Recently, when
people ask about the adoption update I answer with a canned statement, “just
waiting to pass court in the Congo”, but that is not really a full answer or
even a good answer. I am not “just
waiting”. I am learning lessons
from the Lord while I learn to wait well in Him.
I realized at
the beginning of this adoption that the waiting, the still part that would seem
like stagnant water, would be the most important part of this adoption
process. The Lord showed me early
on that this “waiting” period would be the period of formation, stretching and
growth. Having been through two
pregnancies I remember the feeling of wanting to jump to the end, to just “have
the baby already”. 9 months seems
long when you are waiting on that baby, especially month 9. But, it is in those months that
formation, stretching and growth occur, that life is formed and birthed within
your womb. It is the same process
now, it just looks a little bit different. I may not be carrying this baby in my womb,
but I know this waiting is bringing forth life from the womb of my spirit.
The Lord asked
me to learn how to wait. How to
sit in silence and find Him there.
He told me to relish in this long waiting, this time that stretches
without knowledge of it’s ending.
This waiting is just as important as the getting. In this wait I find the gift. The
gift of growth that comes with living life with the Lord instead of against
Him.
The gift is
endless in lessons of Trust, Patience, Stillness, Resting, Praying, Counting it
all Joy, Confessing and Silence.
To enter into this waiting period with the Lord is to understand that
every part of this life is good. I
do not need to expect the fruit from the tree the moment I plant the seed in
the ground. I will take joy in the
growth process, to see life sprout from the seed and the beauty that is in the
seasons before it yields true fruit.
To appreciate the time I have been given and to see it’s beauty. To not rush and push at the doors of
heaven, but to rest in this plan.
The gift or fruit of waiting is to live this life with the Lord, not
against Him, and for that I am truly thankful to wait.
"Whoever
keeps a fig-tree will have its fruit; and the servant waiting on his master
will be honored." Proverbs 27:18
from Andrew Murray:
ReplyDeleteAt our first entrance into the school of waiting upon God, the heart is mainly set on the blessings which we wait for. God graciously uses our needs and desires for help to educate us for something higher than we were thinking of. We were seeking gifts; He, the Giver, longs to give Himself and to satisfy the soul with His goodness. It is just for this reason that He often withholds the gifts, and that the time of waiting is made so long. He is constantly seeking to win the heart of His child for Himself. He wishes that we would not only say, when He bestows the gift, 'How good is God!' but that long before it comes, and even if it never comes, we should all the time be experiencing: it is good that a man should quietly wait. 'The LORD is good unto them that wait for him.'
What a blessed life the life of waiting then becomes, the continual worship of faith, adoring, and trusting His goodness. As the soul learns its secret, every act or exercise of waiting becomes just a quiet entering into the goodness of God, to let it do its blessed work and satisfy our every need. ...Waiting becomes the habit and disposition, the very second nature and breath of the soul.