And we are all too familiar with the waiting that this life in this world deals us
with another round of resumes to send out or another round of chemo
another negative on another pregnancy test another underwhelming first date another
specialist another gray winter day another shift at the same old job or another afternoon
staring at the four walls of a prison cell just waiting for the night to come how can this be it
you don't get very far into a life of faith or just into life itself for that
matter without asking your own version of the question how can this possibly be it
you know what it's like to ask that question
you asking some version of it now even
you're praying about your finances but you see nothing you're praying for your
marriage your family members but you see nothing you got a report from the doctor
but you are praying for healing but you see nothing at work in your company you're seeing
nothing you got a dream but nothing friends you may see nothing but you can bank on the
fact and the promise of the resurrection that because Jesus is alive when you see nothing it
means that Jesus is up to something he's at work he's not constrained to time and space
he has no limitations right now he is sorting your life he's figuring things out he is always
at work when you don't see he's moving when you don't feel he's fighting when there is silence
it doesn't mean he's still you may be down to nothing and that just means God's up to something
you got to understand God wastes nothing be careful because the enemy loves to tempt us
loves to make us think that we have wasted seasons of our lives but because of God's sovereignty and
because of God's providence and because God knows both beginning and God knows end we can trust that
God wastes nothing because you never know where God wants to take you because God is using it all
over and over again in the Bible we're told to wait upon the Lord when you don't understand
don't be unwilling to wait I was speaking about preachers and another preacher said to me who
was in a hard spot he said I know that God put me here I just wonder if he remembers where he put me
God knows where you are the very hairs of your head a number God has his schedule when you don't
understand don't demand to understand don't fail to be faithful don't bow to bitterness
friend don't be unwilling to wait God is never late but he's never ahead of time
it's like the sun coming up one thing about the sun coming up is you can't hurry it and
you can't stop it and that's the way God is God is always on time no matter what
you're going through he's an on-time God number one I found out he's never early
flip that coin over though I found out he's never late
he's an on-time God one of the things you and I must always understand is that while you're in
the waiting room God is in his work room and that while you are waiting on God to give you clarity
waiting on God to grant the favor waiting on God to open the door waiting on God for the
opportunity waiting on God for closure you've got to understand that while you're still waiting God
is in his work room in his sovereignty of his plan and he is working in your situation he
is working in that situation he is working all over the world and in all spaces at the
same time God's waiting room is God's working room and sometimes we got to remind ourselves
that he is working Psalm 131 is one of the shortest Psalms it's three verses long you
can read it in a second Charles Spurgeon called it the shortest to read but slowest to learn
we bear witness to the light by learning the peace of God and trusting him in the midst of the dark
and Jesus preferred teaching metaphors were agricultural he's constantly pointing out
ways that the creator has written divine lessons into the very soil that we live on and it is a
miserable farmer who plants a seed and then goes out day after day to anxiously look it to see if
it's working did it take has the seed broken soil will it really make good on its promise
to go from this tiny little thing to growing into something that can nourish and satisfy
no the farmer has to get used to the rhythm that every harvest requires waiting
between planting and reaping there are long stretches of cold dark days when all the real
work is happening in underground invisible to me every time a farmer sews a seed it's an act of
radical trust in every winter between planting and reaping that farmer must know peace in the
midst of darkness waiting is where we discover peace or get eaten alive by anxiety and toil
peace that elusive state that we're all after it's ultimately not found in resolution
peace is not the end of the wait because what I'm waiting on is just going to be replaced by another
need and then another and the next one will feel as urgent as this one does there's a deeper sort
of peace a variety of peace that cannot be taken by this world because it wasn't given by this
world and its presence peace is God's presence in the midst of pain it is not the absence of
pain it's God's presence here with me in the waiting not the end of the wait when you're
waiting you're not doing nothing you're doing the most important something there is you're allowing
your soul to grow up if you can't be still in wait you can't become who God created you to be
Job says I look and I go forward but he speaking of God he is not there
and backward but I cannot perceive him when he works on the left hand I cannot behold him
and when he turns and I turn and go right I can't I can't see him then
verse 10 but he knows the way that I take when he has tested me I shall come forth as gold powerful
powerful words it's obvious that job is in a time in his life where he's saying God where are you
he's saying God where are you seeing unconcerned absent and silent when I need you the most
he had lost his family his children he had lost his wealth he had lost his health he had lost
his friends he had lost everything good in his life and now in chapter 23 he's lost his God
lost his God I mean that's when you really hit the place about as low as you can go
when you can't find you you feel like you're God abandoned the absence of God is unexplained he's
not there God where are you said I I just don't see him I just keep going through it
but I love what he said at the end of the conclusion of it all
his conclusion is I don't know where I am anymore I don't know what's going on anymore
he said I don't know where he is but he knows where I am for he knows the path that I take did
you hear that verse he knows where I am even when I don't know where he is and I can't perceive him
and I can he knows my name he knows my the number of hairs on my head he knows my fingerprint he
knows everything about the path that I am on and then he ends with a powerful faith
confession and when he has tried me I will come forth as gold wow that's powerful that's powerful
this story teaches us that God is still working when you think your situation
is at its last sickening conclusion God is still working
I'm preaching to somebody today a lot of somebody's who the enemy has told you it's
way too late for any change good to ever come you don't understand your case is different but your
case is not different learn something from this God is still working and you will find yourself
in those very moments where you're going to have to ask yourself the question are you going to be
petty or are you going to be purposeful are you going to be jealous are you going to be joyful
are you going to be grateful are you going to begin to grumble are you going to be impatient
are you going to be intentional waiting will test your integrity that's what waiting does
waiting always reveals your character by the very nature that's why you find it so consistently
throughout the scriptures that God often allows his servants to navigate through waiting seasons
because waiting often reveals character friends it is this ideal of waiting and this willingness to
wait there's an essential skill of the Christian life that no matter where we are no matter where
we are in our juncture in our journey of following Christ waiting is a prerequisite
for how we will grow into maturity that we will discover that waiting on God is always worth it
and the reality of this world includes things like delay pain loss disappointment and unmet
expectations everything significant that God does in this world and in us it involves
long stretches of waiting I mean how do you spend your waiting time is everything
how you spend you're waiting season is everything waiting time is not wasting time waiting time is worshiping
time and in that worship you can bring wherever you may be in your waiting season then perhaps
your waiting on the doctors to to tell your loved one they are cancer-free or perhaps
you're waiting on a relationship to get better or perhaps you're waiting on the Lord to send a
relationship that you long for that when I'm when our waiting we must worship and in our worship we
must trust him by bringing our disappointment and our faith and our desperation that God it
has not been easy God it has been challenging God the uncertainty has been incredibly difficult but
God I am trusting you for what you're going to do and I am trusting you for how you are going
to work in my life and through my life that he is a God that's always worth waiting for that he
is a God that has not forgotten about us that he is the God that has a sovereign plan that he is
working that he is the same God that called you from the very Inception he is worth waiting for