Timing, Timing, Timing
I've recently been reading a book about a pastor who for months and even years prayer walked around a crack house that God had laid on his heart for a community coffee house/satellite church. God-sized obstacles stood in the way: financing, zoning, other buyers, lack of experience, etc. Yet the pastor pursued in his prayer endeavors and faith. Finally, after a long period of waiting, God began to open the doors. Today, it is a thriving coffee house reaching a multitude of people for Christ!
Isn't it hard to wait? In such an instantaneous society, we are conditioned from early on to want it fast, cheap and easy. But that's not always the way God works. Matter of fact, it's almost never how God works.
Whether we are waiting on a new job opportunity, a marriage to be restored, a wayward son or daughter to come home, a ministry to take root, or a family member to be healed, we often have to wait...and wait...and wait. And then, we are not always promised an outcome as we've imagined. Yet, God knows what is best for us. He understands all the behind-the-scene intricacies He has to attend to, and that we are unaware of. Timing is everything, and we must be patient while we wait. Plus there are so many life lessons within the waiting itself.
There's a story in Luke 13:10-13 about a woman crippled for eighteen years. Get the picture: for eighteen, long, painful, grueling years, day after day after day, this woman was hunched over unable to straighten herself out. And then in a matter of minutes, she comes face to feet with Jesus. In a blink of an eye, and with a single spoken word, a woman broken was restored to wholeness. Wow!
I can only imagine what ran through her mind all those years. "When, Lord, is it going to happen for me? Why won't you fix my back? Why has this happened? How can I ever be whole?" And yet, timing was everything. It was appointed unto her a specific date, a specific time, a specific place and a specific Savior. Everything had to line up according to God's will...and it did, after eighteen years.
I'm not sure what doors you are waiting for to open. I don't understand the pain you may be experiencing as you wait for your miracle, but what I do know, is that God is faithful. Whether He brings about the thing you have prayed for or not, His will is sovereign. Often the blessing is in the journey and not the restoration.
Rick and I have been praying and waiting and praying and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for God to open the doors to our ministry to law enforcement. I believe we are truly on the verge of those doors flying wide open, yet there is so much more God has to do to bring it full circle. But what I have learned along the way, is that life is not about me. It's not about my comfort or my timing. What it is about is learning to depend on Him and desiring His will in all circumstances. To see that His ways are best, and that when I truly seek Him, He will lay out the details step by step as I am ready to receive them.
It is my prayer today that you find peace in the waiting. God has you there for a reason, friend. Embrace it for all it's worth. And, eventually, you may just receive your miracle.
Blessings,
Kristi
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