Waiting STINKS!

If a tree fell in the woods and no one was there to hear it would it make a sound?

When you close the refrigerator door does the light really turn off?

Can a thousand angels really fit onto the head of a pin?

WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE GOD IS HE STILL THERE?

Does my life still have meaning?

Does Jesus still Love me?

Does God even know I’m still here?

There is no part of the Christian walk harder to endure than when the voice of God has said wait... and these many years later you are still waiting… and waiting… and waiting?

Throughout history God has told his people to wait and watch Him work. Abraham received some pretty clear instructions from God. But unless there were more encounters than those mentioned in the Bible, there were some pretty big gaps from one moment of clarity and instruction to the next.

And many times God made His people wait until the very last second, when all hope was lost except His… God always shows up in the nick of time. When He first led the Israelites out of Egypt, they were hemmed in by the desert on one side, the Red Sea on another and the Egyptian army advancing upon them from another.

Exodus 14:13-14 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

The Bible says that God moved between the Israelites and the advancing Egyptian army and then parted the Red Sea so they could escape… it is one of the many marvelous stories in the Bible of God showing up on behalf of His people, in just the nick of time. And even in my own life God has moved so powerfully and in such obvious ways that there can be no denying His existence or His love for me and my family… but what do you do when He becomes silent and says:

“Be still and know that I am God”…even while the locusts are still eating and eating and eating?

Elijah became so depressed after defeating Baal’s prophets that he wanted to die, Job cursed the day he was born, David spent years in hiding waiting for God to make him King, Joseph spent years waiting for God to complete his life… and on and on. And not everyone received their reward while on this earth, Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet and he died while Israel was still in captivity, Paul and many of the other apostles lived a brutal life by any standard.

To put it bluntly… WAITING STINKS!

But, like Job said; “Though He slay me yet will I serve Him”.

This is, and will continue to be my mantra. I just wish I could sometimes get a little peek underneath the curtain, or hear His voice (literally) telling me how much longer or what comes next…

But when I think about it, for those that I have read about in the Bible who could see and hear Him more clearly than I, didn’t fair very well at the hands of those around them.

So maybe it is better to just sit blindly in the cold silence and wait for further instructions.