Reflections, Part 3

This is the final part of my little "Reflections" series.  Just some things God's put on my heart to think about lately on the topic of waiting and resting and surrendering to Him. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, these notes are from a podcast from James MacDonald from Friday, May 28, Powered by the Holy Spirit, part 2. He is preaching from the book of Acts, and this part comes from Acts 1:4 where Jesus instructs the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift (the Holy Spirit) the Father has promised. These illustrations really stuck in Tyson's head and he kept pointing out to me different types of waiting that he saw in our kids, or in me (after I confessed to him that I had done a poor job of waiting on the Lord in a certain situation). I'm grateful for this because it made me really think again about waiting on the Lord. This is such an important but hard part of our lives. Anyway, here are my notes...hope these stick in your head too and help you to wait on the Lord.

Waiting on God is pretty tough! So often though, this is the tool God chooses to shape our character.

 Here are 5 Things we do that we think are waiting…that’s not really waiting.

Because if we want the blessing, the growth, the joy of God, the obedience to the Holy Spirit, we need to do more than just stall, we need to wait.

1. Red Light Waiting: You are at a red light…You’re racing your engine, saying “Come on, come on, come on.”…the light turns green and the car ahead of you doesn’t go, so you honk your horn. Sometimes we are like this with God. This isn’t waiting. It is not resting in the Lord and waiting patiently for Him.

2. “Is it soup yet?” Waiting: Your mom’s making soup and you keep walking into the kitchen checking the pot to see if it is ready yet. Well, it isn’t and it is never going to be if you keep walking in and opening the pot because you are letting the heat out and it won’t cook. Sometimes, we make things worse because we have to check all the time. We’re not giving things over to God or trusting Him because we have to check every 5 minutes to see if it is ready.

3. Bruised Fruit Waiting: You’re waiting on God to change someone else. You understand that only God can change another’s heart. If you can’t pick the fruit, don’t bruise it. So, if you are waiting on God to change someone else, don’t bruise the fruit by checking constantly to see if they are “ripe”. Don’t constantly feel the other person out to see if they are “ready” (Are you ready?  When are you going to figure it out? Figure it out? Figure it out?). Just leave the fruit alone, let God work in them, so that you don’t bruise them.

4. “No Detours for me” Waiting: You don’t trust that detour signs are really true. You always drive down the street anyway to see if it is real and end up having to turn around…and if your kids or spouse are with you, it is embarrassing. Or there is a detour sign and they are trying to reroute you in a totally opposite direction and instead of trusting, you try to find your own route. This makes the trip longer and not shorter because we try to find our own way to go. We often do this with God, and this is not waiting because we aren’t trusting God—we are trying to go our way instead of waiting for His way.

5. “Pizza Burn” Waiting: You’re really hungry and go to pick up the hot fresh pizza and can’t wait until you get home to try it. You can’t wait! You have to at least look at the pizza; then have to try the pizza, and burn your mouth, and get pizza stain all over your shirt. You get home and your family says, “Why couldn’t you just wait?” The pizza needs time to cool off. You need to wait to try it. We often get burned or hurt because we don’t wait on the Lord.

These pictures are easier than the reality of the pain we cause ourselves by not waiting.

The good news: there is not a single thing God’s Spirit wants us to do but that He gives us the power to do it. God never asks us to do something but that He gives us the power to do it!