“Yet
God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11a
Four years
ago when I was coming back to the States from my first mission trip to Hong
Kong, I arrived at the Newark airport after the looooooong 15 hour, international flight. When we got off the plane, we discovered that
weather had delayed and cancelled many flights.
I went to the domestic terminal to discover that my flight back to
Tennessee had been delayed…10, yes T-E-N, hours. Talk about a long time to wait in an airport
after already waiting 15 hours to get home…and crazy enough, that story
doesn’t even compare to the wait time the other person on my team had to endure
in order to get back home.
Waiting is
never fun. Whether it be in a doctor’s
office or on hold with the phone company or for a delayed flight…we all have stories
of times when waiting caused frustration to the max. In life we have things that we may want to do
or see happen immediately, but for some reason known only to God, we are having
to wait upon the Lord for those things to come to fruition. Even we as believers can get frustrated
during these times of waiting because things aren’t happening on our
timetable. There’s the kicker, though… it’s
not our timetable. It’s God’s.
A couple of
blogs ago, I talked about how God is doing a new thing in our lives and how we need
to be patient and wait upon the Lord to reveal it in His time. I wanted to expand upon that thought, but wasn’t led
to go that far in that particular post. It’s
such a “God-thing” that this was what my pastor’s sermon was on this past
week. I wrote down some really
encouraging thoughts that he presented and wanted to share them with you as a
follow-up to my previous blog. If you
haven’t read it, click this link: A New Thing.
One thought
my pastor shared was that “we are bound
by time, but God is bound by eternity.”
He went on to say “God may be
slow, but He’s never been late.”
Those two quotes spoke volumes to me when I thought about how strongly
they connected with the topics I’ve been writing about lately. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for
its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people
cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” God is all-knowing, we are not. He has seen both the ending and the beginning. He knows when and where the things we are
waiting for will happen and is weaving our story together as a part of His beautiful
master plan for our lives. He’s not late…He’s
in control.
Who am I to
question the timetable of God? As a
believer, I surrendered my life to Him. My
life is His. Romans 14:8 says, “We belong to the Lord.” As I think about the truths and attributes of
God and add to that the knowledge that I belong to the Lord, I come to the
realization that I can’t be frustrated or aggravated when things aren’t
happening when I want them to happen because I am God's to lead and direct. This
leads me to a challenge for each of us…when we are waiting on God to do something
in our life, let’s choose not to wait with discouragement and frustration but
instead anticipation! God has promised plans
to prosper and plans for a future (Jeremiah 29:11) so let’s choose to look
forward...as we wait...to the great things God has planned for us!
So what do
we do when we’re waiting on God? My
pastor offered three principles for those having to wait:
- Wait with patience. I know. Patience is easier said than done. I work with kids…so I know that patience can be pushed and pulled in more ways than you ever thought possible. Psalm 40:1 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry.” What better testimony to waiting with patience than this short verse from David? When we wait with patience…God will hear us and reveal His plan to us.
- Accept God’s timing. His time is always the right time. Remember Ecclesiastes 3:11? God has made everything beautiful in His time. We may not understand it, but we should trust and accept it.
- Learn to rely on God. When I was a kid, I had a bracelet that said “FROG” and it stood for “Fully Rely On God.” This is a great little acronym to help us remember who we can lean on when times get tough or when we think we can’t wait any longer. My life verse is always one that helps me rely on God during times of waiting. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
I’m right
there with ya…waiting with anticipation to see the things God has for me
next. Rest in the fact that God loves
you, has a plan for you and will reveal that plan to you when that chapter of
your life is ready. He’s constantly preparing
us in different ways for the different portions of our lives so that we can
thrive. If we aren’t ready to be in that
environment and we enter that door before it’s ready to be open, we could be
insanely miserable. God’s timing is
perfect, so don’t rush it.
So…on your
mark, get set, WAIT!
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