Waiting

...accompanied with patience, has never been one of my dominant virtues. I'm more inclined towards doing, producing, gitterdone, the quicker the better. I especially get impatient when I have to wait on people. In fact, I stopped praying for patience awhile back because God kept inserting opportunites for me to display it towards my children. :)

But, waiting is so often what God calls me to do- waiting with patience. My humanness tells me I am being unproductive if I am sitting still. Sometimes my prayers can be more of a frantic desperation that God do something NOW. My heart can actually feel tight and squeezed when I don't see anything happening.

In the past several months I believe God has been speaking to me through His Word about this subject of waiting patiently:

Psalm 25:4&5- "Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day."
(I must insert here a great big thank you to Jessi for directing me to these verses in regards to my children. She has no idea how much this has blessed me. I want to pass it along: whenever the word 'me' is used in these verses, insert a child's name. I love you, Jessi!)

Psalm 27:14- "Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the LORD."

Psalm 37:7- "Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him..."

Psalm 62:5-8- "My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us."

Isaiah 40:31- "...yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary."

Acts 1:4- "And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised..." (read the rest of this passage)

Titus 2:13- "...waiting (looking) for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus..."

Believers seeking to glorify God will simply wait. It is in waiting that God will bring about my sanctification through spiritual growth; it is in waiting that I am actually given new strength. He does not want me waiting with a sense of quiet desperation, but with a courage that He is my hope and salvation. God is a very patient potter, smoothing out my rough edges through sanctifying grace, settling my soul to trust in God that He is exercising His perfect will- even in those areas where I wait...and wait...and wait...

And so, maybe I now have the assurance to go back to praying for patience. :)

And a great big, full-of-love HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most important man in my life!