A Closer Walk: Can I Hear The People Say “Amen?”

I was told that my grandfather used to say, “The most difficult thing in his Christian life was waiting for God.” Can I hear an amen?

Waiting is not my best thing. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. Waiting for stuff in our instant I-can-have-it-now society is a real struggle for me.

Waiting has never been easy, but in our day and age, no one wants to wait for anything.

We want—what we want—and we want it NOW!

Unfortunately, since we don’t wait, that often means we end up settling for so much less than what is best… and ya know what?

I don’t want to “settle” when I can have God’s best.

So, if having it ALL means I have to wait? I wait.

I don’t like it. Fact is… sometimes I downright hate it. (Let’s be honest. We do.) We have no patience for long, drawn-out, tedious, it’s-taking-forever—waiting!

(And the people said, “Amen!”)

I’m thinking someday I’m going to write a book about waiting. I’ve learned a lot of things in these last thirty years waiting for God.

Definitely another book, for another day.

It’ll have to wait.

I used to think as I got older waiting would get easier.

It hasn’t. Not for me, and I’m in my sixth decade!

But… and here comes the punch line, while patience has come in excruciating little baby steps, one thing has kept me going all these years:

I am RESOLVED. God’s BEST, is always, always, worth the wait.

If God be true and every man a liar? Then what is written in Isaiah 64:4 has become my own, very personal conviction, engraved upon my heart:

“For since the world began no one has seen or heard of such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for him!” [TLB]

Did you get that?

He WORKS for those who wait.

And, here’s something else that my heart has decided, “I would rather wait for God’s best, and be “thought” a fool, than impatiently grab for having my own way before God’s time, and be confirmed a fool.”

This book I am finishing now?

The first draft was written over 15 years ago. I wrote it, I loved it, and then God said, “Wait… trust Me.”

Fifteen years these words have sat on a shelf waiting!

No, God’s delays are not easy. Amen?

To wait will not be popular.

(Not even in The Church where it’s regularly taught.)

Frankly, waiting for God these days takes a lot of guts.

I guarantee you… you’ll be scorned. You’ll be laughed at. You’ll be slandered and falsely accused. People will whisper about you. And worst of all, God will probably say nothing at all.

(Yep. He wants Believers who simply believe.)

You might cry. You’ll definitely pray! You might even beg! (I have.) And still, He’ll be silent…

You see, I’ve learned. (God is waiting, too.) For us. He wants, and He expects, obedient faith. Faith born in fire.

He wants us to trust Him—wholeheartedly.

Waiting for God may be costly? But in the end, it will be worth the price.

The best always is.

YOUR FATHER IS COMING

Don’t despair Sweet Heart, I’m coming.

I know how impatient you are for things to change. I hear the passion in your soul.

(My, you are a delight!)

I can see you walking into the Status-Quo and turning over the money-changers tables of saccharin complacency.

(Ha, ha! You do thrill Me!)

You are becoming a true revolutionary!

We are going to change things, you and I.

The day is quickly approaching, when all those drowsy dream-slayers will be overturned.

Do you think that what you see now, is the way things will stay forever?

(Oh, no!)

I AM coming to shake things up! No one will sleep through this storm! My Spirit-winds are coming to upturn, overturn, set free, and even, bury.

Things will be different, I promise.

How I loathe much of what is offered to My children! How I abhor their self-righteous offerings on the trampled backs, and bloodied bodies, of the wounded and helpless!

Lift up that head Sweet Heart… come, we have much to do. I have made you for such a time as this. I have trained you, and prepared you; all will soon be ready.

Your Father is coming.

(It’s not, too, late.)

On the contrary, everything is in My hands!

We are moving out against the Status-Quo, to take back, set free, and win! I promise you, when the day dawns, you will be at My side, dressed for battle.

Soon.

(Soon.)

“You alone can lift my head now bowed in shame.”  Psalm 3:3