Waiting with Patience ~ Resting in the Lord

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him (Psalms 37:7).
Have you prayed and prayed and waited and waited, and still there is no manifestation? Are you tired of seeing nothing move? Are you just at the point of giving it all up? Perhaps you have not waited in the right way? This would take you out of the right place the place where He can meet you.
"With patience wait" (Rom. 8:25). Patience takes away worry. He said He would come, and His promise is equal to His presence. Patience takes away your weeping. Why feel sad and despondent? He knows your need better than you do, and His purpose in waiting is to bring more glory out of it all. Patience takes away self-works. The work He desires is that you "believe" (John 6:29), and when you believe, you may then know that all is well. Patience takes away all want. Your desire for the thing you wish is perhaps stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled in its arrival.
Patience takes away all weakening. Instead of having the delaying time, a time of letting go, know that God is getting a larger supply ready and must get you ready too. Patience takes away all wobbling. "Make me stand upon my standing" (Daniel 8:18, margin). God's foundations are steady; and when His patience is within, we are steady while we wait. Patience gives worship. A praiseful patience sometimes "long-suffering with joyfulness" (Col. 1:11) is the best part of it all. "Let (all these phases of) patience have her perfect work" (James 1:4), while you wait, and you will find great enrichment.
--C. H. P.
Hold steady when the fires burn,
When inner lessons come to learn,
And from this path there seems no turn
"Let patience have her perfect work."
--L.S.P.
~ Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman for February 21st

~Brittany

Thoughts on Waiting from Elisabeth Elliot

I began to learn to wait.  Patient waiting does not come naturally to most of us, but a great deal is said about it in the Bible.  It is an important discipline for anyone who wants to learn to trust.

I do know that waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the hear to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one's thoughts.

Waiting silently is the hardest thing of all.  But the things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God.

S. D. Gordon, in his Quiet Talks on Prayer, describes waiting.  It means:

Steadfastness, that is holding on;
patience, that is holding back;
expectancy, that is holding one's self in readiness to go or do;
listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear.

How long, Lord, must I wait?
Never mind, child.  Trust me.

~ taken from Elisabeth Elliot's book, Passion and Purity

~Brittany

Faith that Triumphs

"We must learn to take God at His Word,

and go straight on in duty,

although we see no way in which we can go forward.

The reason we are so often balked by difficulties

is that we expect to see them removed

before we try to pass through them.

If we would move straight on in faith,

the path would be opened for us.

We stand still, waiting for the obstacle to be removed,

when we ought to go forward as if there were no obstacles."

- Evening Thoughts, taken from Streams in the Desert, Vol. 1, February 11th

"Faith that goes forward triumphs."

~ Mrs. Charles E. Cowman ~

~Brittany

A few thoughts on waiting...

Waiting means “Steadfastness, that is holding on; patience, that is holding back; expectancy, that is holding the face up; obedience, that is holding one’s self in readiness to go or do; listening, that is holding quiet and still so as to hear.” 

~S. D. Gordon

“I do know that Waiting on God requires

the willingness to bear uncertainty,

to carry within oneself the unanswered question,

lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.”

~Elisabeth Elliot

~Breanna

The "Wait" Poem

Wait

A poem by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, He replied.

I pleaded, and I wept for a clue to my fate,

And the Master so gently said, "Child, you must wait."

"Wait? Your say wait??" my indignant reply.

"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why.

Is your hand shortened?  Or have you not heard?

By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

"My future, and all to which I can relate

Hangs in the balance, and you tell me 'wait'?

I'm needing a 'yes', a go-ahead sign,

Or even a 'no', to which I can resign.

"And Lord, you have promised that if we believe,

We need but ask, and we shall receive.

And Lord I've been asking, and this is my cry:

"I'm weary of asking: I need a reply!"

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As my Master replied once again, "You must wait."

So I slumped in my chair; defeated and taut

And grumbled to God; "So I'm waiting, for what?"

He seemed then to kneel and His eyes met with mine

And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens, darken the sun,

Raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.

"All you see I could give, and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.

You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint;

You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;

You'd not learn to trust, just by knowing I'm there.

You'd not know the joy of resting in Me,

When darkness and silence was all you could see.

"You would never experience that fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

"The glow of My comfort late in the night;

The faith that I give when you walk without sight;

The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask

From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

"And you never would know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'

Yes, your dreams for that loved one o'ernight could come true,

But the loss! if you lost what I'm doing in you!

"So be silent, my child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.

And though oft' may My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all....is still...wait."

~Brittany

A Strong Heart

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)

Wait! Wait! Let your waiting be on the Lord! He is worth waiting for. He never disappoints the waiting soul.
While waiting keep up your spirits, Expect a great deliverance, and be ready to praise God for it.
The promise which should cheer you is in the middle of the verse—"He shall strengthen thine heart." This goes at once to the place where you need help. If the heart be sound, all the rest of the system will work well. The heart wants calming and cheering, and both of these will come if it be strengthened. A forceful heart rests and rejoices and throbs force into the whole man.
No one else can get at that secret urn of life, the heart, so as to pour strength into it. He alone who made it can make it strong. God is full of strength, and, therefore, He can impart it to those who need it. Oh, be brave; for the Lord will impart His strength to you, and you shall be calm in tempest and glad in sorrow.
He who penned these lines can write as David did—"Wait, I say, on the Lord." I do, indeed, say it. I know by long and deep experience that it is good for me to wait upon the Lord.
- Charles Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook for September 6th
~Brittany

Waiting and Understanding

I was blessed this evening as I read these portions of Scripture.  I always love taking multiple portions of Scripture and putting them together for a bigger thought.  Though not done in a version our family would prefer, Daily Light on the Daily Path is an excellent way of getting that!  I hope this is a blessing to some of you as well.

~Brittany

 

Morning
Ruth 3:18; Isa. 7:4; Ps. 46:10; John 11:40; Isa. 2:17; Luke 10:39, 42; Isa. 30:15; Ps. 4:4; Ps. 37:7; Ps. 112:7, 8; Isa. 28:16

“Wait, my daughter.”

“Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.”—“Be still, and know that I am God.”—“Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”—The haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
Mary… sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching…. “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”—“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”—Ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady.—“Whoever believes will not be in haste.”

Evening
John 13:7; Deut. 8:2; Ezek. 16:8; Heb. 12:6; 1 Pet. 4:12, 13; 2 Cor. 4:17, 18

“What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

“You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
“When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love;… I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.”—“The Lord disciplines the one he loves.”
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.—This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

"Patience is the fair handmaid and daughter of faith; we cheerfully wait when we are certain that we shall not wait in vain. It is our duty and our privilege to wait upon the Lord in service, in worship, in expectancy, in trust all the days of our life. Our faith will be tried faith, and if it be of the true kind, it will bear continued trial without yielding. We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited for us."

- Charles Spurgeon -

~Brittany

Marriage and Ketchup-- They're Both Worth The Wait!

I thought this post by Darlene Schacht from The Time-Warp Wife blog was fantastic and a great reminder!  I hope you are blessed by it as well!

In the 1970’s Heinz came out with series of commercials illustrating how slow their ketchup flowed from the bottle. Point being that their ketchup was thicker and richer than the other brands on the shelf. To reinforce their brand, “Anticipation, you’re making me wait” was their theme song, along with a tagline that read, “Taste that’s worth the wait!”

While watching an episode of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, I learned from a young age how centrifugal force was my ally when it came to dressing my dog and fries. One long swoop of the bottle and it was putty in my hands. Well, more like ketchup on my plate, but you get the idea...

Kids nowadays don’t know how easy they have it with plastic squeeze bottles and condiment pumps, but while they have it easy, they’re missing out on simple lessons learned through patience.

Fast food, fast cars, fast money, and fast access to pain relief have left us weak and void of muscle tone when it comes to flexing the muscle of patience. We must exercise patience daily in order to increase in strength.

Dictionary.com defines patience this way, “Bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.” That includes nagging of course.

Can you see how this would be an asset to any marriage? In a perfect marriage we’d see two people living in harmony without complaint. There’d be no sign of irritation or annoyance, and tempers would be under control at all times.

But we don't live in a perfect world, do we? We live in a world of anticipation that's making us wait. We live in a messy world where the abundance of an angry heart spouts forth more times than we'd like. We say and do things that pierce each other deeply.

We’d all love it if our husbands had the patience of Job, and if we could experience instant and perpetual bliss (yeah, I'm feeling a little 'Faith Hill" today). That would be easy, but instead of seeking a shortcut in hopes that my husbands will change, I challenge myself to focus inward and exercise that patience myself.

When I take my eyes off of Michael's failures and turn them toward God, where I learn perfect patience, I allow Him to work through me. And why wouldn't I? God can do so much more than I ever could on my own. His wisdom is so far beyond mine that I'm constantly surprised by His wondrous ways.

It's just a matter of teaching myself to relax, pray, and wait on the Lord. In other words I give up my wants and my desires to be shaped by His will.

We might not understand the momentum once we step onto the Potter's wheel, but centrifugal force is our ally when we're clay in His hands.

It takes time to build a relationship as we practice being both patient and waiting on God, but some things--like marriage and ketchup--are well worth the wait.

The first lesson to be learned and practiced is loving patience. It requires some time to bring any two lives into perfect unison so that they shall blend in every chord and tone. - J.R. Miller

You are loved by an almighty God,
Darlene Schacht




~Posted By Breanna

Wait for the Lord!

The Lord is always faithful and gracious.  In my discouragement this morning, the Lord showed me this verse during my Bible reading.

"Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!"

~Psalm 31:24

Sometimes it seems the only place of relief and refuge we can find is on our knees crying out to the Lord in prayer.  But that is a good thing; that's right where He wants us to be.  And it is there that we get courage, faith, and strength to keep pressing.  Our Lord is faithful, and will work all things out for the good of His children.  We must wait for Him.  He will renew our strength and lift us up.
I was also reminded of this favorite song of mine.  We must wait on the Lord wherever we find ourselves.  Often waiting is hard, but we know and must trust that He will work things out and use it for His glory.

~Posted by: Brittany