for anything, it's all instant. Instant marks, instant gratification, instant everything.
When I was in my 20's my sister said something that really stuck with me. Things of most value cost us the most in pain and time and the more you work for it the more you will appreciate it. Such wise advice given at such an impressionable age, I took it to heart.
Waiting is tough for sure!! I am such a hyper active person and waiting is so hard to do yet the more I wait the more I learn and grow.
Thanks for sharing brother. :)
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Hi child of God,
ReplyDeleteI love psalm 40 and find myself singing it most mornings when I get up because I am in a waiting situation for what God has promised me at the moment. The lovely thing is that as He proves Himself in my life in His time, not in mine, I find that my dependence upon Him grows, instead of my dependence upon myself.
God bless
Hi Brenda,
DeleteIt is so cool to see ourselves grow in Him when we wait on Him. I know you have been waiting for His promises to unfold. :) Standing with you seeking His will in your life.
Blessings sister,
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We have to wait on God; He may be in no rush at all, and if we are, then we get out of step with Him. Noah walked with God. he didn't run or sprint or try to beat him like Usain Bolt! He walked!
ReplyDeleteLovely moggy by the way! I love cats.
Hi Tim,
DeleteHa!! I had to look up Usain Bolt AND moggy! :P Lol fastest sprinter ever and an ordinary cat.
I too love cats this pic is of Sabre my black cat. Cats are so very patient especially when they are hunting. I thought of the way a cat will wait and then pounce. The older they get the more patient they are and the quicker at getting their prize. There is so much to learn from God's creation.
Blessings brother,
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Hi Sweetie...Love the picture of your cat. Cats are the perfect model of patience...I have yet to meet a person who readily admits that they are patient, and would rather wait...for almost anything. That is because humans are not patient creatures even though God designed our brains to think and reason things out...which requires patience. You would think we would be more like the cat.
DeleteI agree with you that we are far less patient than our ancestors...they had no other choice...and sometimes neither do we, but we are not conditioned to wait for results anymore like they were.
It is so very important that as parents we teach our children to do things slowly and mindfully. I hardly used our microwave when the kids were little...they watched and learned how to roll out dough and how to (patiently) wait for bread to rise before baking. And how to listen to a story and then anticipate the next chapter at bedtime the next evening. That is what is lost...anticipation.
BTW - I also looked up Usain Bolt (cool how the fastest person's last name is 'Bolt'! And Tim must be British because he called your cat a moggy ;) Ha ha, even auto-correct didn't recognize THAT word!
~Blessings~
Hi Lisa,
DeleteI agree that we are not conditioned to wait like our ancestors. I guess they were impatient too after all they were the ones that strove for advancement and an easier life. Today we are still striving to an easier life. I guess we are never satisfied.
What a wonderful mom you are teaching your kids how to wait and learn to do things from scratch. Anticipation, I believe, is good for us. It can really stretch the imagination and make creative people.
Moggy, I just totally love that word! Glad I'm not the only one who didn't know who Usain Bolt was. Lol! Good name. :)
Blessings hon,
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Yeah moggy is a Northern word for a cat, but it's not an ordinary cat particularly just a name for all cats really!!! No cat is ordinary, they are all special!!! I heard someone use the expression in New Zealand so it's travelled a bit now. England is a small country, but regionally we are very different people, different accents, different foods and each region and city and town and even village has its own words, dialect and things like that. I heard that Cumbria which is far North England still speak over 200 words that are directly traceable to their Viking heritage.
ReplyDeleteUsain's nickname, unsurprisingly, is Lightning Bolt, and he is fast!!!!
Hi Tim,
DeleteLol, well it looks like Moggy may become a common word here in Canada too! :P I mentioned the word to my daughter just this morning and she, being a lover of words, thought it was so cool. She had not heard it yet and I could just see her mind whirling. I do love the sound of moggy and already am calling my 3 furry friends it. :) Thanks for the history lesson on the word. I sure would love to see your end of the world one day there is just so much rich history there.
Nice!!! Lightning Bolt! Love it!!
Blessings,
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Love the comments as much as the blog post :) I too struggle with patience, sigh...still waiting for paperwork to process, the Lord is sure working on teaching me to wait :D Love the analogy of how a cat patiently hunts it's prey, so true about how we should be even more patient because we have been given logic which the animals do not have, so we should use our God given gift of logic and wait upon the Lord to show us how to go about things, but NoooOOOoo we think we can do so much better without relying on God because we are still listening to that tired old lie of the devil that God is a killjoy. And my impatience shows that I give in to that lie too. :( Thankfully GOD is patient...with me. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Susan,
DeleteYea, great comments and neat new words. Moggy!!! :)
O.O any kind of paper work that involves red tape is a painfully slow process. Hope things move smoothly for you.
Yea, patience is a tough one for me. I am hyper active and wants things done yesterday, so when I have to wait, I get so impatient. RA has taught me a lot about waiting and slowing down. Not a lesson I have enjoyed but one I have learned a lot from and am still learning lots.
Blessings hon, :)
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