God's motivations for having us wait on Him...

[Brian Blankenship]

What are His motivations for having us wait on Him?

[Crystal Lutton]

I love the idea that I think Eldridge expresses really well in Wild at Heart that God is romantic and wants to be our hero and when he comes in to rescue us it is always at the perfect moment and he is sure to get the glory!

I've also experienced the reality that because his timing is perfect I often overlook all that I'm learning from the process and the details that seem unimportant in the moment but in retrospect (even if it's 10 years down the road when that detail becomes important) it was the detail that was even more important than what he was rescuing me from in the moment.

[Ryan Scott]

It would be impossible for me to speculate on God's motives for anything, but I think the more pressing issue is why we consider that God is waiting. That seems to suggest that our time in the present age is worthless, when the scripture seems pretty clear that it has a real purpose.

I rejoice in the gift of God to be able to participate in the redemption of the world and although the future hope we share is exciting, I think God isn't waiting at all. God is working right now to accomplish what will be accomplished. If anyone is waiting, it seems to be the Church.

[Hans Deventer]

It would be impossible for me to speculate on God's motives for anything, but I think the more pressing issue is why we consider that God is waiting. That seems to suggest that our time in the present age is worthless, when the scripture seems pretty clear that it has a real purpose.

I rejoice in the gift of God to be able to participate in the redemption of the world and although the future hope we share is exciting, I think God isn't waiting at all. God is working right now to accomplish what will be accomplished. If anyone is waiting, it seems to be the Church.

Well, Jesus said in John 14:

1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."

It took God 6 days to create this earth. He's either spending 2000 years already on preparing a place for us (which seems unlikely), or He's waiting on something.

Peter, in 2 Peter 3 says:

11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

So indeed there seems to be a relation between what we do and the timing of the day of the Lord.

That would bring us to the conclusion that He is indeed waiting on us. If so, I'm not awaiting the day to come in my lifetime. In fact, not in the next 1000 years. I'm very optimistic regarding what God can do. I more realistic regarding what people can do, looking back at 2000 years of church history.

[Crystal Lutton]

maybe the answer depends on whether we read the question as God asking us to wait on him for his return or wait on him in our day to day needs

[Brian Blankenship]

Crystal, I read a wonderful book 14 years ago called God's Waiting Room by Rick Yohn, that compared a hospital waiting room, to God's waiting room. In that book, there were given some reasons found in scripture for us waiting for God to come.

1. It is redemptive. What we go through in the economy of God is never wasted. Sometimes God uses these things to lead others to him. I know of people because of our own experience that have been reached through our own personal waiting that now are Christians.

2. It is the thing that God uses to make us more like Him. Joseph in the book of Genesis over a 17 year period went from being an arrogant young man to second in charge of all of Egypt, through the waiting room process. God uses him being sold by his brothers, to going to prison, and the hand of God is always on him. At the end of it, the arrogance is gone, and he would tell his brothers, WHAT MAN INTENDED FOR EVIL, God has turned around for my good, the saving of many lives(God's waiting room is sometimes redemptive),

3. God's waiting room is sometimes preparation for the next phase of ministry in our lives. Think of the disciples and the 120 that were in the upper room. On the day of pentecost, after being obedient to the Lord the Holy Spirit fell on them in power, and there were added to them daily for every good work. It seems that our waiting on God requires that we are obedient to His word.

God had already done his part in sending His son, who died on the cross, shedding his blood, and on the third day, rose again. Then after the ascension, he told the disciples, to go back and "wait on the promise of the Father, and you shall be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Their waiting prepared them for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

And what of us, as we wait, we should never forget, that just as He did what He promised, that He is still God, and if we are obedient, God will in the last days "pour His Spirit on all flesh." God will take what the enemy wants to use for evil, and turn around for our good, and for the saving of many lives. God wants to through the experiences of the Master potter, mold us into His image, weeding off of us, and shapeing us into something beautiful.

They say a sculpture can take a plain piece of marble, and in his mind mold that plain piece of marble take the vision he has in his mind into a beautiful piece of art. God through the process of time can take us in all our imperfections, insecurities, etc... and in all that we go through make us into something beautiful.

Just like outside pressure over time on a piece of coal will turn that coal over time into a beautiful diamond, changeing it on the inside. God can take all the stresses, pressures that we go through on the outside, to change us on the inside into something beautiful.

After all, it isn't what our circumstances that do to us or what the enemy that tries to do to us that is the most important thing. It is the work that God does in our hearts in the middle of the process that is the most important thing. He who began a good work in us, is more than ready to complete it. He hasn't messed up so far.

God knew what He was doing with Noah, God knew what He was doing with the disciples, and God knows what He is doing with us, although there are times we think, God are you sure. There are times we think, I just can't see it. Yet, God is always thinking of the end result. We would do well to learn from Him what it is He is trying to do, and pray, Lord, help me see this waiting from your perspective.

[Randy Wise]

What are His motivations for having us wait on Him?

He won't be rushed?:)


Randy

[Brian Blankenship]

Randy, you are soooooo right! I've been trying to rush Him, and I finally had to surrender to His will! Its amazing how much more at peace I feel!

[Barbara Moulton]

I appreciate all the posts here but may I suggest another idea? Could it be that we are waiting on God simply because ".....it is what it is."

If you take the analogy of the hospital surgical waiting room then we recognize that the process of a surgery or treatment inherently involves waiting (for either a loved one's surgery to be complete or for all things to be ready for our surgery). While we are waiting, we have two choices. We can either allow the process of waiting to be redemptive and preparatory and transformative or get frustrated, angry and impatient. We will still have to wait, regardless of what the waiting does in us. The surgeon doesn't come out to talk to the family and say, "Your waiting cured my patient." It was simply that the process of healing the patient created the need to wait.

I think there are many times when the "waiting" on God is much like that. God isn't saying,
"I am going to make you wait so that I can accomplish _____ in you."

He is saying,
"If you want ______ this to be accomplished you will have to wait."

[Randy Wise]

I appreciate all the posts here but may I suggest another idea? Could it be that we are waiting on God simply because ".....it is what it is."

If you take the analogy of the hospital surgical waiting room then we recognize that the process of a surgery or treatment inherently involves waiting (for either a loved one's surgery to be complete or for all things to be ready for our surgery). While we are waiting, we have two choices. We can either allow the process of waiting to be redemptive and preparatory and transformative or get frustrated, angry and impatient. We will still have to wait, regardless of what the waiting does in us. The surgeon doesn't come out to talk to the family and say, "Your waiting cured my patient." It was simply that the process of healing the patient created the need to wait.

I think there are many times when the "waiting" on God is much like that. God isn't saying,
"I am going to make you wait so that I can accomplish _____ in you."

He is saying,
"If you want ______ this to be accomplished you will have to wait."

God could be saying "No". So I guess what we are asking for may be part of that equation. I believe the end times judgment would be a example on where God won't be rushed. I believe God has a set time. I believe as in acts the apostles did wait on a answer Acts 2:1 and a event where they didn't wait on a answer. Acts 1:24 (I always thought if they waited Saul would have been the Lords answer)

Randy

[Garth Lahana]

To me waiting on God for one part, is something He does to help us love Him more. Something we get quickly is often tossed aside for something else, but something you wait on, often has much more value to you. Who could be more valuable than God? How wonderful it is to wait on the LORD, and the reward is everything and so much more than we could ever imagine.

[Laurie Florence]

While we are waiting, we have two choices. We can either allow the process of waiting to be redemptive and preparatory and transformative or get frustrated, angry and impatient. We will still have to wait, regardless of what the waiting does in us.

This is so true. Sometimes we just have to wait - may as well spend the time getting closer to God and who He calls us to be.

This is a little gem of wisdom I think I'll tuck away in my heart. :)

[Brian Blankenship]

Recently I had a revelation from the Lord. I have always struggled in the pastorate, always thinking this isn't where I am supposed to be. Yet, recently it seems that I realized it was the devil that convinced me of that, and not God.

After four times having my resume's sent out over the last eight years, and no hits(that is realistic hits) from DS's, I realized that God must have a reason for me being here, and I must learn from it, and enjoy it. As a result, God made me realize that I was trying to be something I wasn't, all along, I was trying to be a great preacher, but it kept coming across as beating my people up. The last three weeks, I've switched the way I preach made some apologies, encouraged forgiveness, and forgiven some, all along, I believe a spirit of revival has begun. I think God's have me wait for me, at least, is a process of discovery. I didn't or haven't learned it all at once, but at least for right now, getting rid of alot of baggage the devil laid on me, has enabled me to be an agent of reconciliation in our church. I pray it continues. Brian.