Skip to main content

Purposeful Waiting

Lamentations 3:25
“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”
Waiting is difficult. So much so that waiting on the Lord seems almost unbearable. Because of my fallen nature, my mind is consumed with self, focusing on fulfilling the desires of my own heart rather than walking the path of righteousness that the Lord has set forth in front of me. Why? Because I assume that the plans which I create for myself are better than the plans of the One who created me. The Lord knows the desires of my heart, He placed them there purposefully. If only I would surrender them to Him, waiting on His good and perfect timing would not become such a heartache. I would not have to bear the consequences of wrongful decisions because my reliance and trust that the Lord is going to provide for me will prevent me from falling into the lie that compromise is okay. Compromise is the enemy receiving victory as I settle for less than what the Lord so desperately wants to give me if only I would wait on Him. I have been reminded almost daily for the past two weeks to wait. I constantly find myself questioning the reason why I am to wait but the conversation never continues past that four letter word. However, through the waiting, I have found refuge in the arms of Jesus because when I seek Him during this time of uncertainty, He becomes my strength, my strong tower. I have come to the realization that this state of neediness is exactly where the Lord wants me to be for this is where He is able to mold and shape me into the image of Jesus. This is where His Holy Spirit can be poured out into me as I willingly surrender my desires for His glory, watching as I wait how He brings to fruition what He has asked me to lay down. 

Application
This week, I will write Lamentations 3:25 on a bookmark and use it while I am reading as a reminder to wait upon the Lord. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Overwhelming Conflict

Psalms 91:2 “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.””  This past Sunday, team Uganda had the privilege to lead the two church services. From worship to the sermon, the Lord was present. Having never sung in front of really anyone to being on the worship team and having not one, but two solos, was rather frightening. In addition to having a spirit of fear, the morning of, I was faced with a myriad of conflict as a glob of toothpaste dropped slyly onto the shirt I was planning on wearing, I did not have a necklace to match the shirt I then had to put on, and I ran out of time for curling my hair and ironing my skirt. I knew the enemy was seeking to do whatever he could to focus my eyes on myself rather than on what the Lord was attempting to do in and through me for that day, but I was already defeated and left wondering how a day that had begun so terribly could have a positive outcome. I needed a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spir...

The Transformation

Mark 7:17 “There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the thins which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.” As I was reading my devotional this morning, it touched on something that I had said early on in my time here in Uganda: “You can’t run from sin because you can’t run from you.” Sin truly does live in my heart and it is only when I run to Jesus, who is the only One who can deliver me from myself, that my heart can be radically transformed. I can and have attempted in my own strength to change my heart, but this has only led to condemnation and failure. The Lord never asked me to fix myself, He has asked me to do nothing other than cry out to Him at street level so that He can fix me in my most broken state. That is how He wants me: battered, bruised, and broken because this is when I am honest; this is when I want nothing more than for the Father to fix what I have ruined, again. But, when I attempt to change what only the L...

Slaves for Christ

Romans 6:16 “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”  Slaves. Most people cringe at this word because they do not want to be owned by something or someone. However, what most people are not aware of is that they are slaves to their sin, which has complete and total ownership of everything that they are. But, where there is fault, there is always redemption. Jesus Christ brought hope to the hopeless so that they might be free, free indeed, from the chains that they are unable to break free from on their own. To be a slave for Jesus is to be a servant and I would much rather be a servant for the Lord than be under the ownership of the things of this world. Before coming to IGNITE, my fire flared vibrantly for everything other than God. I made it to church every Wednesday and every other Sunday - I worked ev...