In "other" Words - Waiting

I am hosting IOW today and have selected the following quote for this week. Would love to read your posts and comments on this topic.

Learning to wait on God's timing - and having the patience to follow his lead rather than running ahead of him - is essential for those who are committed to seeing their faith journey through to the end. God seldom rushes things along. Getting used to his pace will help you in the long run.

~Marcia Ford - Essentials for Life for Women~

Not many of us like to wait but we find ourselves doing it often. Did you know that if you lived on St. Paul Island in Alaska and got the urge for pizza it would take three days for the pizza to arrive?????

We wait for traffic lights to turn green......
We wait for trains to pass by...
We wait for the bank line and the grocery line to move...
We wait for the toast to pop up and the water to boil.....
We wait for the movie and the ball game to start....
We wait for phone calls and we wait for people to show up.....
We wait for planes to arrive.....
We wait for our turn in the doctor's offices, dentists offices, beauty salons and nail salons.....
We wait for our next day off work........
We wait for that next special time when our family can spend the entire day together but........
We oftentimes have difficulty waiting on God.............

Nearly 6000 years ago there was a great man of faith called Noah. He lived in a time of tremendous turmoil and confusion. From the lives of Adam and Eve, mankind had quickly fallen to the corrupted world of immorality that Noah lived in. Things had become so bad that God actually regretted that He had created man. Genesis 6:5-6 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."

Living in a world of corruption had its toll upon those who considered themselves religious also. Little by little, day by day, their religious beliefs were compromised, their faithfulness to serve Christ became weaker and weaker, their lives for God was replaced by a love for the things of the world. Sounds like the day we are living in doesn't it?

Noah heard from God and began to construct a massive ark. While Noah built this ship, God also instructed him to begin to preach to those around him that the flood was coming. For 120 years Noah built, Noah preached and people laughed and not one single convert. No one had time for this "crazy old prophet". It had never rained before and there had never been a flood.

It would have been much easier on Noah and his family if he had been able to keep all this building stuff hidden. But it is difficult to hide the fact that you're building something when that something is 1 1/2 football fields long, a football field wide and the equivalent height of a 4-story building. Noah had no choice but to make his faith public.

Noah persevered - working and preaching - being faithful to the call God had upon his life. Crowds would gather to make fun of him as they watched Noah and his family build this ship. People refused to accept God's plan, as a result, not one of them, except for the 8 people in Noah's family who obeyed God and built the ark, survived the judgment of God.

Noah was one of the greatest men of the Bible. His life is certainly a measuring stick for all of us to see how we are doing in our walk with the Lord. His life was one of faith, righteousness and endurance.

In order for you and I to persevere and endure the hardships of this life we must trust God in all circumstances. Trusting Him means we believe in that which we cannot see and often times may not understand. Trusting God means that we must admit that we are not in control of our lives. Nothing that we experience in this life is beyond God. As Christians we must learn to rely on God in every situation. There will be times in our lives when things just don't make sense in human terms. The more senseless life becomes the greater our need to trust in God. And there will be times when God will expect us to wait.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Life is sometimes beyond us. Disasters strike and tragedies happen in our lives. Life can indeed be incredibly difficult. Life can be uncertain and beyond our understanding. Often times we are left with unanswered questions.

The writer of Proverbs states it simply and clearly that God wants our full and complete trust. Trust God with all your heart. We must hold nothing back and surrender to Him all that we are, all that we have, all that we may become because without the presence and guidance of God we will go nowhere.

Even when we don't understand God wants us to trust Him. When life just doesn't make sense God wants us to follow Him. When the future seems uncertain God is asking for us to look to Him. God will give us the power of His direction and the power of His presence.

Waiting on God requires Trusting Him, Listening for God's Voice and Waiting for His Timing. Noah waited through trials. " In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month - on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. Genesis 7:11-12

Noah waited and waited and finally the floods came. It would have certainly been easy to quit building the ark when each day Noah experienced ridicule from everyone as he continued to press forward for the Lord. It must have felt at times like an endless journey but Noah never gave up. His faith and trust was completely in God.

Noah waited through uncertainty as the waters came. How horrible it must have been for Noah and his family to hear people pounding on the sides of the ark as the rains came. Noah had exercised a powerful life by waiting upon the Lord and placing his trust and faith in the Lord.

Walking a life of faith as a Christian requires exercising faith and trust in Jesus Christ. The rains will come but our Lord and Savior will prevail. Perseverance is required from each of us as we turn to Jesus for direction in our lives. We must learn to wait and not be anxious. God sees the big picture. We are only capable of seeing the moment.

Waiting builds character in us. As we wait on the Lord He is refining us, designing us into who He desires so we are able to accomplish His will in our lives. We should actually welcome "waiting" from God because with it comes great things for our future.

Blessings to each of you as you "wait" upon the Lord!