Waiting

"O Lord, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning. Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I will never pray to anyone but you. Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:1-3, NLT)."

Faith is having hope in God's movement in our lives. Faith is a trust that goes beyond the limits of my mind and transcends to an eternal expectation of movement from the hand of our Creator. We talk about faith because we are in a faith relationship through Jesus Christ with God. We use the word faith with regularity that sometimes we forget that with faith comes waiting.

I believe that when I give a situation over to God that He has begun to move in that situation the moment that I handed it over to Him. Faith is trust! The problem we have with faith is that we want God to move within a time frame that we feel would be most beneficial to us, others, or our situation. This is the most difficult part of our life of faith with God. We forget that God is infinite (unlimited) and we are finite (limited). Since God sees the big picture I have a trust in Him that He will answer my prayer and move in my situation in a way that He deems to be the very best. Knowing that should bring me more comfort, but it does not always work like that. I become frustrated and wonder what God is doing while I am still in my discomfort or turmoil. I begin to question if my faith is really big enough. I start to wonder if there is something amiss in my life that is holding God's blessing back from my life pertaining to the request that I keep making everyday.

Through much reflection and more time in prayer I begin to realize that I am a servant of God. I start to realize that He is not waiting to meet my every demand, request, or concern. I begin to realize that He loves me and is concerned for every aspect of my life and I remind myself that He is moving, but in a way that I cannot always understand and sometimes do not always appreciate. He is LORD! He knows what is needed and His timing is always perfect. I realize that I will never fully understand prayer and faith this side of Heaven and I accept that what I want for the moment is only relief, desire, or comfort.

As a Christian I have learned that I must resolve within myself to live a life by faith as Christ has called me to. That means that I trust God for the outcome of everything that I put in His hand regardless of what happens. I am praying with tears sometimes for a situation that is frustrating for some people I know, but I believe God is moving in His way and in His time. To continue to pray for this situation and not see the results that everyone is praying for is frustrating, but I believe by faith that God's purpose is much bigger than my personal desires. Waiting is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian life, but it is a normal process that we all go through.