"Waiting is the hardest part"

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/1e8f1059/waiting-is-the...

Tom Petty, theologian?

>What’s the reason some seasons seem so long, days marked with uncertainty?

>What’s the reason God's timing seems to take forever? You know He has called you to a task, but it feels like he forgot about you.

>What’s the reason God redeemed you, showed you the way, then seems to have left you in the desert?

>And what’s the reason Jesus Christ stepped directly into Paul’s path, then led him into darkness, then troubles, then silence …hmmm.

Here is what I know:

For the children of God, there is the bigger story - the whole story.

For the children of God, he always has a plan.

For the children of God, he never falls asleep.

For the children of God, he never leaves them to their own devices.

For the children of God, any season of waiting is always purposed for our good.

Maybe you’re in the season of ‘not now’, ‘just wait’, ‘it will soon be better’ or ‘keep your eyes on Me…I am all you need’. Sometimes waiting is difficult but one day, twill all be clear--if not before, when we see Jesus face to face.

Think of it - Jesus deliberately pursued Saul for a big purpose, but then---seemed to throw one curveball after another.  His was a radical turnabout and though he was told he would face great suffering for the name of Jesus, he pursued Christ all the harder!   It is as though a door was cracked open, Saul got a glimpse of all of the hard times he was going to face - and knew he had a choice: go back from whence he came or continue on, accepting that not much was ever going to be easy again.  

This is quite a thought for me.  So convinced of the truth of the life and love of his Jesus Christ, Saul left the known for the unknown. He left his beloved Judaism and Torah law, became an outcast among his Pharisaic friends and family, all to have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, a certain future with God forever.

Without looking a little closer, we could think that Saul was saved one day, and after three quiet days in Damascus, started preaching and had a vibrant ministry.  We would be wrong.

Remember that from Acts 9 we read that Saul spent time with the followers of Jesus in Damascus and preached in their synagogues. But then, .

after many days had gone by . . . ¹ How many days?  

We learn from his letter to the church at Galatia that ‘many days’ amounted to about three years!  From chapter 1, Paul recounts “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.  I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 

Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem…²

So after his dramatic conversion, Saul was sidelined in the desert for three years. Then following Arabia, Saul went back to his hometown, Tarsus, for almost a decade before God activates him for ministry.  Hmmm… a time of waiting, learning, trusting…

From the time Saul knew and accepted the truth about Jesus, he learned about living life to honor him, accepting and walking in his grace, as opposed to keeping Torah law, endeavoring to uphold 613 points of law. In blindness and in silence, Saul knew whatever God permitted in his life, including waiting, was for a reason - to grow him in the ways God purposed.

In the waiting

In the time of trial

In the uncertainty, let's make it our daily purpose to live well before God . . .

In attitude, in thought, in word, and in deed ~ even when there are things and situations I do not understand, even when the wait is long. 

Maybe Tom Petty was right—waiting is the hardest part. “Every day you see one more card--you take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part.”♪3 Waiting has always been part of the life of the faithful, and God uses it mightily to turn us to him.

Lately, I have found myself asking 'how long, O Lord, until you answer my prayer for my loved one?' And as always, I take solace from Scripture--in this case, written by John, "This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him."4

^{And so I wait . . . and I trust . . . and smile.}

A song for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDIOV93t3iM&list=RDaDIOV93t3iM&a...

Eyes cast upward,

Christine - PastorWoman.net

Acts, no. 27

1 - Acts 9.23a

2 - Galatians 1.13-18a

3 - "Waiting is the Hardest Part" song by Tom Petty

4 - 1 John 5.14-15, CSB