Emotional Sobriety: My Journey to ACA » Waiting for God

Waiting for God

kberman — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:43:39 +0000

By Doug Wertman

Waiting for God has become easier. Over the 33+ years that I have been trying to hear His direction and guidance for my life, I have found that my impatience is usually directly connected to what I don’t want to understand. I don’t have a punishing or threatening God so my answers are gentle but firm.

I sometimes say that God’s will for my life is generally easy to know because it is generally something I don’t want to do. In other words it sometimes takes me awhile to come around to God’s viewpoint as to what is best for me. But I know to stay focused on whatever it is I am doing. The following excerpts from fellow pilgrims helps.

From Steve Wright at porchpondering:

“Genuine leaders operate out of a sense of calling, not a sense of drivenness. The writer George MacDonald has said somewhere that real Christian leaders are people who are moved at God’s pace and in God’s time to God’s place, not because they fancy themselves there, but because they are drawn. The strongest leaders are those who have received a strong affirmation of their personhood, in a way which frees them not only to lead a cause but also to serve others. A sense of identity, a security that comes from knowing who one is, lies at the very heart of leadership” (Leighton Ford in Transforming Leadership, 37).

From Jack Zavada at inspiration-for-singles:

We need to trust that he will do the right thing–because that’s part of his unchangeable character. The right thing may not always be what we want, but only the perspective of years can help us look back and see God’s lovingkindness at work in our lives.

Waiting on God is hard, no doubt about it. But when we exercise our faith by turning our needs and desires over to God, promising to follow his way, our waiting ends, God acts, and we take another step on the path he has set for us.

From Pastor Bob at Christ First:

One of my favorite writers is the great pastor-teacher; G. Campbell Morgan. He writes…
“Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given!”

Waiting for God 3

kberman — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:32:07 +0000

(1) Andrew Murray writes about waiting for God by posting:

“If salvation indeed comes from God, and is entirely His work, just as creation was, it follows, as a matter of course, that our first and highest duty is to wait on Him to do the work that pleases Him. Waiting becomes then the only way to the experience of a full salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our salvation. All the difficulties that are brought forward as keeping us back from full salvation, have their cause in this one thing: the defective knowledge and practice of waiting upon God.”

This is a very powerful statement. He continues: “

“Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from Him cometh my salvation.” First we wait on God for salvation. Then we learn that salvation is only to bring us to God, and teach us to wait on Him. Then we find what is better still, that waiting on God is itself the highest salvation. It is the ascribing to Him the glory of being All; it is the experiencing that He is All to us.”

“May God teach us the blessedness of waiting on Him.”

(2) Ron Julian posts about patience in “Waiting for God”.

“It is only appropriate to conclude by reminding ourselves where such a profound change of heart comes from. Not for nothing is patience called a fruit of the Spirit. Nothing less than the Spirit of God Himself could bring us to the place where we respond with that kind of patience. Paul prays that we might be “strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). It takes the glorious might of God, the same power that hung the stars in the sky, to overcome the inertia of the human heart and bring us to patience.”

“Patience is a Christian virtue because it is intimately tied to our faith itself. We continue in the face of heartache and suffering because we believe that our rescuer is coming. We put up with each other’s failures because we know that everything will finally be resolved; both justice and mercy will prevail. We do not give up on God or on each other, because we believe that God will not give up on us. “

(3) Lillian Penner asks if we “Are You Waiting in God’s Waiting Room?”:

“Recently my husband and I were waiting for a connecting flight in a large airport. Our first flight arrived early enough to be able to request an earlier “standby flight” for our last leg of the trip home. We had already been in the airport about five hours and we were anxiously waiting for our “standby status” to be cleared. As weary travelers, we didn’t want to wait three more hours for our reserved flight. We prayed and waited while we watched the monitor for our “stand-by” clearance. Finally, the agent gave us clearance to board the plane.”

“This scenario reminded me of my prayer life. Many times, I have to wait and “standby” for God’s answer. God doesn’t always answer my prayers immediately when I pray and I have to wait in God’s waiting room for a while. Our society has conditioned us to expect immediate results. We find it very difficult to wait for anything.”

Waiting for God 2

kberman — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:47:43 +0000

This Christmas 2008 week, we will be posting about waiting for God. Certainly no other holiday is so full of unrealistic expectations than Christmas. It is a time of giving but why do we feel we aren’t giving enough. Why do we want to be able to satisfy everyone’s desires? Why do we try to drag God into this cycle of frustration and desire and blame Him for not satisfying our senseless cravings? Is it because this season allows us to appear to be more like—God?

Waiting for God as defined by several bloggers will be this week’s theme here at Changemaker. God is our partner in reinventing ourselves because He gives us a clean slate everyday to start over and recreate our life.

(1) From allaboutprayer.org, the author reminds us during this times of waiting for God’s answers:

“As you are waiting for God, He strengthens you. “But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).”

“What does it mean to be blessed by God while we wait on Him? As we wait on God and His timing, He can accomplish so much in our hearts. Often we find new purpose in life, receive answers to prayer, see God work, increase our faith, and most often we see God’s perfect plan fulfilled in our situation. Remember, waiting is not wasted time!”

(2) foundationsforfreedom.net reminds us that these waiting periods can include these three steps: trust–turning to God rather than from Him; rejection–turning away from other empty resources; and pray–pray only for God’s will for our life and the power to carry His will out (12 steps of recovery).

(3) Jon in stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com offers three stories to complete his understanding of waiting for God: (a) the silent bush–Moses explored the burning bush (Exodus 3); (b) the great goat parade–Genesis 43–“Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”; and (c) “After Elijah goes up to heaven and Elisha takes up his mantle he’s forced with a decision. He can sit and pray and wait or he can strike out on his own campaign for God. Here’s what happens in 2 Kings 2: He (Elisha) picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. I love that. He didn’t test the waters with his toe, he parted them. He basically said, “God if you’re down, let’s do this thing.” And then he did it.”b

When God Seems To Be Silent

kberman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:04:09 +0000

One of the hardest experiences for believers who rely on God’s guidance–if not the hardest–is the periods when God is silent. Generally I respond to the silence with fear. I think I learned a long time ago that if I panic surely the God of my understanding will “rescue” me from myself. Needless to say, God can’t be manipulated. So, after a period of expending useless energy, I settle down for the wait.

GotQuestions.org has a great post about recognizing the voice of God. For me, when I’m sure it is God’s guidance leading me, one of the factors with the solution is that everything is worked out and not by me. Because it is hard for me to remember to keep myself in a positive direction, I have typed out a cheat sheet of things to remember when God’s guidance doesn’t seem to be prevalent.

Whosoever.org reminds us to first check our own motives. Is God silent or are we holding on to a particular outcome that may not be the right answer for us?

One of the main things that I remind myself is that God is a God of peace. If I am anxious or upset, I won’t be able to hear God’s whispering or His quiet urgings. Also, as Verla Gillmor suggests, this may be a period when God has taken His hands off our “bike” so that we can learn to ride with less guidance. Verla suggests that we receive four opportunities during these periods: (1) solitude, (2) surrender, (3) scripture memorization, and (4) authenticity and community.