March 30 - God’s Waiting Room

God’s Waiting Room

"Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed." Isaiah 49:23

On the road of life, detours signs await all those who truly desire to follow Christ.  No ducking it…going around it…or jumping over it.  It’s a fact of life.  It only takes a short time after knowing Christ to realize that God has a way of putting us in His waiting room.  Everyone He uses greatly will walk this road and you will too. Noah waited 120 years for it to rain.  Abraham waited 99 years for a son.  Moses waited 40 years in the desert.  Jesus waited 30 years for 3 years of ministry.  Joseph waited years in prison.  David was anointed king as a young man but he waited for years to become the actual king of Israel.  However, as Tony Evans says, “And they are always God’s way of saying something good is coming down the pipe.”

Nothing is more common in life than waiting.  We have to wait on everything and yet nothing do we hate more than waiting.  We wait on traffic.  We wait in doctor's offices.  We wait at the restaurant.    There is always a delay when God works in your life.  He gives you a dream but He does not fulfill the dream immediately.  There's always a time lapse, a waiting period, a delay. 

How do you handle the waiting rooms of life?  How you handle them determines your faith.  Waiting is an act of faith.  Time and again in Scriptures, waiting is God’s way of getting you to the right place, at the right time, for the right purposes.  You may not see it at first, but He is always working to that end. Look no further than a few days ago.

In the city of Burbank, which is the home base of the Magic Kingdom, it is a story that Disney writers could have never “imagine-eared.”  Yet it saved the life of a child.   Earlier in the day, Konrad and Jennifer Lightner of Burbank, California, were moving out of their apartment when they strangely got stuck in an elevator. An event that never happens, it took them 30 minutes to be freed seemingly delaying them from their important transport duties including transporting their mattress.  They said if that hadn't happened, they would not have been there at the right moment for what was to come…saving the life of a 3-year old boy. Shortly after being released from the elevator, they were moving their bedspring mattress to their car when they noticed a toddler throwing things out a third story apartment above them. 

But soon, they realized the toddler had now climbed out of the window and was actually hanging out on to what appeared to be a telephone line or a cable line. Realizing the baby could not get back into the window, the couple called 9-1-1, hoping to get help.  But there was no way for assistance to arrive in time.  The Lightners, who were waiting below, acted quickly and placed their mattress directly below little boy expecting the worst which was about to occur.  The baby fell off the ledge plummeting three stories.  But as events would have it,  Konrad caught the child while he was falling safely onto the mattress for the perfect rescue. "It feels like I watched a TV show, like it didn't happen to me," Konrad said. The Lightners were honored by firefighters and continued with their move. "It was very surreal afterwards. We were just moving the rest of day and every once in a while we'd look at each other and just be like, 'That happened. That was real,'" said Jennifer.

The perfect place…the perfect time…the perfect results.  But not because of their timing…but because of God’s.  How do you handle the waiting rooms of life?  How you handle them determines your faith.  Waiting is an act of faith. 

A. W. Tozer wrote the following in his classic book The Pursuit of God. He writes, “A generation of Christians reared among pushbuttons and automatic machines are impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another church meeting. ... The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.”

Repeatedly in Scripture, the Bible tells us that waiting is God’s way of working through us. Isaiah writes, "Those who wait for me shall never be ashamed." Isaiah 49:23 while he adds, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” Isaiah 40:31.  The results are always good:

1.  He wants us to focus on Him.

2.  He wants us to trust in Him.
3.  He wants to change our attitude.
4.  He wants to do something greater

When you stick around during the waiting season, God is up to something good.  You never know what He might drop out of the sky.

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)    Why is waiting so difficult?

2)    Can you recall a time in your life where you waited and God brought something better than you expected?

Consider reading the Word:

 copyright Terry Risser 2014