While I'm Waiting

Lately, I have been discouraged about unanswered prayers. I have been praying for a few specific things, some prayed for recently, and others, for a long time. I am discouraged because I know that the things I am praying for are things I believe God desires. I feel that often it's easy to be mad at God when He doesn't answer when I want Him too. When I feel this way, I am reminded of the story of Lazarus found in John 11. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where he was for two days, without going to where Lazarus was to heal him. He said, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this." (v. 4). After the two days, Jesus and his disciples went to the home of Lazarus, also the home of his sisters, Martha and Mary. Lazarus had died and been in the tomb for four days. When Jesus arrived, Martha went out to meet Him. "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died." (v. 21). Mary and Martha, along with the mourners who had come to comfort the sisters, led Jesus to the tomb where Lazarus was buried. "Then Jesus shouted, Lazarus, come out! And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth." (v. 43-44). Both sisters doubted Jesus. I think I would've too. I also might, if I was Lazarus's friend or family member, be mad that Jesus didn't come sooner to heal Lazarus, which He could've done so easily. Sometimes it feels like God is too late. Sometimes I wonder why He doesn't answer prayers right away. I mean He can. He is perfectly able to heal His people. He is able to give us good and godly qualities we wish we had. And He is able to provide good friends, that love Jesus. It's always hard knowing He can but He doesn't (at least not when we want Him to). But God had a plan for Lazarus. He sent Jesus to heal Lazarus at just the timing that God had planned out. All hope seemed lost for Mary and Martha. It seemed like God was too late. There is a song called, "Four Days Late," by Karen Peck, about the Lazarus story. One of the verses in the song reads, "He's never too late, when He's four days late, He's still on time." God's timing is not our timing and His ways are not our ways. Whatever the reason is for unanswered prayers, God knows what He's doing and it's all in His hands. He has a plan for us too, plans to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

When it comes to patience while waiting, I wouldn't say that I've mastered the art of trusting God with it and being satisfied in Him. A few days ago, I was listening to the radio and Meredith Andrews was talking about her new song, "Soar". I love this song so much! It has really encouraged me to trust that God IS working while I am waiting. But one thing she said that surprised me, and kind of opened my eyes was that while waiting (and I am paraphrasing a little bit), we can trust God and be satisfied in Jesus alone. I think God is teaching me a lesson right now. I think that He is teaching me to be completely satisfied and content in Him and in who He is. And that if I seek His kingdom first, above all else, He will give me all I need. (Matt. 6:33). Jesus is enough.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalms 37:4
I have a lot of favorite Bible verses (it's hard to pick just one), but I'd have to say the verse above is one of my absolute favorites, if not my favorite. I love it so much! I believe that a lot of the things we pray for, God desires to answer. If we ask with the right motives, I truly believe God wants us to keep knocking and keep praying for those things. A few things that I have been praying about for years are that, my mom will be completely healed of her fibromyalgia, my friends who are non-Christians, would accept Jesus into their hearts, God will continue to prepare me and my future spouse for each other, and He can encourage us in the waiting. These are all prayers that I believe God desires to answer. It's extremely hard to wait to date until I meet my future spouse, especially in a world, where good morals are deteriorating rapidly. That's where faith cuts in. Hebrews says that faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us the assurance about things we cannot see (v. 11). I think that it is so important how we use our time while we are waiting. Psalms 37 verse 4 says it perfectly! We are to delight in the Lord, and He will give us the desires of our hearts. Reading God's Word, praying, singing praises, reading books, blessing others, and serving are really some great things to do to delight in the Lord. I think ministry and serving is an awesome way to do this because when serving someone else, the focus is off of self, and put onto others, for the glory of God. It honors and glorifies Him when we serve. There is an awesome song by John Waller titled, "While I'm Waiting." That song has been playing in the back of my mind while I have been typing this blog post.  I first found out about the song in the movie "Fireproof." And then my dad got it on iTunes a while back, and I have listened to it so many times. It's a great song of encouragement, I highly recommend you go listen to it. But here are the word's from the chorus:

While I'm waiting, I will serve You
While I'm waiting, I will worship
While I'm waiting, I will not faint
I'll be running the race, even while I wait

While I'm waiting I will choose to be satisfied in my Jesus alone, and rely on the fact that He is all I need. While we're waiting, God is working. He is all-faithful, all-loving, all-knowing, all-kind, all-awesome, and He is all-powerful. He knows what we need and He loves us so much. Our God can do great things! While we wait, hope, and expect, He is working to do more than we can possibly imagine. Whatever we expect of God, whatever we dream of, whatever we think He will do for us, what He is able to do is immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20


~Ashtyn