Tired of waiting…

I woke up this morning feeling tired. Not necessarily physically but mentally. I was moping around my house and trying to snap myself out of it. As I sat down to do my quiet time, I realized that I am tired because it seems that so many things I have been praying for, have yet to see answers. Today all the unanswered prayer requests are on my mind and feel heavy on my heart. These are things I’ve been praying for for weeks, months and years. These are prayers for anything from healing both physically and mentally, salvation of those I love, answers to next steps in my journey with Christ…I was feeling burdened and weary.

If you know me or have read many of my posts you know this isn’t new to me. I have written many times about how much I struggle waiting on God’s timing. I hate waiting. In that struggle, I bounce between faith filled trust in God’s timing and wondering if my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and God has forgotten me. This is a battle I recognize when my frustration level rises for no apparent reason. I’m working to recognize it quickly and respond in faith. Usually, I begin to complain to God about His timing and express my frustration at His apparent lack of response. Then I catch myself. Rather than complain, I have to shift my heart to truth. God can handle all my frustrations so I share that with Him honestly but then as I cry out, I am often reminded of what He has done in the past. Prayers answered and problems solved in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Then, as I see all those answered prayers of the past, I can see how God does hear and answer. But rarely does He do it on my timeline.

I know God hears me because His word tells me He does over and over. (see verses below) God is faithful to hear us and respond to us. He doesn’t always respond with an answer like yes or no immediately. Most often His answer involves a “not yet” response. As I was thinking about this, I remembered the Israelites waited for thousands of years for the promised Messiah to come. They had been told by God and the prophets for 2000+ years that the Messiah would come and rescue them. Remember God told Adam and Eve, One would come from their offspring that will crush the head of the enemy. (Genesis 3:15) Scripture reveals there were a lot of Israelites who complained and wondered if God had forgotten His promise. They waited and prayed for so long. And what’s so interesting? Many of them missed God’s answer when He sent the answer in the person of Jesus. The Israelites, just like we often do, begin to formulate a thought on what it might look like for God to answer their prayers. They thought they understood what the Messiah would look like. What He would do when He came. And how the Messiah would response to their oppressors.

So when the Messiah did come, it didn’t fit the answer they expected to see. Majority of the Jewish people missed the answer they were looking, praying and hoping for. Scripture had been detailed and given them so many prophecies to look at and to double check but because they continually went back to putting the Messiah in a framework of their own making they missed it.

There are two things we can do to stay away from the same problem, missing the answer God gives. I believe our job is to remain soft and ask God to keep our hearts and minds in a place where we can receive the answer that we are waiting for. We need to continually ask God to show us the areas of our hearts and minds where we have limited God. Maybe we have preconceived ideas about how the answer might look. Or we have one way we feel might be best or most comfortable to us. In every area of our lives He wants to do something profound and at many times we can’t even fathom that kind of response.

Secondly, we are told often throughout scripture to continue to praise and give thanksgiving to God for His perfect timing and good plans.  Especially when the timing doesn’t line up with ours. This is not just saying words put to music. This is a focus on the majesty and character of God. When Christ is in us, the Spirit of God also in us, guiding us. He gives us the ability to do things outside of our fleshly nature. Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  John Piper says: But not only is the Spirit the one who personally produces this fruit in believers. He produces it by focusing our minds on spiritual things: those very things which the natural man cannot receive (1 Corinthians 2:14). Specifically, he fills our hearts with joy by focusing our minds, not on joy itself, but on the majesty of God, the beauty of Christ, and the unsearchable riches which are ours in him. This shows that even though we are struggling, we are trusting that God is in control. He is majestic and above all things. He is unsearchable and beyond knowing completely. He never lies. (Hebrews 6:18) Also, He is ultimately good. He gives us gifts that helps us in our everyday life. We know then that if God is good, His timing is perfect and His ways are above our ways then waiting must be part of His good plan even if we don’t see it. As hard as that is to hear, we can trust is word. Praising Him in the waiting, focusing on is goodness and His beauty and majesty is what changes our hearts to be ready for the answer when He is ready to reveal it. Romans 2:12 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (See more verses below)

My hearts desire is to spend less time being frustrated by God’s timing and spend more time focusing my eyes on Him. Allowing Him to renew my mind so that I trust Him with the timing on each and everything that I pray about. And I don’t box Him in assuming I know how He will respond. I don’t want to miss the answer I have been praying for for so long.

God hears my prayers : (Psalm 4:3, 18:6, Psalm 77:1, Number 20:16, 2 Samuel 22:7, 1 Peter 3:12, 1 John 5:15, Jeremiah 29:11-12)

A soften heart is open to hearing from God: Romans 8:1-39, Philippians 2:13, Ezekiel 36:26, 1 Corinthians 2:9-12, Romans 8:26