Waiting...

We are always waiting on or for something. Whether it's for a Doctor visit or to pick the kids up from school, or for God to make sense of our lives and answer our prayers. Most of us would agree that it takes an intervention of the Divine and Holy Spirit for us to see that our own agenda is not what is best for us.  Isaiah 55:8,9 says, "For my thought are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares 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." The very reason you wait is because of the block in the road designed by God Himself.  So why does He stop what seems to us to be His will. I believe it's because God is bigger than your plan and wants us all to see it!!!! God uses small and large obstacles to draw hearts to Him.

When these obstacles come my way I want to ask God why?  I recently read the book, You Were Made For More by Jim Cymbala. He gave 3 very practical reasons: Hardships produce iron in the soul, Romans 5:3 says "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Second is that hardships drive us to pray. Exodus 2:23-25 says, "During that LONG period... the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help BECAUSE of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned for them."
Last he said hardships give us a story to tell. Deut. 6:20,21 says, "When your son asks in time to come,  'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?'  then you shall say to your son,'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a MIGHTY Hand. He closes the chapter with this sentence,  'Our struggles are simply a sign that we, like the ancient Israelites, were made for more.

I want to know God more, serve God more, love God more, need God more, praise God more, pray to God more, give God more... Whatever the means of getting there are, however long it takes; I will trust God.  When are hearts turn worrisome, it can be turned into a time to trust and live by faith.