Waiting

Just a minute.....I'll be right there.....Please hold.....One minute please.....Hang on.....Just take a seat.....Take a number.....Please leave a message.....Call back later.....Not right now.....

...statements we hear daily that put us in a temporary state of in activity. Our momentum is broken - our stride halted - our voice silenced.

What is going on inside? Irritation? Impatience? Anger? Indignation? Frustration?

I know that I have often felt these emotions when told to wait. Our life style has become so fast paced that the time spent waiting is considered wasted time. And - that belief is reinforced when we view waiting as an imposition.

If I can not see waiting as a natural and productive part of life - then how can I see waiting on God as productive?

Waiting forces us to take the focus off of 'self' and become submitted to the will of another - if even for a short time. (which is another subject!!) Stop and think about why we become so impatient. The emotion is born out of the attitude that what I have to say or do is more important - what I need is more important. Why must I be kept waiting?

Waiting seems not to be a natural talent of most of us. Waiting with patience is something we must learn.

Waiting can be a productive time rather than a time of aggravation.

Waiting time can be used to organize thoughts in a positive manner.

Waiting time can be a time to step back and see a situation more calmly.

Waiting time can provide time for study, research, learning more about what is ahead.

Waiting time can be a time of reflection and increased understanding.

Waiting time can be a time of prayer - of true communication with God.

If I can master the art of waiting with patience in my daily life I will be able to see the profit in those 'waiting times'.

Our lives are based on 'instant' everything. Instant coffee, instant potatoes, instant glue, instant heat, instant on, instant entertainment, instant news, instant communication........
everything we want the instant we demand.

Do we expect an "instant God" too. Do we spew out our demands like little children and expect our answers immediately - just because we asked!?

Waiting time is learning time. Have we asked and not yet received? Perhaps there is something we must learn. Maybe something in us needs to change. It may be that the time is not right.

Lets use the waiting time productively. Learning - growing - becoming more mature, more patient, If we believe that He works all things together for good to them that love Him - than the waiting time can be a productive and enriching time. Let us use it joyfully and fill it with praise - knowing and trusting that "Father Always Knows Best"!!

Rom 8:24 - 28
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.