Wait for God

Isaiah 49: 22-23

Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.”

I have so much trouble waiting for God. In spite of the fact that I am terrible at orchestrating much of anything, for some reason I think I should be able to orchestrate my own life—and many times the lives of those around me. I just can't do it.

But God can ... and does. We just seem to live on a different time frame and want things to happen immediately. Especially when we're going through tough times. We just want those tough times to end. We don't want to wait for God to work things out. And we expect that the way God will work them out will be tremendously comforting and comfortable to us. That is not always the case.

Romans 8:28–30

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

But God is always working and he promises that all things will work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose.

What I take from that is the need, during times of great stress and great distress to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling." In other words, instead of worrying and wondering when God will correct the bad things in my life, I need—especially during those times—to make sure that I am truly "called according to His purpose." I must see to it—especially during those times—that I truly love the Lord. Because if I love the Lord it means that I am one of those who have been called according to His purpose. And that means that all things will work together for good.