One
of the hardest things for me to do is wait for God to reveal the next step to
me. I don’t need to know all of the details, but I would like to know the general
direction. Throughout my life, there have been several times when I have felt
like I was in spiritual limbo. I sensed that God was preparing to do something
in my life, but I had no idea what it was. At those times, I find myself
speculating about what God might have in store for me. I even start making plans
for how I will proceed. Then I get frustrated and upset when my plans don’t
become a reality.
At
the beginning of every year it is customary to peer into the cloudy future and
think about what might be and what we would like to be. This is not wrong. It
is important for us to be intentional about facing the future. It causes us to
evaluate where we have been and where we would like to go. If we have no idea
of where we want to end up, or what we want to accomplish in the new year, we
will just repeat what has happened in the past. We will coast along in our
comfortable, undemanding routine. In fact, we can become so dulled by routine,
that we can just go through the motions without really engaging life, as God
would have us do. So we make plans. We dream dreams. We make bucket lists.
Here
comes the hard part for me. I want my life to be in line with God’s plan, but I
am impatient for God to reveal it. So I tend to mentally run ahead. As I
struggle with discerning God’s next steps for me, there are three things that I
must always keep in mind.
God’s
plans will always prevail in the end. We can make many plans, and even act upon
them. But many of those plans will never truly be fruitful, if they do not
align with God’s plans for our lives. Solomon understood this very well. Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it
is the Lord's purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21) It is not wrong for
us to make plans, but we must always remember our plans are secondary to God’s
plans.
God
wants what is best for me. Sometimes we can begin to believe that God is
holding out on us. We set our hearts on something and then it doesn’t happen.
We feel that God is being cruel, or that He doesn’t really care. But that is
just not true. The Bible continually reassures us that God is for us, not
against us. Like a loving Father, He desires our very best, even if that means
saying no at times. David assured us that if we will align our hearts with the
heart of God that He will fulfill our desires. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your
heart. Psalm 37:4
As
hard as it is, we need to patiently wait for the Lord. We are usually in a
hurry. Our whole environment fosters an attitude of immediate gratification.
But God is not bound by our sense of the urgent. God’s timing is always
perfect. We need to patiently wait for Him. Waiting does not mean we do
nothing. Biblical waiting is actively pursuing what we already know to do;
being faithful to what God has called us to do. We are to be like the faithful
servant, who the master found doing his work when the master returned from a
long absence. So we are called to watch and wait. I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait
for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14
I
don’t know what this new year will bring. I have my own set of hopes and
dreams, but I must learn to wait for the Lord. As James says, if we humble
ourselves before the Lord, He will lift us up in due time.
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