Waiting

Most of the time the process of following God's lead, and obeying His call, comes with periods of waiting.  Time when it seems that nothing is happening and we are just spinning our wheels.  We might often wonder what we do with this waiting period and why it even is part of the process. But I believe this is the time that means the most.  What we do with the time in between.

There's a passage of scripture that I ran across a few years ago and I wanted it to be my focus during my period of waiting. But somehow between life and situations and circumstances, I lost that focus.  I recently ran across it again and I would like to renew the focus while I'm still in the waiting period.

Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

I believe that this verse answers the question of what do with do with the time in between.  Instead of wondering why this time must be a part of the process, why don't we use it to further ourselves, to make ourselves more joyful, more patient and more faithful.  If in the process of waiting, we learn to spend time growing ourselves, then we will be much more ready to face whatever lies in our future.  This is when God takes time to prepare for what's ahead.  I think what we need to realize is that this time may seem futile to us, but in the spiritual world things are happening all around us.

John Waller sings a song called While I'm Waiting and it, too, speaks to the question of what to do with the time in between.  It was used for the movie Fireproof and it sets a beautiful example of what to do when you are waiting on God.  If you haven't seen the movie, you really should.  It's a story of a marriage that has lost hope and how God speaks to one spouse to change himself and wait on reconciliation.  It's really a beautiful picture of how God waits for us as well.  So let us be confident that he is doing a good work in us and that he will complete it in the chosen time.