What To Do In The Waiting

Would you rather listen than read? Listen here.

“I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.”

Psalm 16:8 NIV

Waiting For Our House To Sell

Sam and I bought our first house in Texas a little over a year after we were married. It was a cute one-story brick home we lived in for a couple of years. As our daughter got closer to starting kindergarten, the more we realized we needed to think about moving to a different school district. We got our home ready and put on the market. It sat there, and sat there, and sat some more. Despite the high demand for housing after hurricane Rita destroyed homes in 2005, it remained unsold.

A year into the process, we had a contract. We packed up the house, and everything fell through three days before closing. I asked God why more times than I can count. Nine other homes in our small neighborhood had gone on the market and sold and there sat ours. I felt abandoned by God, not understanding why all the other homes would sell. Ours was the most up to date and better priced. It made no sense.

As I unpacked the last box to resettle from the previous contract, and now eighteen months after putting it on the market, our real estate agent called. She began the conversation as she did all of them. “Hey, what are you doing?” I told her I was finishing unpacking. Her response was, “Well, pack it back up. You have a cash offer.” I did not know whether to jump for joy or scream in frustration.

That same day, Sam got a call from a church in Orlando he had been talking with and they offered him a pastoral role at their church. Do you think God had a plan? I could not see it during that process, but that day it all came together. God had saved us from buying another house and losing a lot of money and time from having to sell a second house. It was also the confirmation we needed to accept the new position four states away.

Waiting For A Child

We often question our situation when we feel God is silent. Abraham dealt with this too. In his seventies, God promised him a son. When he reached his nineties, he questioned God’s plan, and he did what many of us do and take the plan into our own hands. Abraham was sure he either misunderstood God or God had changed the plan. Neither had happened, but like many of us, our patience runs thin.

Most of us know how this story turns out. Abraham did what he thought was necessary to make God’s plan work. He had Ishmael with his servant Hagar and chaos entered the family. Then unexpectantly, God unfolded His plan in the way He originally intended. Because Abraham tried to work the situation himself, the strife never left his family, and to this day, these tensions remain in the world.

So many times I have felt God did not move when He should have, only to find out later the plan was much better than I could ever have expected. When our house did not sell quickly, I did everything in my power to make it more attractive. All along, it was not about the house, God needed to use it as confirmation for us to move to Florida.

Waiting Is Part Of The Plan

Sometimes God puts things on our hearts and fulfills them instantly. When He told Mary she would be the mother of Jesus, it happened soon. Other times it is a practice in patience. Abraham had to wait over twenty years for Isaac. Ruth had to wait for Boaz. The Israelites had to wait forty years in the wilderness, and then seventy years in exile. Waiting is part of the plan.

This week in Romans chapter 4, Paul takes us back to the story of Abraham. He uses Abraham as an example to make his point to the Roman church. One of these points is that Abraham had faith. Even though he tried to do things in his own effort, he still had faith. This gives me so much hope.

Even if we try to do things on our own and we mess up if we have the faith to keep moving forward with God, He will make a way. It’s in the waiting, the hard parts of life, that bring us to our knees. It’s in these moments where we seek God on a desperate level and in that seeking, He reveals a little more of who He is to us.

In The Waiting

As I have mentioned, I’m taking a class on investing, and I have quickly learned there are days the stock market does nothing. The leader of the class says these are the days to be patient. Take this time not to try to make things happen, but to learn more. Read a book, look at trends and patterns, do something that will enhance your skills while you wait for it to turn around.

This is much like our faith. When we are waiting, we can fret about it and try to fix things in our own power, or we can take the time to know more about the character of God. We can spend time in the Word, more time in prayer, and more time seeking His will. I have learned more in the waiting than I ever have when things are going smoothly.

If you are waiting now, I pray you feel God’s holy presence with you. I encourage you to spend time with Him. As Hebrews 12:2 says, keep your eyes focused on Him, the perfector of your faith.

“Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him; and now He is seated beside God on the throne, a place of honor.”

Hebrews 12:2 The Voice