Waiting

To wait is defined as “to stay where one is or delay action until a particular time or until something else happens.”  This is an action verb that challenges me on a daily basis.  I always have a to-do list and I like to check it off quickly.  Waiting to finish something I have set my mind to isn’t something I am good at. Early in my walk with the Lord, this was troublesome for me. I thought since I surrendered everything to God he is supposed to answer all my lifelong problems. I learned that my timeline is not always God’s timeline. As I grew closer to the Lord I would even ask him to wait because I wasn’t ready yet I learned that asking God to wait doesn’t work either.

This brings me to the thought of what fully surrendering to Christ truly means. When we give our lives to God it is now our job to stay, delay our own action and wait until something happens because of his will, not ours. As I contemplate on that it brings me to my journey into ministry.  I was in my 20’s when I was called to ministry but I really didn’t know what that meant.  I was in a service listening to missionaries share about work they had done in an orphanage and I felt God telling me to do something for him.  At that time I thought I could tell God to wait. You see I was a single mother of a toddler and just finished my teaching degree.  I told God I would minister to the children I taught, but I wasn’t ready.  When I look back at my conversation with God at that time I thought I told him to wait but he already knew what was going on.  Fast forward 8 years and I found myself in part-time ministry.  You see I didn’t tell God to wait, I was actually waiting on God.  By giving him the career I was currently in and waiting for, he worked everything out for his plan of my calling.  Even after working as a children’s pastor part-time for 9 years and waiting on his plan, I am now in full-time ministry.  I was delaying action and waiting to see what else happened through the surrender of my career so many years ago.  That full surrender was what it took to teach me to wait on his plan.

Today I encourage you to keep surrendering and waiting on God’s full plan.  Don’t ask him to wait…allow him to do his mighty work in you and simply wait to see the beauty that shows up at the end.

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14

Blessings as you wait,

Pastor Hope Terhaar