Psalm 62
I know some of you know me only by name, and others have met me and talked to me, and some of you know a little more about me because you have known me for other things in previous years. No matter how well you know me I just wanted to share with you a little bit about my family's journey to Grace and what I learned in the process.
A little over six years ago the Lord laid on my heart that we were to move to Minnesota from Kansas to live out our faith up there and touch lives he put in our path. It was a hard word to receive at that time and even harder to say yes to and go.
I would like to say that it was all great and fine but that is not the case. There were good things that seemed to be in line with what we thought it would be but there were things that happened and results seen that were not even close to what we thought the move would be. We had hoped that we would have an impact on family and acquaintances up there that would show fruit or transformation of lives but that was not the case. What we did get is signs of hearts softening and a little crack appearing where light had not been able to get through before. We saw God move in some lives and not in others. We built relationships that will last and others that were for a season. But that is the way God works, He draws us in and out of relationships, stages of life, and places in order to shape us, use us, teach and grow us.
About ten months ago God released us to move if we so desired. We were ready to move back to Kansas and here we are.
The move back has had a drastically different feel and progression than did the move to Minnesota. When we moved there we knew that God had directed us to go there for a purpose but the time was undetermined. The move back was a choice that we decided to make after we felt released by God that we had done what He had sent us there to do. So Susan and I decided that’s what we would do, move back to Kansas. We knew that if we wanted to do this with the approval and blessing of God we needed to give it to Him and allow Him to direct it. We chose to claim Proverbs 16:9 “In his heart a man plans his course and the Lord establishes his steps”
When we gave it to God it started a sequence of steps that we had never imagined. Not only did God start setting the steps but he began to teach and grow us.
As we were allowing God to direct and lead us we would tell ourselves that we must wait on God, we need to be still and wait on the Lord, but that was hard to follow. Personally I kept trying to find a job and a house to no avail. I would tell others and myself that I was waiting on the Lord but I would not let Him have it. Everything I pressed in on and pursued just became either a shut door or and or something that fell apart. Then Susan heard that waiting on the Lord was not passive but active. Not active in the sense that we need to knock on doors or run down leads it means that there are set things we should do when we are waiting on the Lord.
I came to realize that I knew these things but they were the things that are so common and were taught so many times throughout my life that they became mundane and pressed to the back of my priority list.
I learned that waiting means a myriad of things.
When we are waiting on the Lord we are to:
-Be still (in our hearts/spirit) and look to Him on high.
-Wait and trust God’s timing.
-Wait and trust God’s goodness.
-Wait by taking the right actions:
-Humble ourselves before God.
-Pray.
-Read. (The Bible and writings of others)
-Be expectant.
-Be patient.
-Be hopeful.
-Wait and learn to be content.
These are all things that I have known but let life get in the way of. They are great for waiting on God but they are also good for everyday life. If you are like me, I am always trying to get ahead of God because I am impatient and like to control my own decisions and direction.
Waiting is hard because I feel like I'm not doing anything. John Piper says that to us waiting is wasting but to God waiting is working.
I am going to try and remember this the next time I am asked to wait on God. I challenge you to wait actively and not passively.
“If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts: for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people.- Charles Spurgeon
Pastor Sean