Hard Words Part Four: Wait

This is the last of a series that has not been fun to read. No fun to obey. It's also not been fun to write. If you missed one please scroll down and catch up below. But just in case you need a refresher course, here's the recap:

 Forgive...because you were forgiven.
Die...to yourself.
Speak...God's Words.

 Like I said, no fun. 

 But God isn't focused on FUN. He's focused on HIS GLORY. And though there are times that we feel God can be a real downer, let me assure you that there is nothing that can thrill your heart like Jesus. Nothing will give you peace like the Lord. No fun can match the ultimate glory of living a life for the one who gave His freely.

 So don't ignore the hard words; embrace them. Start to believe them. Ask God to help you live in light of their truth. And He will bless you for your obedience.

 And here is today's hard word: wait.

 We do not like to wait. And I'm not just talking about our culture or our lifestyles. We don't like to wait on God. There. I said it. Because we feel like God is sometimes the great omniscient dawdler, dragging His holy feet when we would really like for Him to get a move on, in Jesus' name.

 Maybe you know He's prepared your mind and heart to be a wife and mom, yet you sit around single, waiting for Mr. Right. 

 Maybe you know He's given you the talent of creating or speaking or singing or writing, yet you sit around looking for a way to use it for Him.

 Maybe you know He's called you to missions, ministry, leading, or worship, yet you sit in His presence, waiting for Samaritan's Purse or Hillsong or David Platt himself to call you up.

 Or maybe you know you're in this season of your life for some particular reason but that friend/mom/boyfriend/kid/husband/pastor seems to be holding you back from all God has for you.

 Many of you have written to me or said to me, "I just don't know what God is saying to me right now. I don't know what He wants me to do. I don't know what my next step should be."

 In periods of waiting, you need be:

  • Digging deeply into His Word and drinking fully from His Spirit. Really believing Him, hearing Him, praying, and speaking what you are learning. 
  • Memorizing and meditating on His Word. I've gotten 99% of my direction from God through His Word. 
  • Keeping your eyes open for opportunities that might build you into the follower He has called you to be. Called to lead worship? Volunteer to lead the preschool Sunday School classes in some praise songs. Want to be a mom? Love on other people's kids. Have art in you that needs to come out? Ask your pastor what needs to be made more beautiful in your church. 

Waiting is good for you! Why?
Because you need to know Him better.
Because you need to see that He is worth following.
Because His Word is truth even when you feel alone.
Because you need on-the-job training. 
Because waiting is where growth happens.

 Seriously. I had a wise woman a few years ago explain to me that she knew the best teachers were able to "teach from the overflow," meaning they were so full of knowledge and insight and wisdom about a subject they were able to share what just naturally bubbled out of them on a subject. I have found that my best Sunday School lessons are from the overflow. If you've ever heard me teach on Zechariah or Habakkuk, hopefully you got a well-planned, prayed-for, applicable lesson. But if you happened to catch me on a day when I got to talk about the woman caught in adultery by the Pharisees or Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday, you know what I mean about teaching from the overflow. I need no notes, no lesson plan, and no main ideas. I'm just gushing.

 But I didn't grasp those stories like that the first time I read about them. It wasn't even the tenth time. There was something about reading those amazing passages over and over and over and studying them over and over and over that they eventually went deeper and deeper and deeper into my heart and my mind and filled me so full that I gush with those passages.

 Overflow came in the waiting.

 On the other hand, sometimes we get the main idea of what God called or gifted or made you to do but we are wrong on the details. In that case, it's in the waiting that He will make it all clear. For many, many years I wanted to be a speaker. I knew I was gifted in speaking, I loved to speak, and God so filled me with His Spirit when I spoke that I felt like I was flying. I took every speaking opportunity I could get, cherishing every single one. But, one by one, the opportunities came less and less frequent and the audiences were nowhere to be found. 

 "God," I wrote many times in my journal, "You made me to speak! I have studied for years. I have prepared for years. I am ready!!!" Silence. 

 And then one day I got a call from our Youth Minister, asking me to take a group of rambunctious, talkative, enthusiastic 10th grade girls. I had an infant daughter who didn't sleep, I was stretched too thin, and I felt my Sunday School teaching had been sub-par for years. On top of that, I knew 10th grade girls were quite needy and would break my heart before they graduated. With all that was in me, I didn't want to take on this class. 

 So what did I say? 

 "Yes, Lord." I didn't say yes to the Youth Minister or you. I said yes because I knew God was leading me to take the step. And I have had more fulfillment in accepting the call to lead this wild and crazy bunch of girls more than anything else I could have done. And though I have not made much money as a speaker since I said yes, I have felt God's approval, His direction, and the living-out of His Word in my life because I said yes to something He called me to do. I've been Beth Moore to a group of twenty girls who didn't need a speaker; they needed a mentor and friend. And seeing the fruit in your lives fills my heart with greater joy than speaking to large groups.

 I am still waiting on God. (I hope to be always waiting on Him for something; that means He's still preparing me for His use!) But in the meantime, I am saying yes to waiting because, I can tell you first hand, there is joy and blessing and strengthening in the waiting.

 You aren't ready right now. 
You need to wait so He can continue to shape you and mold you and pour His Spirit and His love and His Son into your mind and your heart so that when the day of fulfillment comes, you'll be ready. Really ready.

 So make this your verse in the waiting: "Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts," (Isaiah 26:8).

 @leslienotebook
myleslienotebook@gmail.com

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