The Waiting Game

In an age where we live off of instant, waiting is unbearable.  Texting, facebook, and microwaves all work together to try to cover all the bases in our lives, lest we have to bear through the torture.

Waiting is hard.

But waiting on myself is really hard. And there are just some things in life that a microwave can't expedite.

Why does this still bother me?

Shouldn't I be over this by now?

Those choices, impulses, that version of yourself- it was all a lifetime ago.  It's a world away, but in one trigger it can all come back.  In a moment, you realize that temptation's at your doorstep, no matter how well-Versed you feel you have been in your new identity.  The anxieties, fears, and frustrations return like a flash flood, and you find that you're not at all where you thought you were. You're not who you wanted to be.

And then you fall into the rut all over again, beating yourself over the head.  Then beating yourself over the head for beating yourself over the head.

I'm supposed to be past this.

But something I have been realizing lately is that this isn't about my productivity or performance. It has to be all about God and what He's doing. And if I claim His promises, His Word for my reality, and if I am not stiff-arming Him with deliberate sin in my life, then why am I disappointed? Why am I getting impatient?

If we believe God for who He says He is and for what He says He does, then there is no room left for disappointment. Well, then if I'm disappointed or impatient, that means I have appropriated my faith in something other than God. That means I have displaced that responsibility for my renewal, for my transformation and have taken that burden on

my own, frail shoulders.

To let God be God requires submission, takes a lot of waiting, but elicits freedom.

Well, then, fine. God, can have that responsibility. But, why can't I just... "arrive"? If I'm still dealing with x, y, and z then where is He and what is He doing?

We believe God for the instantaneous healing. We ask and pray and thank Him in advance for it.  But do we believe Him for the sovereignty of His timing?  And the perfection of His will?

If parting the Red Sea had taken days to occur, would we have still been in as much awe of God?  If turning the water into wine took a couple more hours, would it have still been called a miracle?  If Jesus chose to wait until Lazarus was dead to...

Lauren, if Jesus' transforming work in you -in removing the guilt and in renewing your mind and heart- takes longer than you'd like, does that mean He's any less involved in your life?

Some of God's most renowned work have been overnighters.  Our sanctification isn't going to be one of those. But it's still His work. And the God I know only does amazing, incredible, marvelous things (Psalm 72:18).

In putting your trust in Him and His truth, defend yourself against the lie that says that He's not going to finish what He's started in you.  "...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

And don't believe that He ever stops.  "...My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.'" John 5:17

There's a purpose for process and the passing of time.  I'm learning -in the midst and in the grit of my own humbling sanctification- that it is because of His grace that He prioritizes the journey of my restoration over the destination. There's a purpose to His way and to His schedule.

The waiting keeps us close and keeps us leaning into Him. It keeps us throwing our weight and our faith onto Something sure. It helps us maintain a completely accurate and healthy perception of who we are:

Desperate without Him and consequently desperate to stay near Him.

“'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

Thank God. Acknowledge temptations. Acknowledge the flesh. Call it for what it is, and let God show you the way out. And call that for what it is: you're not a hopeless wreck. You're in a process. You're a work in progress. Positionally perfected by the blood of Jesus, but conditionally in process of being sanctified. Let God be God, let it take time, and while you wait, just

thank God.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time..." Ecclesiastes 3:11