While we wait ...

"But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." - James 1: 4

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how you act while you're waiting." - Joyce Meyer.

There are things in our lives that we are hoping on God for. When the Bible talks of waiting patiently for God, the idea most of us have is that of waiting at the bus stop of life twiddling our thumbs hoping that God does his "magic". That gives us an out and lets us off the hook with regard to taking responsibility for our lives. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Patience in the context of the Bible has nothing to do whatsoever with being idle. Even as we wait for God for certain things that our out of our hands which only he can provide, there are things we need to do. Reading and meditating on the word as revealed in the Bible is one of the things we need to do while waiting patiently. Through the word, we build up our faith and our trust in God. Through the word we gain insight and receive revelation on what to do. Through the word, we find inspiration for living one day at a time.

Prayer is one of the things we need to continue to do in the time of of waiting. Going to sleep will not bring what we are trusting God for any faster. Neither will worrying about it. Prayer will help to build our faith and hope that what we are hoping for will come. In prayer, we receive direction. Through prayer we might even find out the solution to that problem we are waiting on God to "supernaturally" solve.

Another thing we need to do while waiting is to act in faith. The Bible at James 2:20 reminds us "that faith without works is dead." When we are believing on God for something, there are corresponding actions we need to take to show God that we are ready for what we believe he is about to do. Using myself as an example, I believe that God has called me not only to be a lawyer and do justice, but he has also called me to write books. From following people like Michael Hyatt the Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers on Twitter, I have come to understand that getting published is not all cut and dried as I would like it to be. While I have written a novel, I don't know whether someone will think it's good enough to represent as a literary agent let alone publish. I have sent proposals out and I have already received two rejections. (It seems there is an opinion that unless you have been rejected many times, you're not really a writer yet). I have told myself that because of what I believe, I am not going to let a rejection stop me. I am going to keep sending proposals out because I believe that someone will have faith enough in my work to represent me. I have also told myself that I am going to keep writing novels, in the hope that I'll get better at it and I might just write something someone wants to represent. That is my act of faith by my works.

What else do you think one needs to do while waiting patiently?

"What Do You See?"

We all remember the story of the man in the Bible who was taken to see Jesus in Mark 8 vs. 22-26. When he met with Jesus, he was led out of the town by the Master. At the outskirts of the town, Jesus spat on his eyes and laid his eyes on the man. He then asked him if he could see anything. The man then gave the famous answer of "I see men as tress, walking." Jesus laid hands on the man again and his sight was fully restored.

There are quite a few things in that passage. The first was that for most people when Jesus met them they got healed immediately or delivered instantaneously. Yet here was a man who was walking with Jesus in the full glare of people and yet wasn't healed. Walking with Jesus doesn't guarantee that all will be fine and dandy. Anyone who says that is a liar. We will have our own share of troubles.


The second thing was that when Jesus asked the man if he could see, the man had a choice of trying to gloss things over or be pessimistic. He could have complained that he wasn't seeing well. We don't know how long he was blind or what caused it. However we do know he had an expectation of Jesus which was why he came to him. He could have expressed disappointment at the fact that he couldn't see well. "Is that all you can do?" might have been a valid question. But there are two things here. The man acknowledged that he could see but he also made it known all was not well yet. 


While we wait on God for something, the situation might not change at once. The change might be incremental. But we need to stop and thank God for the incremental changes even as we keep trusting and asking him for the total deliverance we are looking for.

 

Hope In God, Not Gold

"If I have made gold my hope, or have said to fine gold, Thou art my confidence; .....for I should have denied  the God that is above." Job 31:24-28

I have read a lot of John Grisham novels and one thread runs though most of them. There is this young struggling lawyer who wants to make partner at the law firm he works at. He therefore is ready to work 18 hours a day for 10 years or more just because he thinks that more money will solve their problems. Putting our trust in money, accomplishments and material possessions is tantamount to denying the existence of a powerful, loving God.

The global financial crisis has highlighted the fact that money can fail and will fail. There have been many who have put their trust in money and have found out that money cannot save. Money cannot save because it does not have the power to do that. Most people realise that money even makes you miserable. People are meant to have money to meet needs. When money has you, you end up being miserable.

The only one who we need to put our trust in is God. He alone cannot fail. Money was designed to fail. It has failed before and will continue to do so. But God has never failed. Put your trust in him. He wants to do great things in your life. Put your trust in him and he will come through.

What's Your Label?

"For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." 2 Cor 10:12


We have a tendency of looking at other people and asking ourselves and God why we aren't like so and so person. We all want someone else's life. We refuse to take into account the fact that the course of life we have been called to run and our purpose is different from the other person's own. We do not know what cross the person has been called to bear, we only see the "glory". To paraphrase the joke, "The grass is always greener on the other side, but you need to see the guy's water bill."

We also tend to compare ourselves with others based on the labels we put on ourselves or allow others to place on us. However, if the labels do not conform with the Bible, then they are not valid. I have looked at Bible from cover to cover and I am yet to find where it says that there is a "conservative" Christian and a "liberal" Christian. The fact is that you're either a Christian or not. As the famous quote goes: “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”

Comparing ourselves with others mostly causes us pain. We most often come out worse from comparing ourselves with others leaving us feeling depressed. We therefore need to stop comparing ourselves with others whether they are friends, colleagues or siblings. We should be concerned about our own race, not theirs. In the end, we will give account of our own life and not theirs.

We should also not allow others to do the comparing no matter how much we respect them. Life is too short to be worrying about what the other person has and we don't. We should live our lives grateful for the things we do have knowing that God will provide what we need. If the things we think we lack are the things we need, God will give them to us in the course of time.


   

Quit Whining!!!

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

A soldier whether in days gone by or in the times we live in, is one who is trained to endure tough conditions. A soldier is trained to be able to survive extremes in weather, a hostile environment or whatever condition he faces. A soldier is not a whiner. A soldier does whatever is necessary to survive. He carries whatever he needs with him and even if he loses it, he is trained to forage for whatever he needs to survive.

The Bible is full of reminders that as long as we call ourselves Christians, we have been enlisted into God's army and are therefore soldiers. We however seem to have forgotten that or we seem not to be too interested in being soldiers. When adverse situations come our way, all we seem to want to do is curl up and cry and moan. We also seem all to ready to look for someone to blame when things go wrong.

Paul was speaking to Timothy and he told him to endure hardness. Hardness there is synonymous with suffering, persecution, criticism, hate; you name it. Because we are not of this world people will not always agree with the things we believe. And because we live in a fallen world, bad things will happen. Our response should not be moaning and looking for who's to blame. Our response should be that of the resourceful soldier. Take the hit but get the wound cleaned, learn from the situation and then move on. Or else we will be stuck in one spot moaning about how hard and bad life is instead of moving on to fulfil the purpose God has for our lives. Life is too short to be fixated on perceived wrongs.