Wait and grow
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
Waiting is never easy and certainly we live in a society that does not like to wait for anything at all. It seems good to us to get things when we need or want them without any delay – why wait when we can have it right now.
My children are naturally impatient but are learning that actually there are great benefits in learning to wait. A small example would be popping their toast because they are ‘just so hungry’ that they can’t wait, but they end up with warm bread and it’s just not as good! A bigger example for them is learning to wait for our neighbour’s kitten to come to them, and just holding out a friendly hand. If they grow impatient and move too hastily the kitten takes flight, and they end up with no cuddles at all.
Not only are there benefits to waiting, there are also opportunities for growth. It can be that in waiting God is actually preparing you in some way. I have often felt that while waiting for something that I believed I really desired, God was using that time to challenge me on why I wanted it and whether I really did need it. I often didn’t of course, but I learnt something valuable along the way.
For instance, I had long wanted a harp. I’d played a little when I was younger and loved it but it would take time to save up for one. There was, though, always something more important to put the money towards – a new washing machine, new school uniforms for the children, getting the car through its MOT – the usual things. In that time, God put it on my heart that I really wanted to foster a love of music in children and the harp is perhaps not the best way to go about that. So with some help from my parents, I got a beautiful piano and now teach several children on it – which is much more joyful to me than just teaching myself to play the harp. God knew, but I needed time for God to show me to see it for myself, and it was in waiting that I did.
God knows us, He knows our future, and what is just around the corner – He knows all things. If He is asking us to wait, perhaps for that reconciliation we so desire, or that healing, or that spiritual development that we know we need, then let’s just wait. The waiting isn’t a dormant time: things are happening, hearts are being changed, God is at work!
Prayer
Father, teach us to wait patiently knowing that you never stop working, building, nurturing and loving us into being more like Christ, a little more every day. Even when we can’t see it, we know it’s happening. You have endless patience with us and for that we thank you deeply. In the name of our Lord, Jesus, Amen.
Study by Sinead Henderson
About the writer:
Sinead Henderson attends the Northampton congregation of Grace Communion International
Local congregation:
GCI Northampton
Ecton Village Hall
78A High Street
Ecton
Northampton
NN6 0QB
Local congregational contact:
Maggie Mitchell
Email: maggie.mitchell@btinternet.com
Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church