You don't know. So you wait.
One chapter has finally closed and you're ready to move on. You don't want to make a move without solid direction and confirmation from the Lord, so you try to wait with consistent trust in Him and His timing. And purposefully try your best to stay in your circle of peace. Ah, but the wait is excruciating.
You've been beat up and spit out. You're exhausted. You know waiting is not wasting, but it's been such a long time...you're ready for the next chapter.
"I wish I could rest in the waiting," the girl sighed.
As she looked around and saw the others in the waiting room, the girl wondered how they were fairing with their emotions. Satan often blows on the embers of our fears, emotions and anxieties to grow them out of proportion and then we tend to make bad decisions. Oh, how she did not want to make a hasty and bad decision about her future.
"Seek ye first the Kingdom," she said to herself. "Seek ye first the Kingdom. Focus. Focus."
Just then the story of Joseph came to her mind. Joseph went through a series of waiting rooms in his life that prepared both him and others for his destiny. She remembered that it wasn't all about him. God was working in many lives, not just Joseph's...his brothers, his father, the Pharaoh, the Egyptians. While doing all that waiting, Joseph had to make a conscious decision not to curse the darkness around him, but to allow the light from within to shine forth.
He cultivated the Fruit of the Spirit...patience, joy, peace...and learned during his seasons of waiting to pray, believe, serve and listen to wisdom.
She sensed the Lord sitting beside her. With His arm around her, he said,
His loving eyes and warm smile flooded her with peace. She realized that He was not going to allow her to be in this waiting room one minute longer than what was needed or necessary. She sensed the Lord sitting beside her. With His arm around her, he said,
"You know, waiting on My perfect timing is the best gift you can give yourself. Don't forget, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, not will the flame kindle upon you. For I am the Lord you God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Do not earnestly remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." *
"Perhaps," she marveled looking into the faces of the others in the room, "I should see if I can be a witness to God's Grace in this place."
Ah...a shift in perspective. Seek ye first...
*excerpts from Isaiah 43
