The Metz family

The Metz family

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

our "40 days and 40 nights"

Homemade love awaits our baby- and reminds us of God's faithfulness and His promises through our '40 days and 40 nights!' 
I recently read a great encouragement by Maya Ralston entitled "When God Makes You Wait."
I found such encouragement from it, that I want to share it with you.  Maybe you feeling God is making you wait? Waiting for a job, waiting for a soulmate, waiting for the right home, waiting for healing from a disease....we've all waited for something in our lives.  Im sure we've all had a wait (or two or three) that have tested the soul and given our faith a good shaking.
As we wait for the arrival of our baby (going on 17 months now), we have to cling to the promises God has for us- that His plan, His timing are best for us. We could not arrange it better than He can.
Consider these folks from the Bible who waited:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Jesus could have come and healed Lazarus when he was still alive. INSTEAD, He waited to raise him from the dead when he was already in his grave.

God could have made David become king the day after he was anointed. INSTEAD, he waited 15 years to rise to the throne, many of those years spent fearing for his life, hiding out and running away from his father-in-law.

God could have soken to Moses in he desert about sending him to free His people from slavery 40 days after he ran away from Egypt. INSTEAD, He waited 40 long years.

God could have gotten Joseph out of prison one year after he was sentenced there. INSTEAD, he was stuck in that dungeon for 10 years before he was finally set free.

God could have given Abraham the son He promised him when he was stil la young man. INSTEAD, He waited until Abraham was 100 years oldnand because of physical reasons would have a more difficult time conceiving then.

God could have answered prayers and met the needs of these men of God much quicker, but He didn't. He made them wait instead. And He often makes us do the same.
He makes us wait for healing to come after we've prayed for years and there is no sign of recovery.  He makes us wait to fulfill His call on our lvies after He puts the desire and passion in our hearst to serve Him in a certain way.  He makes us wait to give us the desire of our hearts, whether its a baby, a spouse, or a new job.  He makes us wait for direction when we are stuck at a dead end and we don't know where to go or what to do.  He could answer that same prayer that you've been praying for years every night in a millisecond.  That same prayer that has been bringing you to tears. That same prayer that the longer it goes unanswered, the more it makes you question if He even hears.

He kept Moses in the desert for 40 years, Joseph in a priseon cell for 10 years. He kept Abraham childless for 100 years and David o nthe run for 15 years. And maybe He is keeping you right where you are at for the same reason He kept these men waiting for so many years: to build your faith!
To build you faith in the dungeon cell, during the valley of your life when it's too dark to see and too hard to believe.  To build your independence on Him when you are barren and empty to see if He is truly all you desire and all you need.  To see how well you wil ltrust and serve Him when you are still stuck in the background somewhere, doing seemingly nothing too significant for Him.  To build your trust in Him when the storm keeps raging, the battle keeps going and breakthrough and victory doesn't seem near.

See.....sometimes the waiting period of our lives is the most important time of our life!
It is during this period when nothing seems to be happening, when prayers seem to go unanswered, when God seems so far away that the most spiritual growth happens in our lives.  That we learn to be more like Him.  It is during this time that we build spiritual "muscle."  We grow i nfaith.  We learn to only depend on Him.

What are you waiting for today?
What longing do you have that seems so far from ever being fulfilled? What prayer do you keep on praying that seems out of reach of God's ears?  I want to remin you that God is not deaf to your prayers.  He is not blind to your tears, to your desires, and to your needs.

If He is making you wait, there is a very good reason for it!
If He is telling you 'no' today. maybe it's because He has a better 'yes' waiting for you tomorrow. If He is keeping you in the same place you've always been today, maybe it's because He's building your faith before you can enter the Promised Land tomorrow.  If He is not healing you or bringing you victory today, maybe it's because you will have a greater testimony when He waits to help you be an overcomer tomorrow.

Wherever you are today, know that God is right beside you and that there is a purpose for you.  Even if the purpose is to wait.  Don't give up just because you don't see anything happening today.  Maybe there is nothing physically happening that your eyes can see but there is definitely something happening in the spiritual realm as you learn to rely on Christ.

Don't allow your waiting period to make you hopeless about what tomorrow will bring.
Instead, let it build your faith and give you even greater hope for what God has prepared for you.  He amde some of the greatest men of faith wait. Don't be discouraged if He makes you wait as well.  He will come through for you, just as He came through for them!

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

"Don't give up just because you don't see anything happening today.  Maybe there is nothing physically happening that your eyes can see but there is definitely something happening in the spiritual realm as you learn to rely on Christ."
These words are a powerful encouragement that I repeat to myself daily when I feel sad or confused or frustrated that our baby has not arrived yet.
So I pray for our baby and count my blessings in the meantime.
Noah and his family waited 40 days and 40 nights in a stinky boat full of animals with only endless stormy ocean surrounding them.  I think of his wait on God often because our baby's room is decorated with the Noah's ark theme.  (It seems all to appropriate the longer we wait.)  We all wait in some way at some time, so as I pray for us to remain focused on God's faithfulness during our wait, I pray for others too.
Though our waits are different, we are all really in the same boat together!


No comments :

Post a Comment