It's a good day, not a good phase...
This morning I came across a few articles that spoke to me a lot. Studying psychology makes me wonder if those were self-reference effect. Regardless, they spoke to me, a lot.
Relevant Magazine has some pretty good articles on Christian values, and the two that I read were about waiting on God (Waiting on God is Hard, and That's OK), and the other is about, well, how waiting is a waste of time (Life Won't Begin at Your Next Milestone). Yes, Relevant Magazine endorsed and published both. I could not disagree.
Waiting on God is an art, a skill to master, and possibly a key to unlock huge mysteries about our destiny.
Think with me: a King has an assignment for his soldiers, and at his disposal he has a group of elites. These are powerful fighters, the most skillful available, the ones who would deliver any kind of mission and execute them to perfection. If we are the king, what might be the first thing we want to ensure of these elites? Good training that they may fulfill their potential; or equipment of the best quality to protect the best assets we have? I say, perfect submission, the pledging of allegiance.
The ability to wait on God builds up the level of trust in God's character. It helps us to look beyond what we can see, and believe that all things work for the good of those who love Him, and called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). All of us know that it is easy to praise God in the joyous moment and lift His name on high in our victorious march; a significantly smaller number of people might be aware of the call to worship through the pain and the treacherous in Romans 12:1 when it says sacrifices are acts of spiritual worship; an even smaller portion of believers can confidently thump our chest and say I can do that! But it is through waiting on God that we know (gain confidence) about the kind of Father our God is, and it is through waiting on God that we can declare "I am Yours regardless of, the dark clouds that may loom above, because You are much greater than my pain" (Bring the Rain, MercyMe).
Waiting on God inculcates patience. Patience not just in waiting, but also patience to trust in God's perfect timing. It took Moses 40 years working for Jethro, Jacob 14 years of working for Laban, Israelites 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus 30 years of growing up, Abram (Abraham) 100 years to see Isaac, Israel 500 years of silence before Jesus came, David about 15 years before becoming king over Israel. Those are all very long periods, but when we read the bible, the time scale is minimized- 40 years can be just a few chapters, 500 years were contained within the space between Malachi and Matthew, and 15 years could be just a few verses apart. These long periods became hard to comprehend. Becoming more educated only made us more self-reliant and confident about ourselves. "Hey God, I am ready!" "Do you hear me, God? I really am ready!" These kinds of rants keep going on and on within our head, but are we truly ready? Trusting in God's timing also means that we concede that God knows better- that if He says "it is not now" then it really MUST BE later. Until we are able to do that, we can never really say we are ready. 12 year old Jesus knew the bible well enough to debate with the religious teachers, but He only started His ministry when He was 30. Talking about readiness...
Hindsight may be a good teacher, and we look back and think "wow, I learnt, and by that I have gained wisdom." But God has the benefit of possessing not just hindsight. He has oversight, foresight, insight, all at once. The amount of information He has access to at any one time point in time is just ridiculous, and it is even more ridiculous to insist that "I know better and God does not understand". By thinking that, we already discredit whatever kind of wisdom we gained from our good teacher.
Waiting on God keeps us in our position. If the spiritual realm speaks of ranks and files, we have an hierarchy, and we live in one. While it has been absolutely true that God has made us in His image, which made us a powerful people (this can be contentious because in our weakness His strength is seen, but I'm of the belief that a powerful God cannot have weak people. If He has given us authority and He said we will receive power, I have no reasons to not think that way), it does not contradict God's good plan for humanity- He did not intend for us to abuse these gifts, and He did not intend for us to create messes. Who knows that if we give a child 50 bucks, he is likely to splurge it on a lego or a barbie set in full amount? True power lies in our ability to control and utilize it to its full potential (my learning point from Frozen). Hancock's initial irresponsible demonstration of abilities did not come close; Elsa's deliberate attempt to not let them know, don't let them see was not that either. It takes one to fervently wait upon God to learn about this partnership. Waiting on God teaches us discernment; waiting on God teaches us to hear His voice; waiting on God teaches us to recognize His hands moving and His heart beating; waiting on God teaches us to do only what we see the Father does; waiting on God helps us to recognize that we are not ready lest He makes us so; waiting on God protects us from working from presumptions; waiting on God helps us to recognize correctly the truly powerful one; waiting on God helps us to put our faith in God instead of ourselves.
Hebrew 12:6 says that He disciplines those whom He loves, and the 3 aforementioned pointers point toward this love.
Waiting on God is an active process. It is the phase where we learn and become so that we can know and do. It becomes a waste of time when we fail to see the purpose and start living the future. Credit cards allow us to spend future money; jumping the gun allows us to live the future life. Both come with a consequence- indebtedness. We have to pay back, and often it leads to detour because the borrowed time has to be returned, to let us learn what we should have learnt, and undo our mistakes which could have been avoided if we had learn.
Life doesn't start at the next milestone. Like a good film, the build up to the climax gives the context, builds the story, and brews the emotions- all are essential. Live the moment (fully) to set the movement (proper). Ecclesiastes puts it nicely: there is a season for everything. We cannot live the introduction in lackluster fashion, only hoping to come alive when the climax unveils. A mind that is out of season sets the person up for disappointment simply because we do not know enough, and simply because we do not prepare enough, and simply because we are not ready enough (when it comes). Trust in God's lesson plan for us and learn what we have to at this moment. It's gonna be worthwhile!
So yes, waiting is difficult, and a warped understanding of waiting is always going to be a waste of time. Otherwise, go and wait...
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