The necessity of our learning to wait on God’s timing…

God will make everything beautiful in His time…

We must learn to cast the total of our trust and reliance upon Him – walking by faith and not by sight (Heb 10:38-39).

Lamentations 3:25
“The LORD is good to those who wait [confidently] for Him, To those who seek Him [on the authority of God’s word].”

2 Chronicles 16:9
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”


Wednesday, May 26th
Belief Net – Prayer Of The Day

9 Things to Do When You’re Waiting on God
by Lesli White

Waiting will help you trust in god’s timing.

Most people don’t like to wait. We often get frustrated when we have to wait because it makes us anxious and it inconveniences us.

This hurriedness often works its ways into our spiritual lives causing us to rush into the next thing before calling on God for direction.

While most of us feel the need to rush, God is not in a hurry. In fact, the Bible says He is slow at going about things.

What we often forget is that God has a plan and a purpose for us according to His Will.

On the road of life, crucial decisions are like intersections that call for us to choose which way to go.

If we go through life without seeking Christ, the road we pick may lead to regret.

However, when we seek Christ, things that didn’t make sense before are revealed to us.

Although the Lord is ready and willing to offer us clear direction, He doesn’t always give it quickly.

Here are nine things to do when you’re waiting on God.

Think About the Good That Comes From Waiting

As difficult as waiting can be, it builds spiritual endurance in a unique way. Isaiah makes this truth clear:

“But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint”
(Isaiah 40:31).

This is a glorious promise but our discontented hearts find it difficult to wait.

One great thing about waiting is that it allows us to pray without ceasing.

When our thoughts turn to worry, fear, discouragement and anger, we are to consciously and quickly turn every thought to prayer and every prayer to thanksgiving.

Another great thing about waiting is that it increases our faith.

We wait and God works!

Listen Closely

There are times that God will make you wait simply because He wants to get your attention.

If you are waiting on God, listen closely to what He may be trying to reveal to you. He may be trying to reach you or speak to you about a certain situation in your life.

When everything is running smoothly, we tend to forget the Lord. But uncertainty draws us back to Him like a magnet.

By aligning our steps with His and walking in submission to the Spirit, we open our ears to hear His voice.

Our waiting period is God’s preparation time. He may put us on hold to coordinate events to line up with His Will.

Pray Fervently 

When we’re waiting on God, it may seem like our prayers are going unanswered.

That’s why it’s important that when you’re waiting on God, you pray fervently.

Also, make sure your prayer is to the glory of God.

One of the most important questions we face in prayer is whether our appeal is for our own selfish interest, pride or attainment, or whether it is really to the glory of God?

Answers to prayer are supposed to honor God and bring glory to Him. This is one of the main reasons we offer prayer in the name of Christ.

Jesus assured His disciples that if they remained in Him and His words remained in them, whatever they asked would be given to them.

Prayer that is offered in the name of Christ and to the glory of Christ is prayer that God can answer.

Remember God May Be Answering a Bigger Prayer

Our God is a merciful God. Sometimes we forget this when we’re waiting on God. We get so caught up in the pain we’re experiencing, the people we’ve lost and the things we don’t have.

We start focusing on all the ways that God hasn’t measured up to our standards and find ourselves disappointed time and time again.

Instead of focusing on the blessings we’ve been given, we focus on what God hasn’t done for us.

This is human, but it doesn’t mean it’s right. It also doesn’t mean that God has abandoned us.

It means that what He wants for us is in His time. Not ours.

And sometimes God’s plans are bigger than our own. You might pray for love to come into your life at a certain time, but if it had, God wouldn’t have been able to make you more strong and independent.

If things had fallen into place at the college you prayed for, you may not have attended the school that shaped so many of your future friendships and dreams.

Just because God isn’t granting the prayers in the way we want Him to doesn’t mean He doesn’t love us.

Find Spiritual Strength

Waiting on God helps strengthen us spiritually. By the mere term “spiritual strengthening” two things might be suggested to us.

We might think of spiritual as distinguished from physical strengthening. We also might think of strengthening by the Spirit as distinguished from some earthly force.

Sometimes the Lord has to work to accomplish in us before we are ready to handle what He’s planned for our future.

If we instantly received His direction, we would rarely have the opportunity two exercise our faith.

Christian maturity becomes evident in the ability to wait in peaceful confidence.

We’ll know exactly what to do when we trust in His timing.

Be Patient

Sometimes God makes you wait because he is building patience in your life.

Waiting on God means patiently looking to Him for what we need.

David recognized why we had to wait on the Lord. First, His salvation came from Him (Psalm 62:1).

He learned that no one else could deliver Him. His only hope was in God for God alone hears prayers.

Our prayers often revolve around asking God to hurry up and bless what we want done or want to do.

But what if God’s answer to us is simply, “Be patient. Wait upon me”? In

We can pray with David:

“Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.
Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly”
(Psalm 5:3).

We can trust His response, even if it doesn’t come in the time we expect.

Trust His Will

It would be so helpful to know God’s Will for our lives but we don’t have the answers.

That’s why it’s important to trust the direction God may be taking you in when you’re lead by the Spirit.

John 15:7 says,

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”

So that means if we tell God what we want, He will give it to us, right?

Well, not exactly. If you’re wondering why things aren’t going according to your plans, here’s the short of it.

We aren’t aware of God’s Will. It’s important that we pay attention to the word abiding in this verse which means “to live in, dwell in and remain in.”

When you have an intimate relationship with God, you begin to know His heart and have a clearer sense of the things you should pray for and what His Will truly is for you.

Depend on Him

Another reason God may be making you wait is because he is building your dependence on Him.

When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we tend to lack patience when it comes to our circumstances.

We also begin to look for thrills in life.

In our physical life, it leads to obsessions and to destruction; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, on mounting up “with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), it will result in the destruction of us spiritually.

Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our determinations to keep the Lord before us continually. Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence.

Allow Your Character to Be Transformed

Maybe God is making you wait because He is transforming our character.

Waiting builds and transforms our character. Moses became a great leader in his time and God worked through him to bring about many miracles for the children of Israel.

Of course he had to go through a long period of processing in the desert for 40 years before God came to him.

We know that when he was a young man, he was brash and impatient. Yet, when he was given a second chance, he opted to do it God’s way and in God’s time.

Waiting has a way of humbling us and to rub off the tough edges of our lives so that the true Christlike character is revealed in us.

If impatience tempts you to jump ahead of the Lord’s timing, you risk stepping outside of His Will and missing His blessings.

But by waiting until He gives clear direction, you will walk in His peace and certainty, instead of stumbling around in anxiety and confusion.
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God has a master plan for your life…

We have to learn to trust God’s plan…

OLIVE TREE BLOG
THE MEANING OF ROMANS 8:28

Romans 8:28 is one of the best-known verses in Romans. And it is probably one of the best known verses in the whole Bible.

Here is what it says:

“For God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”

There’s a good reason people like this verse! It’s because we all suffer.

We all experienced hardships, some of it almost unbearable. And those of us who believe in God want to know what God’s relationship to that suffering is.

Where does suffering come from?
Did God cause our suffering? Does he sympathize with us in our suffering? Can he do anything about our suffering?

These are human questions and questions that many, many people have.

Romans 8:28 does not tell us that God causes people to suffer, and it doesn’t say that God consider suffering in and of itself to be good.

What it does say, however, is that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are who are called according to his purposes.

Romans 8 in context
Firstly, it’s actually really important to read around that verse.

I would recommend anybody interested in the meaning of this verse to read all of Romans 8, beginning in verse one.

This entire passage in Romans is really helpful for understanding what suffering is all about particularly as a Christian.

It doesn’t solve the problem at a philosophical level, the problem of how God can be all powerful and all good and yet good people can suffer.

How can that happen? It doesn’t solve that problem for us.

But it does describe how God is at work in a suffering world.

We know he has identified with that world through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross—suffered—for our sins and participated with us in a suffering world.

We know he’s with us in our suffering.

Romans 8 also reminds us that God is busy recreating this world and that those of us who are united with Christ by faith are being transformed, and the church is being transformed and is God’s pilot unit for what the world should look like.

He’s transforming the church, and eventually he’ll transform this whole world to bring suffering and oppression to an end.

That’s how God is working all things together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

[Taken from: Frank Thielman, the author of Romans in the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament.]
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