Wait Courageously

Have you ever raced over to the motor vehicles department on your lunch hour? Like me you grip the wheel hoping that the line will be short because you have a limited amount of time. Too often we treat waiting on the Lord like the frustratingly slow line ahead of us as we are forced to sit while those in front of us are served. We stare at the floor studying the pattern on the tiles. We wonder if our turn will ever come.

But waiting on God is not like that at all. With God our waiting time is the most productive part of all. In the silent moment He comes to sit along side of us. Like the Samaritan woman at the well we find Jesus there waiting for us. On His lips is the word of life if we will listen for it. In His hands is a cup filled to the brim with living water.

Wait with strong courage because it is especially in the wait that He will speak and strengthen our hearts!

Where Jesus is Waiting

 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”       John 9:35 ESV

In thinking think about becoming almost all of us would say that we need to begin with taking time to meet with Jesus. While an early morning prayer or an hour on our knees is part of that, it is not the only thing that makes us a disciple.

In fact our greatest hope is not in our choosing to meet with Jesus but in His choosing to meet with us. If that seems strange maybe it will help you to think about it like being in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. We come in, sign our name and then we sit and watch wait for our name to be called. We cannot just decide to barge in and demand to be next. We only get to go in when the doctor is ready.

The good news for us is that our Doctor Jesus is always ready. In fact before we showed up at the clinic he was looking out the window waiting for us to come. Doctor Jesus has our diagnosis, our treatment and our plan for recovery completely prepared before we ever come. So picture your prayer time as if you were the blind man when he got thrown out of the leader’s meeting: Jesus was already standing outside waiting for him! Jesus is outside your noisy, confusing and often hurtful world waiting to meet with you. Being His disciple just means joyfully expecting to spend time with Him. He is already waiting for you in the garden. Will you join Him today there for prayer?