Today, I'm so excited to present a post by Pamela at Songs on the Way. I love Pamela's blog and reading how God is working in her life. A few weeks ago, I asked for guest posters for November to keep OTMA up and running while I was working on Nanowrimo... Pamela was so kind and gracious to say she'd guest post for me :)
You will be blessed by what God (through Pamela) has to say...
************** God’s so cool. Kelly was kind enough to ask me to do a guest post for her, for sometime in November. Considering November is almost over, you might think what took me so long? Well, I’ve been asking myself the same question. Part of it was normal procrastination, but I sat down to write many times and for whatever reason, struggled.
Just a few days ago I told myself that for sure, no doubt, I’d write. And I sat, and I wrote… and I just didn’t feel right about it. It wasn’t that God wasn’t with me, it was just I could tell I wouldn’t be able to write anything to completion with Him.
Now I know why. Now I know God wanted me to write not on unity, the topic I’d thought I’d write on, or passions, which was another possibility, or struggling through spiritual dark places, the third one I’d considered.
God wanted me to talk to you about waiting on Him.
We all wait. All of us are in a period of waiting at some times or another. Some of us wait more than others. Of those who wait more, some wait by choice and others by necessity.
When I say ‘wait by choice’, what I mean is not saying ‘Eh, I’d rather wait.’ Well, not usually. Waiting is mainly not pleasant, so it’s few and far between we take that attitude. By waiting by choice I mean that we say, as Christ’s followers: I choose to wait on you, God. Admittedly, sometimes that’s our only choice. But we can still take a deliberate attitude about it. It’s a form of surrendering to Him, which we should all strive to do in all circumstances.
Waiting is hard, hard work. Anyone who doesn’t realize that is probably not able to handle it. Look at the world around us; it’s non-stop hustle and bustle. It’s in waiting on God that the biggest part of our transformation takes place. I think about the blacksmith. He holds the iron in the fire and waits for it to heat up before he whacks it with his hammer. The iron is waiting in fire for longer than the action takes place. From the outside, that waiting may seem like inaction. But its molecules are having the heat of the fire transferred to it, so that when the hammer strikes come BAM, the metal yields and is shaped. Waiting enables transformation, but often while we seem to hold the same shape. So even though while we’re held, still, in the poignant agony of waiting, we might seem lazy or our plight easy, we know its pain, but more than that if we trust in the blacksmith’s skill, we know the necessity.
Hammering cool iron won’t yield anything useful, just dent a little. When we refuse to wait on the Lord, but ask Him to use us, we entirely limit our usefulness to Him. Maybe he can use as a doorstop or a paperweight, but we’re unlikely to be satisfied or even that useful in that capacity. I see so many Christians who try so hard to do for God, they forget to be before Him.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying God doesn’t use the busy. But there’s the busy who are busy because they can’t wait and be still, and those who are busy because they already waited, they were still, and they are now carrying out action with the confidence that comes from the work of the Lord.
Remember that the blacksmith turns lumps of iron into useful tools. God wants to shape us, skillfully, into tools He can use for His divine purposes. Also, remember every tool has a different purpose. Often we look around at other Christians and mimic them instead of asking God about how He’d like use us, or listen to His directions. If you’re a hammer trying to be a scalpel, you’re probably doing more harm than good!
Admittedly, while I think this is a pretty good metaphor, the one God uses in the Bible is Him as a potter, not a blacksmith. Did you know that you have to let a pot dry before you can fire it in a kiln? If you try to fire it while it’s too wet, bad things could happen (like it could explode). Obviously, a drying pot would be seen as useless or even taking up useful space, but you have to let them dry.
And then, let’s say you’ve been fired. And you’re like ‘Yes! I waited to dry, I endured the fire. Now it’s time for me to go. I see all the other pots being used now… but here I sit on the workspace. Why am I waiting?”
If you’re using a pot as a pencil holder, for instance, you don’t need to glaze it unless you just want it glazed. But if you plan on using it to put food in, you have to glaze it. Which means, after the first firing, you glaze it again, and into the kiln it goes for a second time. But some pots, after waiting the first time, rush off to be useful, not realizing they’re limiting the work they can accomplish.
What if a teapot rushes off before He attaches the spout? Or a pitcher without a handle?
I thoroughly believe God’s got an intricate plan for each of our lives. He knows the inner workings of your heart and being, as He crafted them. He knows the shape and depth of our wounds and scars, and how to bring beauty and glory from them. He understands our deep desires and passions and what to do with them, if we’d surrender them to Him.
Trust God. Trust Him not only to work on you, but to how to communicate with you. A huge ‘aha!’ moment in my faith journey was when I realized that if God wants to communicate with me, He will, so long as I’m inclining my ear in His direction and waiting on His reply. Before that my whine was “I believe God can talk to me… I just don’t trust myself to hear Him!” and I spent a lot of time fearing I was missing His direction.
But then it hit me: He made me. If a whisper would be too small for me to hear, and I’m actually seeking Him, then He’ll yell at me. He loves when we seek Him, and knows our failings and weaknesses, and will make up for them. Then I realized that as long as I make myself available to listen, He will let me know what He wants… and guess what?
He does! And if I pay attention, even when He’s silent, there’s usually a poignant reason for it. A lot of times I only realize what’s going on in hindsight, and I know from many examples (such as Job) that sometimes God never reveals His purpose, but He still usually is clear in His guidance. He promised to be a light onto our feet, and we can trust Him in His promises.
Kelly knows part of what prompted this waiting post. I just got a job… after nineteen and a half months of unemployment! But that’s not even the only answer to waiting that’s happened this week. I’ve been waiting for a ride to church for three months, and I finally got one this week.
But most of my waiting has been less obvious, and is more subtle. And I know perfectly well that everyone of you out there has known periods of waiting. Trust God to tell you if a situation needs to await His timing, or if it’s time for action. Actually, this last couple of months has been a time of major action for me, because once He confirmed some direction to me, I’ve been taking a lot of action towards what He’s obviously planned for me. Because while this post is about waiting, action is also a part of walking in His way!
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Please visit Pamela's wonderful blog, Songs on the Way.
Much Love, Kelly