Today the Holy Spirit calls to me as my patience is being tested in
every way. Waiting for a new season to begin while desperately wanting
the last season to end doesn't seem to have that clear cut line in the
sand. Floating in a sort of limbo marks some of the long days on this
leg of my journey with Jesus.
He gently takes me back to His word:
Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
I have to admit that waiting drives me crazy. How did I ever get so impatient? Waiting is just one of the hardest things I have to do.
The Spirit reminds me today that "waiting" is the test that causes many people to stumble. Our response to God's deliberate delays to our need for immediate gratification in answers and resolutions develops character in us and character brings hope.
He gently takes me back to His word:
Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
I have to admit that waiting drives me crazy. How did I ever get so impatient? Waiting is just one of the hardest things I have to do.
The Spirit reminds me today that "waiting" is the test that causes many people to stumble. Our response to God's deliberate delays to our need for immediate gratification in answers and resolutions develops character in us and character brings hope.
Romans 5:4, "suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us."
My impatience has driven me to seek my own resolutions and the pressure to make split second choices or bad ones seems to come from every direction. But the deeper question for me is "why did I live so long with such a temporal perspective and fail to see that God's time table is eternity?"
The Spirit draws me into that eternal perspective. The Spirit comforts my heart. As I learn from Him, He teaches me to slow down. He instructs me to let go of striving. This life is not an Indy 500 race but a journey, a road trip of wondrous discovery and I have to ask myself "what is the rush?"
Today I ask the Spirit to re-set my pace. Help me to stop racing to the "resolutions" but instead look for the opportunities to "work out" faith in every situation.
Every trial comes with a myriad of opportunities to watch, record, and stand in awe of God's sweet sovereignty. Waiting upon the Lord is the only way we have the time to register the impressive wisdom that the God of all Creation reveals to us in the small details that add such dimension to our lives.
As believers we are living our eternal lives now. The Spirit brings the ability and the encouragement to wait but He also brings the promise of even greater things IF we wait, like say, the "gift of the baptism with the Holy Spirit" as Jesus promised in Acts 1:4. I can now see that the Spirit's gifts and anointing only come with patience. How many times have I failed to "wait in Jerusalem" for the power to come before I tried to do the "work"?
Looking forward with focus on God's intervention into each new day in itself produces a peace in the waiting. Faith says He will never leave us or forsake us.....so why not savor the moment and find the greater things He is prepared to do as we wait?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
My impatience has driven me to seek my own resolutions and the pressure to make split second choices or bad ones seems to come from every direction. But the deeper question for me is "why did I live so long with such a temporal perspective and fail to see that God's time table is eternity?"
The Spirit draws me into that eternal perspective. The Spirit comforts my heart. As I learn from Him, He teaches me to slow down. He instructs me to let go of striving. This life is not an Indy 500 race but a journey, a road trip of wondrous discovery and I have to ask myself "what is the rush?"
Today I ask the Spirit to re-set my pace. Help me to stop racing to the "resolutions" but instead look for the opportunities to "work out" faith in every situation.
Every trial comes with a myriad of opportunities to watch, record, and stand in awe of God's sweet sovereignty. Waiting upon the Lord is the only way we have the time to register the impressive wisdom that the God of all Creation reveals to us in the small details that add such dimension to our lives.
As believers we are living our eternal lives now. The Spirit brings the ability and the encouragement to wait but He also brings the promise of even greater things IF we wait, like say, the "gift of the baptism with the Holy Spirit" as Jesus promised in Acts 1:4. I can now see that the Spirit's gifts and anointing only come with patience. How many times have I failed to "wait in Jerusalem" for the power to come before I tried to do the "work"?
Looking forward with focus on God's intervention into each new day in itself produces a peace in the waiting. Faith says He will never leave us or forsake us.....so why not savor the moment and find the greater things He is prepared to do as we wait?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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