Tag: waiting on God

Living In Between, Part I

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It’s a mess; that’s what it is.

It’s this awkward time when my daughter isn’t quite size 7, but not really still a 6x either.  Triple that for all three of my girls and imagine the wardrobe fallout.

They’re just in between.

The dresses are too short, the sleeves on the shirts ride up on their arms, but the next size of pants fit like clown clothes.

So, there’s this season where their wardrobe is a hodgepodge of sizes, a paradise for Goldilocks.  Some too small.  Some too big.  And hopefully enough that are “just right.”

And there are the disagreements about what fits and what doesn’t.  They swim into bulky dresses and shirts that slip off their thin shoulders just so they can wear something new.

Then these same girls cram themselves into shirts that crawl up above their belly button and pants that now look like capris because they don’t want to give up their favorite outfit.

It’s all about transition.  It’s a time of in-betweeness.  It’s uncomfortable.  Messy.  Awkward.  Ill-fitting.

It’s life.

So often we live in the in-between.
We’re preparing for a ministry we haven’t yet started.
We’re moving from job to job, home to home, ministry to ministry.
Our children somehow change from babies to toddlers to little kids to big kids to teens to adults and we can’t say when it happened.
We’re saying goodbye, but haven’t found a place to say hello.

Our transition pitfalls are the same as they are for my daughters and their fashion crises.

We want to leap ahead before we’re ready and end up tripping all over ourselves.

Or, we cram ourselves into comfortable situations that are now stretched to the max and busting the seams.  We resist change.  We linger in the past.  We’re trapped by shame or even nostalgia and we’ll miss out on the new in order to remain in the known.

Scripture is strangely silent about many transition times.

Take Paul.  After his dramatic conversion, he spent time learning how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, putting aside his old life as a persecutor, but not yet leading the church or serving as a missionary to the Gentiles.

He was in between.

In Galatians, Paul tells us, “I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.   Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen day” (Galatians 1:17-18). 

We can’t tell how long his training for ministry lasted.  He spent time alone in Arabia, away from the Jerusalem church.  Then he stayed in Damascus for three years.  Finally, he traveled to Jerusalem where he hung out with Peter for 15 days (Cephas).

So often we forget this time in Paul’s life.  We see him converted and then we see him as a radical missionary enduring shipwrecks and stonings and imprisonment. At least, that’s how it went on the flannel boards in our Sunday School classes all those years ago.

But his was no overnight preparation for ministry.  It took years of radical change for Saul to become Paul.

Surely Paul could have met Jesus on the road to Damascus, had his eyesight restored, and then high-tailed it to Jerusalem to present himself to James and the rest of the church leaders.  He could have declared, “Send me in, Coach!”

Yet, he would have been immature: full of enthusiasm, but little spiritual maturity.  He probably would have scared the Christians into hiding.  They likely thought he was faking his conversion in order to infiltrate the church and kill them all.

Paul also didn’t have a heart for the Gentiles yet.  Maybe that happened in Arabia when he realized that not many people there had even heard of Jesus Christ—and if Paul needed a Savior, well maybe they did, too.

Most of the time between Jesus’ birth and His public ministry is a blank also. We know He lived in Egypt as a child, but we know nothing about His time there.

Scripture only tells us about one event in Jesus’ childhood, when his parents left him during their pilgrimage to Jerusalem when he was 12 years old.  Traveling as a large group, they just assumed he was with others in their entourage.

Can’t you just hear his parents when they discovered his absence? “I thought he was with you!”  “Well, I thought he was with you!”

Jesus’ response to His parents when they found Him teaches us what to do when we’re in the in-between times of life.

  • He told his parents, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49).  We need to be where God is.  Jesus wasn’t performing miracles or teaching on hillsides yet.  That was for the future.  Likewise, we can’t run ahead of God or lag behind His timing.  We need to be obedient to His plan for us right now.
  • During his transition time, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52).  Soak up everything you can learn while you wait.  Don’t twiddle your thumbs and assume this time is pointless. Dig deep in is Word.  Learn from others.  Wear your knees out in prayer.  Be a receptive student.
  • Be sensitive to others: Transition times aren’t just hard for us; they are difficult for others, too.  Some people won’t understand when you take a break from ministry.  Others may not support you in something new.  Some people will try to hold you back.  Others will push and nudge you ahead of God’s timing. After His parents found Him in the temple, Jesus “went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them” (Luke 2:51).  Obey God’s timing, but be gracious always and submissive to your leadership when possible.

In the in-between times, we look to God as our guide, we enjoy His presence and remain contented in His plan for us, just like the Psalmist wrote “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11, ESV)

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader.  Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness.  To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Copyright © 2011 Heather King

Christmas devotions: The Christmas Countdown

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But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-5, NIV).

“Mom, how many days until Victoria’s birthday?”
Nine.

“How many days until we go see The Nutcracker?”
Five.

“Once we see The Nutcracker, how many more days will it be until Victoria’s birthday and then to Christmas?”
Four and Eight.

“How many days until my party at school?”
Three for Lauren, four for Victoria.

“How many days until our program?”
Four.

“How many days to Christmas?  Do you know how many hours that might be?”
Thirteen and go ask your dad.

Right now, my kids are living for the countdowns.  We’ve carefully examined the calendar, marking every upcoming event and charting out the wait-time from now until then.  The Advent calendar slowly moves us ever-closer to the big day when we peek under square number 25.

Still, every day they ask me to perform mental calculations rapidly and with precision.

Then they moan and groan as if five days of waiting is interminable and two weeks of patience too much to bear.

Inspired by all the anticipation, my oldest daughter asks, “How long until I’ll be thirteen?”

Now I’m the one moaning and groaning.

In some ways, I share all their excitement.  I can’t wait to see them open the special gifts I’ve chosen for them or enjoy special family time and build on the traditions they’re only just becoming old enough to appreciate.

Still, it’s made me realize how I struggle with the Christian walk because there so often aren’t any countdowns at all, not that I know of anyway.

How many days until You reveal Your will, Lord?

How many days until I know what this experience is for?

How long until You deliver me from this circumstance?

How much time must I wait for You to answer this prayer?

So much of my life seems to hang right now on uncertain hooks with undefined strength.  Perhaps you feel this way also–like you’re just dangling there, waiting for the “Go” sign, the signal, the map, or the plan.  And until then, you wait with anxious anticipation, always on guard, always watchful so that you don’t miss the moment when God says, “Now.”

The trouble is, we have no date on the calendar to circle in red as the day God will speak or the moment our time of waiting will end.  No certain time of revelation or definitive arrival date for answered prayers.

So, we keep up our focused vigil and continue doing what God has told us to do right now, trusting that He’ll reveal the next step to us clearly and in His perfect time.

That’s what the Israelites did for 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the moment that John the Baptist first stepped out of the wilderness and began crying out for people to repent.

They waited.

They looked for the Messiah.

They prayed and searched His Word and obeyed (hopefully) what He had told them to do before.

In the Gospel of Mark, the very first words we have recorded from Jesus are “The time has come.” (Mark 1:15).

How appropriate.

Maybe the people of God weren’t able to countdown the days to the Messiah’s ministry on earth, but God could.  He knew the right moment all along and He didn’t rush His plan or sleep through the alarm.

When the time had come, Jesus was there.

Paul wrote in Galatians that “when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-5, NIV).

And later in Titus:  God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior (Titus 1:2-3).

The writer of Hebrews tells us: But [that appointed time came] when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come (Hebrews 9:11 AMP).

The time between the promise and the fulfillment must have seemed impossible and unending.  Just as there were many who still fervently sought out the Messiah, still others probably had given up.  After hundreds of years without revelation from God, who could blame them?

And yet, at the appointed time, Jesus was born.

This was the promise for the prophets during all of those centuries of waiting:

 “For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay (Habakkuk 2:3, NASB).

Notice that Habakkkuk says, “it will not delay.”

We might disagree.  For those tapping their foot in the waiting room, it certainly seemed like a delay.

Yet, not from God’s perspective.  He knew all along when the appointed time would come, and He wasn’t a moment too soon or a second too late.

He never is.  We can take heart that God knows exactly where we are in the countdown even when we don’t and we can rejoice with the Psalmist that “my times are in Your hands” (Psalm 31:15a).

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader.  Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness.  To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Copyright © 2011 Heather King


Who’s the Boss?

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She’s two, this baby girl of mine, but she doesn’t know that means she’s not supposed to be in charge.

Playing cats and dogs is the favorite game of my three stair-step daughters.  Sometimes my baby girl meows and barks with the rest. She crawls over to me so I can pat her head or scratch her ears.  She pants with her tongue hanging out and then stoops low to eat pretend food out of her bowl.

Most of the time, though, she’s the owner.  Holding an invisible leash, my two-year-old guides the other “animals” around the house, maneuvering around furniture and toys.  Then, she stands at her bedroom door and barks orders at the big sisters crawling around on all fours.

“Come, dog dog.  Sit.  Go.”

If they dare to mis-step or head in the wrong direction, she screams at the top of her authoritative lungs while intensely clapping her hands together, “No, no, no, dog dog!”

She knows how to take charge of her older sisters.

That same kind of birth-order role reversal happened in Jesus’ family, too.  His younger half-brothers didn’t mind occasionally “playing boss” either when it seemed like big brother was out of control.

Last week, I was all giddy like my behemoth cat when he knows I’m going to pour food into his bowl, all because my mail carrier dropped off the package with my new Bible study book.

I yanked out my copy of Beth Moore’s James: Mercy Triumphs from the shipping box, plopped it down on my kitchen table with my Bible, journal, computer, and pen.  After I poured my hot tea and added lots of sugar, I settled in for the first day of study.  It didn’t matter what I had planned for that afternoon; my new study was here so I was studying.

I was just a few minutes into the first video session where Beth Moore was introducing the book and WHAM!  She absolutely knocked me flat with something I’ve read a million times and never paid one iota of attention to before.

Mark 3:20-21 says:

Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

James and the other half brothers thought Jesus was plum crazy.  They stormed into the crowd and tried to “take charge of him.”

Taking charge of Jesus!  Sounds to me like they were the ones out of their minds.

Seriously, though, how often do you really feel that maybe God is just “out of His mind”?

And how often do you step in and try to “take charge”?

If you’re anything like me, you’re a lay it down and snatch it up kind of person.  A “God help me” and then “I’ll do it myself” kind of girl.

It’s because when I hand my problems over to Him, He doesn’t always handle them the way I think He should.

It’s because sometimes what He’s asking me to do sounds like crazy talk—it’s not convenient, it doesn’t make sense, it goes somewhere I didn’t intend and that isn’t comfortable or is perhaps downright difficult.

It’s because sometimes He tells me I can’t have what I’m asking for or maybe I’m not ready yet.

Oh and also, sometimes it’s hard to see that He’s doing anything at all.

So, impatiently, I roll up my sleeves and make phone calls and send emails, draft plans on Excel spreadsheets, and rehearse confrontations in my shower and while driving in my car.  I make five-step plans and set five-year goals.

I fail to remember that I’m not supposed to be the one in charge.

On the other hand, Psalm 78 gives a perfect example of what happens when we allow God to assume and maintain the reigns of control in our lives:

“But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the wilderness.
  He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies” (Psalm 78:52-53).

Those God leads are brought out of slavery.  They are led safely through the wilderness and the simple presence of their Shepherd casts out fear.

There’s never a moment when a sheep needs to grab the rod and staff and lead the flock in lieu of the Shepherd.  Even when the path is rocky or the destination unclear, the Shepherd is a dependable guide through the turmoil and uncertainty.

It’s not easy, this surrender and submission.  Nor is it a forever decision, once done and done forever.

It’s yielding in this moment and the next. It’s facing a life-choice and choosing to go where God leads, even if you’d rather not.  It’s waiting patiently rather than snatching back control from a God who seems perhaps distant or frustratingly quiet.

It’s not trying to take charge of Jesus.

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader.  Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness.  To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Copyright © 2011 Heather King


Weekend Walk, 08/13/2011

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Hiding the Word:

Welcome back to my verse memorizing partners!  I’ve been working for two weeks on a block of verses in Psalm 145.  Here’s my text all put together:

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.
The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.  
The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does.
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
Psalm 145:13b-19

What a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness to keep His promises and to provide for us and deliver us as we have need.  More than that, He is near to us even during the difficult times when He feels far away.

I came across so many powerful verses in my reading this week, but I think the new verse I’m choosing is:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7

My commentary says “humble yourselves” could be translated, “allow yourselves to be humbled.”  Humbling hurts and it’s certainly hard to submit to.  But Peter gives us two utterly powerful assurances—God will eventually lift us up and God cares for us.

What verse have you chosen to meditate on and memorize this week?

I use The Bible Knowledge Comentary, New Testament Edition, by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck.

Weekend Rerun:
You Have Stayed Long Enough, first published February 18, 2011

It’s official.  For the first time, one of my kids has strep throat.  I was sitting with my daughter today, waiting for the results of the strep test and she complained, “It just isn’t getting better, mom.  How long before I get better?”  Now, I know very well that after a few doses of the “pink medicine” her throat won’t be hurting any more.  But, when you’re the sick one, wellness just can’t come quickly enough.

Have you ever asked God—”How long?”  How long before I’m well?  How long before You rescue me?  How long before I see the fruit of my labor? How long before we receive what You have promised?

These aren’t questions unique to our impatient modern culture.

  • Psalm 35:17 How long, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.
  • Habakkuk 1:2  How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?
  • Psalm 13:1-2  How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Whether it is waiting for God to rescue us or waiting for God to fulfill a promise to us, it’s hard to trust in His timing.  We tend to tap our foot with impatience after a while and begin to think He must have forgotten about us.  I myself have prayed with the Psalmist, “Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me” (Psalm 40:13).

You can be honest with God and share with Him your desire for a quick intervention.  He created time and knows exactly what pressure time places on us.  Still, after we’ve cried out to Him to “Come quickly, Lord!,” then we need to trust Him to deliver us at exactly the right moment.  He doesn’t always intervene when we expect it or desire it, but ultimately He is always “right on time.”

In the meantime, do not give up hope that your deliverance will come.  As Psalm 27:13-14 says, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.  Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Notice that waiting doesn’t necessarily mean we are doing nothing!  Nor does waiting mean asking God for something and then feverishly trying to make it happen on our own.

While we are waiting, we need to “be strong and take heart.” Waiting itself is an active discipline of seeking God and investing more and more in our relationship with Him, making sure we are focusing on His face and not on our need.

About three months into their journey between Egypt and the Promised Land, the Israelites arrived at Horeb, where they camped out for about a year.

Really meditate on this for a moment.

The people who left Egypt eager for no more than a one-month trek across the wilderness to the Promised Land had already been journeying for three months.  Then, they arrive at this mountain and God doesn’t move them again for a year.   They didn’t keep their things in their backpacks or set off in the direction of Canaan on their own.  They set up camp and actively waited for God to move them on.  During their waiting, Moses went up on the mountain and entered into a covenant with God, receiving the Ten Commandments.  It was a time of great spiritual intimacy for the nation as they saw God’s glory displayed on that mountain in powerful ways.

But, they didn’t stay there forever.  In Deuteronomy 1:6-7, Moses says, “The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.  Turn and set your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites . . .”

Only God knows the answer to your question, “How long?”   Just remember that waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.  For my sick daughter, waiting means taking her medicine, doing what she is responsible for doing, and letting the medicine work.  If God has you in a season of waiting, be strong, take heart and actively wait for Him, using every moment of this time at the mountain to seek greater intimacy with Him and eagerly await the display of His glory.

And when He says to you, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain.  Turn and set your journey and go,” then go!  Break camp and move on!  Don’t get so comfortable at the mountain that you neglect to continue the journey.

Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader.  Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness.  To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.

Copyright © 2011 Heather King