Waiting
“As
I wait upon the Lord I grow stronger. As
I wait upon the Lord I grow stronger. As
I wait upon the Lord I grow stronger, every day. I’m gonna fly like an eagle. I’m gonna fly like an eagle. I’m gonna fly like an eagle, every day!”
These are the words of my favorite praise song with
a youtube link to it. It seems to be the
song that soothes me the most and gives me the strength to carry on.
I don’t wait well.
I grumble when I have to wait in line at the grocery store. I complain when I have to wait in
traffic. I have to be ahead of all the other
cars on the highway. I hate sitting in
the waiting room of a doctor’s office for more than five minutes.
Waiting has been the most difficult task I’ve had to
learn on my journey to fulfill my God-given purpose. (I’ve certainly been tested on it, of course.) I’m a “make things happen” kind of person
(like right now!). I’ve gotten ahead of
God a few times thinking I knew the way to go.
I only got lost and had to start over, and so I’ve learned to wait. Waiting can make me weary. The more spiritually mature I become, the
more God seems to make me wait.
Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the
weak. Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like
eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
The eagle has been a prominent symbol in my
life. My husband, Rick, flew the F-15 Eagle
during his Air Force Career. He retired
as a colonel – represented by eagle’s wings on his shoulders. The eagle is also the symbol for our ministry
logo.
The eagle represents strength with the ability to
soar no matter what. When I’m stuck in a
rut, impatient with circumstances, I sing my favorite praise song. I visualize flying above the world like an
eagle. God made us to live in this world
but not to be “of” it. We should be able
to rise above the worldly issues that are always going to be present in
some form or other. (Nowhere in the
Bible does it say our life on Earth will be easy.)
Pastor Brosher spoke on waiting at church this past
Sunday and also talked about the eagle. (I love it when God carries on a theme
to confirm what I should say or write about.)
He said that the eagle doesn’t resist the storm; he flies above it.
We often get too wrapped up in the storm, fighting
it all the way. We live it, we eat it, and
we breathe it. We forget to realize that
it’s part of our walk on the earth. We
should deal with it by turning to God for help and by keeping it separate from
our daily living, not succumbing to its power by allowing it to seep into all
we say and do.
The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty
years. It should have been an eleven day
trip. How often do we wander and wait because we lose our
focus on God? We fixate on the problem until it consumes us,
and we wander ahead of God to try to solve it, losing our way.
Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he
trusts in You.”
God allows us to go through trials so that we will turn
our eyes to Him for help. When all is
well we tend to ignore Him. The only way
to get through the storms without driving yourself crazy is to stay focused on
God. Keep your mind steadfast on
Him - not just on Sundays or Wednesday
nights – every moment of every day.
Whatever storm you are going through, even in your
own marriage, take the time to look at what God is trying to teach you. Life is a big school we attend where we will
learn lessons until the day we die.
Maybe you need to look inward at what changes need to be made in your life and not outward at changes you think someone else should make. Once you change your thinking or attitude,
the other person causing you grief may not seem like such a problem anymore. In fact, they may notice the changes in you
and realize they need to improve their part in the relationship.
You may have to wait awhile, though, to see those changes
come to life. That’s the time to rise up
on those eagles’ wings and bask in the peace of God. It sure beats waiting in the pity pot of the
world.
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