None of us are very good at waiting! I think I have gotten a little better as I have matured, but I would have to confess that is not one of my strong points yet! I have embarrassed myself in the past (I am thinking of several situations as I write this) from my lack of patience. At other times, I have probably offended people because I was unwilling to wait any longer. And then there are those times where my hasty decisions (because I was unwilling to wait) have cost me dearly. Can anybody else relate to this?

Patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is also the first manifestation mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 — the chapter on love — God’s agape (unconditional) love. I am convicted every time I read those verses.

Specifically, I want to address the area of waiting on God. He has made many general promises to every believer and most of us feel like we have had the Lord speak some very specific promises to us individually. As you know, they don’t always or even usually happen in the time we were hoping for. Some seemed to be delayed for too long and we give up on them ever being fulfilled or we have actually forgotten that we had that promise made to us.

There are many examples in the scriptures of different ones who had to wait a long time to see the fulfillment of that which God had promised. Joseph waited 15 years. Abraham waited 25 years. Moses waited 40 years. If God is making you wait, you’re in very good company!

I think there are several keys to staying in a place of peace while waiting on the Lord. We must realize that God alone can see the overall picture and therefore knows and understands a lot better than us, the perfect time for His promise to be fulfilled. Did you know there are more than 300 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus — from His miraculous birth, to where He would live (including His sojourn into Egypt, His death and circumstances surrounding it? Can you imagine what the odds are for that to happen, even if it was not the Son of God and surrounded by miracles? So many circumstances had to line up, over and over again, for this event to happen precisely in the way and at the time that it did. In reality, that is true with the other Bible characters mentioned as well as in our own lives.

Another key to waiting on God’s promises is to contend for them. Now, that sounds like I am saying the exact opposite of what I just stated above! I really believe that there are promises that truly were from the Lord that never come to pass because we did not continue to remind ourselves about the promise and stay in a place of faith. The cannon of scripture has been closed for many years. Those promises are well documented throughout the Word of God. When we see all the things that had to take place in order for some of these promises to take place, we know that only God could have arranged and foreseen how to make things work out the way they did.

All of God’s promises are yes and amen, so why do somethings never seem to happen? It could be that you did not hear clearly from Him to begin with, but were just wishing for or being presumptuous concerning a particular desire. A lack of understanding God’s nature and character, and His ways could cause you to think something was God’s will, but was not actually God’s highest and best for you.

But when the promise lines up to the Word of God and you are contending for that promise, you can “take it to the bank!” It will happen in God’s perfect timing. Joseph’s life is one that I have studied quite a bit over the last few years. He was probably only a young teenager when he had the two dreams, but in order for the Lord to get him not only to the place (Egypt) but also with the character he would need for the job, he was in an intensive learning process for many years. Never do we hear of him complaining or questioning God, but he had one disappointment after another and I am sure he became discouraged each time he seemed to go backwards (the pit, slavery, the dungeon). And yet, seven years prior to the greatest famine this world had probably ever seen, the Lord had him in position to take over the plans God gave him to save not only his family but probably much of the civilized world.

I keep a notebook (and have for many, many years) that is specifically “words” that I feel like the Lord has spoken to me personally, or they are words that seem like they are timely for what is going on in the world (of which I am still a part of!) and which I want to be aware of (reminding myself by having it written down). At the beginning of every year, many people seek the Lord for personal words and direction for their lives and sometimes post words they feel like may be for others in the body of Christ.

I am in a new season of my life, so I am reviewing those words, thanking the Lord for the ones He has already fulfilled and contending for promises that have yet to be fully realized. There are many prognosticators right now — some proclaiming gloom and doom for our nation and the world, some believing what the Word says — that the glory of the Lord is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea! I, for one, am contending for His Glory — in my own life as well as it manifesting throughout the earth. What is His glory? When Moses asked to “see” His glory, the Lord allowed all of His goodness (His mercy, grace, longsuffering, truth and forgiveness) to pass before him. That is the God I serve and love. Yes, He is also righteous and just, and He will judge sin and transgression — but the purpose of even that, is so that His love can come forth. “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal life.” Place your focus on God, not the adverse circumstances (of which there are plenty). Pray for His glory to come, in your own life, here in Thomasville, and throughout the earth! Our world desperately needs to see a true demonstration of those who carry this glory and I want to be one of them.