Weekly Devotion

While I am busy writing about this theme of waiting on the Lord, He reminded me of a text verse that is so relevant to our discussion:

Isaiah 40:31 - "But those who wait upon the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint."

Then the Lord started to show me a couple of things connected to this verse that I would like to share with you:

1. If you were an eagle soaring in the sky, it requires no effort from your side, except for an occasional flap of the wings. An eagle soaring literally rest as it glides in the air. So lesson number one is that while you wait on the Lord, try and rest, you will find that you will gain new strength and that you will have renewed energy when the time comes for you to move on.
2. An eagle soaring in the sky doesn't try to do things on his own. He doesn't worry for one second that he will fall and have a deadly crash. He trusts wholeheartedly on the atmosphere supporting him. And that is lesson number two, we should not worry about the future and what it may hold, and whether we would fall, we should trust the Lord supporting us.
3. An eagle soaring can see farther than any other living thing. It has a wonderful bird's eye view of what is going on all around them. They can see the bigger picture. Lesson number 3 is that if we rest in the Lord and trust totally upon Him, we can ask Him to give us the ability to see the bigger picture and to understand where we are going. Even if it is only a promise that the Lord gives us to hold on to, He will.
4. An eagle soaring doesn't take matters into his own hands. He waits until the timing is perfect before he swoops down. And we should be the same. We shouldn't try and force things. Timing is vitally important. Things can work out quite differently if we do things at the wrong time.
5. Eagles soaring are the most peaceful picture. They always look at ease, as if they are enjoying their flight. We should be the same. Enjoy the time that you are waiting. Rest in the assurance that the Lord has a plan for you and that He will set things in motion at the right time. But for now be at peace and enjoy your flight.

Thank you Lord for your beautiful Word. Thank you that we can learn so much from You. Give us the courage to wait with confidence on You. We know that You know best. We love You. Amen.

Waiting is difficult as I have mentioned before. When we moved into our new home four years ago we planted our garden and couldn't wait for everything to start to grow! We looked forward to the trees we will have in our garden and all the shade it would provide. Day after day we would go out and look at the progress it has made. But now after four years, we have some shade and our garden is starting to settle, but we are still waiting for our big trees! And then I realized that nature wants to tell us something.

First of all, even if we don't see it, the roots are forming and firmly placing it in our ground in order to be able to handle the weight of the big tree that will later come. The roots need to be well grounded in order to weather storms and rain that will come. So even if we do not see the results now, there are things happening even if it looks as if everything is standing still. And so it is with you, while you are waiting, God is working in you to prepare you for the future.

Second of all, each season of the garden is needed and each season will pass. The winter is needed as a resting period and the summer as a period of growth. Each of them is necessary. So do not wish away the season that your life is at the moment, embrace it and use it to its fullest potential. If you are in a period of rest, rest, and if you are in a period of growth use it to the best of your ability.

Third of all, plant your hope in the possibilities of the future. I am confident that if there is not a natural disaster (which is highly unlikely where I live), that our trees will grow and they will become big lovely trees. They will provide shade for us and also be an area of enjoyment. I look forward to the future and the possibilities of it. And so you must do in your own life. Look forward to what is waiting for you. Live with an expectant heart that the Lord is now preparing you for what lies ahead.

In the fourth place, even if the garden is not where I would like it to be, I am grateful that it is not where it used to be! It is constantly growing and when we look back at photos we are surprised at the actual growth that took place. Therefore do not focus only on where you want to be, but also look at where you came from and how the Lord helped you to grow to the specific place where you are now and thank Him for it.

And last of all, as I said the garden is not where I would like it to be, but it is beautiful nonetheless. We need to live in the moment and enjoy it for what it is. Maybe I am not here in 10 years' time when the trees have grown big, maybe we move in the mean time and all the years we didn't enjoy the garden as it was. Live in the moment, in the here and now. The present is the best time you have. Even if you are in a waiting season, embrace it for what it is. You are growing towards something and that is very exciting. Thank God for it and spend as much time as you can now with Him.

He is longing for you company!

Thank you Lord for the waiting season in our lives. We know it is a time of growth and we look forward to growing with You. Amen

We are still continuing on the theme of waiting on God. We've discussed a few examples such as David and Paul, but in fact there are quite a number of them, for example Abraham, Jesus, Joseph, to name but a few.

Abraham had to wait for years and years, before the Lord blessed him with his true heir, Isaac. He did however take matters into his own hands in the meantime though and had a child with Hagar, namely Ishmael. And we all know the story about the rivalry between the two brothers and the nations founded from them. How different things could have been if Abraham had waited on the Lord's perfect timing!

Joseph is another example of someone who had to wait for years before the prophecy over his life came true. We all know how Joseph had two prophetic dreams about his future at the age of seventeen. He dreamed that his brothers' bundles of grain bowed down before his. He also dreamed that the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed before him, representing his family bowing before him. Now this angered his brothers and they subsequently sold him into slavery. During his time in slavery, he was thrown into a different culture, exposed to sexual temptation, punished for doing the right thing, imprisoned for a long time and forgotten by those whom he helped. All he had to hang on to was his two dreams of a better future for him, which finally happened for him at the age of 30.

We can learn a few lessons from his life; first of all the Lord prepared him during the waiting period. As a seventeen year old he was a bit arrogant and had youthful pride towards his brothers. But the period he had to wait prepared him for the enormous job he had waiting for him. He learned how to trust the Lord and he lost all the pride that he had, which was evident in the kind manner he treated his brothers later when they came to beg him for food during the drought. He became a respected leader with integrity and had a strong relationship with God.

The second thing is that Joseph had only two dreams to hold on to regarding his future. Now here I am personally very guilty. I have had dreams about the future that the Lord is planning for me, but after a few months the impact of these dreams start to fade for me and then I want another prophetic word, either from someone or from God Himself. And then after a few more months, I want another one and another one and so it goes on. I constantly want affirmation of God's plan for me. It is something that I need to work on, because the Lord doesn't need to repeat Himself. We need to trust Him when He gives us a revelation and we need to hold on to it. He doesn't have to repeat it, we need to trust His Word and believe that He would do what He said.

The last person that I quickly would like to discuss is Jesus. Jesus only started His ministry at age 30. He had to wait patiently for the right time to start. He knew that timing was important and didn't jump the gun. We do not gain any information of His life between 12 and 30 in the Bible, but I think we can assume that He was doing the duties expected of Him as the oldest son and preparing Himself for the task that lay ahead. He is a very good example to follow of 'someone' who waited for the right moment to arrive and was more than ready for the big task resting on His shoulders.

Your right moment will come, believe in God and trust Him for the exact time to start.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the wonderful example that You gave us. We are grateful that we can trust in Your perfect timing, as we know that You know the best. Amen

The timing of certain things in our lives is important. I have mentioned previously that we need to be in sync, otherwise things can turn out differently as it should have been. Just look at a child anxiously waiting for his birthday. You can turn all the clocks and calendars in the house to his birthday, but if it is not his birthday, he won't receive any phone calls or any presents, because he is out of sync with the rest of the world. It is therefore important to wait out the time. I am sure you have heard people say something to the effect of:

"The timing was perfect, if I had children earlier I wouldn't have had the finances to look after them." OR

"If I received the promotion earlier, I wouldn't have been able to handle the conflicts as well as I now can after gaining some more experience." Or

"If I met my husband earlier, we wouldn't have clicked, as I still needed to sort out so many things in my live."

I can go on and on. We need to start trusting in God's timing, it always works out better than what we would have thought.

Another reassuring fact is that God is working through us while we are waiting. If we look at David again, we can see the Lord teaching him many things while he was waiting to be king. David had the chance to be in King Saul's throne room quite often as he had to play the harp for him and there he must have learned a lot about the duties of a king. While on the run, he learned how to fight and conquer his enemies, something a king had to know. He also gained a following of rugged men while he was hiding from Saul and through leading these men, he definitely learned how to lead, how to deal with conflict and how to gain respect, something a king would need. He was a 'king in training', and I am positive that he was a much better king than what he would have been if he simply stayed with his father and immediately became king.

Another person that had to wait was Paul. After his conversion, he started preaching boldly in Damascus. The Jewish leaders didn't like it and wanted to kill him. He then fled to Jerusalem, but the new believers were afraid of him, thinking that he was only pretending to be a believer. After some convincing by Barnabas they believed him, but sent him away to his hometown, Tarsus, when they heard of another plot to kill him. And there he stayed for a number of years before Barnabas came to fetch him and his whole ministry started. Now we do not know much of the years he spent in Tarsus, but I was just thinking about it. He could have been frustrated, not knowing what his future holds. He could have felt that he had this wonderful 'education', and special conversion and here he was doing nothing. Or he could have embraced this time and learned from the Lord. He knew the Word very well as he was a Pharisee, trained by Gamaliel, the finest available, but I think that the Lord used this time to teach him the Word through His Holy Spirit. I think the Lord wanted to teach Him who Jesus truly was and to prepare him for the rough road ahead. Paul didn't know then that he was going to become one of the most famous people of all time, but I am convinced that that waiting period prepared him for it.

Are you ready to learn from the Lord while you are waiting? Are you ready to be prepared for your future that awaits? Be encouraged and know that while you are waiting, God is doing something wonderful within you. Believe it! It is going to be worthwhile.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew the right spirit within me. Help me to wait with confidence of a bright future that awaits. Teach me O Lord, I am prepared to listen. Amen

Welcome back. As we discussed in the previous blog, it is very difficult for us to wait. We don't like waiting and we would rather jump in and start than wait for the 'gun' to go off. No wonder we often get false starts at the Olympic games. Everyone wants to be the quickest out of the starting blocks and gain an advantage on all the others.

I am also impulsive sometimes and start something just in order for me to feel that I am gaining ground and at least doing something. I hate doing nothing. But sometimes the Lord wants us to wait, and do nothing but spend time with Him. And through spending time with Him He wants to teach us things that will help us along the way and in actual fact save us time in the long run. But very few of us are prepared to give that time away, as we are afraid that we will lose out in our materialistic race.

An excellent example from the Bible of someone who had to wait for years for promises regarding his life to come to pass, is David. He was anointed as king over Israel when he was still a young boy and only became king of Judah when he was 30 years old and king of the whole Israel when he was 37 years old. He had to wait for a very long time before he was crowned king and during all those years, the possibility of becoming king appeared very slim. Saul wanted to kill him because he was jealous of David, and chased him all over the country. David had to go and hide away from Saul in caves and in Israel's enemy's territory. The chances of him ever going back home and promoted to the throne seemed remote. David could have been down in the dumps, his heart could have been heavy and down cast. But he wasn't, listen to this one psalm he wrote while he was being persecuted by Saul:

Psalm 17:9, 15 "Protect me from wicked people who attack me, from murderous enemies who surround me. But because I have done what is right, I will see You. When I awake, I will be fully satisfied, for I will see You face to face."

David held on to the Lord. He didn't resent the Lord that he needed to wait, but he spent time with the Lord. He looked up to the Lord to protect him and to guide him. If you read David's story you will notice that he always asked God's guidance when he was on the run and didn't know what to do. He kept the Lord close to his heart and he trusted in Him.

I heard a woman speaking on Impact radio the other day about waiting. And one thing that she said stuck with me. She said that the way we wait express our trust in God. And that is so true. If we look at David, we can see that he trusted the Lord with his life. From the moment that he took on Goliath until the day that he died. Yes, David did make mistakes in between, but he asked forgiveness and the Lord called him a man after His own Heart.

We need to wait with faith. If you are in a season of waiting, try to strengthen your relationship with the Lord during this time. Whether you are waiting for a soul mate, or a baby to come, or a promotion at work, or for guidance on a new career path you would like to take, whatever it is, spend time with the Lord. The time is now. It will ease the period of waiting, as His Peace will enter your soul, plus He will prepare you for your task that lays ahead if you trust in Him.

Take care, wait with confidence!

Lord, help us to wait with an expectant heart. Thank you that we can know that you are waiting with us and preparing the way forward. Amen

What do you think is one of the most common things that aggravate people? Yes, unfair treatment, yes, corruption and crime, yes, if you are being lied to, but one thing I can know for certain that everyone has experienced some or other time in their lives is to wait. We as humans cannot wait very well. Have you seen how people get when they need to wait in heavily congested traffic, or when they need to stand in a long queue? Some of them's whole personality change. They become aggressive and try to take chances by driving in the yellow lane or they simply jump the queue and mumble some or other excuse why they need to be helped first. Or other people do wait in the queue, but when they get to the front they almost bite the head off of the person helping them as if it is their fault that they had to wait so long. 

Why is it that people cannot wait? Well the answer is easy really; it is because we have so much to do. We have too many things outstanding and when we get delayed by waiting, all those things heap up and up and before we know it we need to work late, because everything needs to get done. And when we work late our fuse gets shorter and in the end we are not the nicest person to get along with.

Another reason why we battle with waiting is because everything around us is getting faster and faster and we don't really need to wait that long for basic things anymore. Computers gets quicker, we go to a fast food chain and our burgers are ready within minutes, we pop food in the microwave and quickly heat it up, we put on the television and search with our PVR the story that we want to see, we don't even need to wait anymore. People like Investors can almost never go to sleep or on holiday as the world never sleeps, it simply goes on and on. Things happen by the second. We live in a fast paced world. And every now and again when we have to wait for something we cannot handle it. We are being programmed by the world to simply move faster and faster.

And then suddenly one day the Lord stops you in your tracks and tells you to wait. To be quiet and still and to wait on Him, before you continue.

And what do we as humans do? We totally freak out!

"Wait? Lord, You cannot be serious? This is the 21^st century, we do not wait on anything. With all respect, I am going to lose out if I do not react right now. I have to, otherwise someone else will clinch the deal I am supposed to get."

In my spiritual eye I can see the Lord smiling at us.

"My dear child, I created time. Don't you think I know what century this is? A day is like a thousand years to Me and a thousand years like a day. I know what the future holds, in fact I am the only One who knows. Trust Me, if you rush your timing you will be out of sync and things will not turn out the way I plan it for you."

I can see each of our shoulders drooping and our faces falling.

"But Lord…"

"No buts My Child, listen to Me. I know what is best."

Are you ready to listen? Are you ready to wait? I am going to talk about this topic over the next few weeks. Come and join me and discover what the Lord wants to tell us.

Lord, please help us to listen to You. Please help us to follow Your guidance and please help us to be obedient to Your Voice. Amen