Waiting and Trusting in the Unseen

     Maybe I should just rename this blog "Waiting, waiting, waiting, upon God."  Sorry to be repeating myself, but that is just pretty much what we are doing.  And in case you are wondering, I despise waiting.  I'm a bit like my wonderful mother in that regard--she hated even ordering appetizers in restaurants: "O no!  Don't get that--it will slow down getting the meal!"  Her favorite places to eat were all fast, fast, fast.  I used to laugh about that, since nobody appreciates a good meal like my husband and I do, and we will order everything in sight, including appetizers and, of course, especially dessert. (Thank You Lord for dessert--"And it was very good.")
     But I don't laugh anymore (okay, I do still laugh a little), because I see that tendency a million times over in myself.  Waiting in grocery store or carpool lines has taught me to always have a book with me, as it calms the savage beast within--and I love to read.  Like so many busy moms, I just hate to waste time and wait.  Like all of us, really.  I know we are not alone in this--so many are waiting in so many different areas of their lives. Silly waiting, busy waiting, really hard waiting--it all ranges from frustrating to debilitating to just plain agonizing.  
     Yet I also know God has us right where He wants us--Janie safely in His tender embrace, speaking to her, holding her, loving her.  And He has us as well,  her family and friends who wait and pray and learn to daily, hourly look to Him for strength and peace and hope in the midst of this hard waiting.
       Our Father never grows impatient as He waits on His perfect time, so I know Janie is safe and secure in the hands of the gentle Good Shepherd.  It is only us frail, frantic people who must fight against the fierce pressure of waiting... because waiting can so quickly lead to worrying.  And worrying does absolutely nothing to help Janie or any of us in our waiting times. Never, ever.  Not only does worrying rob us of strength in the midst of the battle, but it steals the joy and hope God wants to sing into our hearts.  As  Corrie ten Boom said, "Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow.  It empties today of its strength."
     All this to say, I fell prey to worrying and discouragement while waiting late yesterday and early this morning.  How desperately I desire to see rapid progress in this marathon, despite the fact that they have told told us repeatedly (and I know intellectually) that this will be a very long, slow process.  Sigh. Not words I like to hear: "Long.  Slow.  Inches, not miles."  Forgive your often anxious, fretful child, Lord. Help me, Father.
       And He always does. Incredibly, He always, always does--relentlessly faithful this God of ours.  His Word is my lifeline to renewed hope and strength in the battle.  "I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!  Wait for the Lord; and be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" (Ps.27:13-14)
      How I love Charles Spurgeon's words.  This is long, but it is worth it!:

     "It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before him; tell him your difficulty, and plead his promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if he keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet he will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for thee in the full conviction that thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."

     Yes, Lord, we will wait, trusting Your perfect plan and timing. Help us to wait with patience and joy and courage, believing we "shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."  I've often heard it said, "The Lord is never late... but He is rarely early."  Amen! And one of the reasons I believe that He does this is so that He will receive far more glory. If He had just hurried to Lazarus' side and healed his sickness, that would have been great, but how much less glory to Him and how infinitely much less encouragement and hope for all of us than the fact that Jesus waited and raised a man dead four days to new life? How many of us have been strengthened and renewed in our waiting times by the raising of Lazarus in John 11!  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for waiting and forbearing the exercise of Your limitless power to heal Lazarus, so that we could all see Your staggering power to raise the utterly dead to new life. 
     Wherever you are, however you are waiting, know that we are waiting with you and trusting our Almighty God to strengthen and sustain us in our waiting.  Even now, He may be preparing the glorious resurrection and answer to your hopes and prayers... so that like Lazarus, your waiting will have resulted in greater joy for you and far greater glory to God.  
     I've always loved the quote: "With God, when nothing is happening, something is happening."  Something is happening in our waiting, in your waiting.  We may not be able to see it, but we will trust not in the seen but in the unseen. We choose to trust in Our Almighty God of the unseen for "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb.11:1)
     And so wait and we trust, knowing that "Aslan is on the move."  To the God of all that we can see and of the infinitely more that we cannot see, be all the glory.