8/6/2019 Waiting Message

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Waiting

Jonah 1:17 2:1-10

5-Day Academy

Feb. 21-26, 2010

How often have you not wanted to do something but you ended up doing it anyway? I had one of those times

when I was asked to give this message. I was still struggling when one morning I heard the words you arent

doing it, I am. Remember the commercial, is it live or Memorex? Well my thought was, God, is this you, or

me? Needless to say a confirmation came as my husband was leaving for work. He said, Im taking the boys

(2 yellow labs) to work with me. My shocked reaction was, you are? Isnt it funny how God works

sometimes? He was giving me some time to start preparing this message.

When God wants you to do something, you cant run anywhere that He cant find you. God had a job for Jonah

but he didnt want to do it, so he got on a ship and ran. But running got him into worse trouble. Not only was

he thrown overboard but he was swallowed by a big fish. While inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his

God. He was thankful that he hadnt drowned, that he had escaped certain death. Verse 7 says When my life

was ebbing away, I remembered you Lord.

Everyone has tough times, whether youre rich or poor, whether youre young or old. And we respond to

tough times in different ways. Some of us blame ourselves, some people blame God, and some people take a

third approach: They say, God is up to something. I dont know what it is, but Im going to find out. Im going

to P.U.S.H! Im going to Pray Until Something Happens!

Often, its when things get really bad that we call out to God. You may be having a hard time raising your

family. You may have job or health issues. There could be all kinds of problems because of this economic crisis.

My husband and I are still waiting to sale our home and business property in Seattle since moving south to

White Salmon over a year ago.

God brings tough times into our lives not only to bring us back to him, but to bring us back to ourselves. In the

end, Jonah understood that it is best to do what God asks in the first place. Being swallowed by the big fish

could have been the end of Jonah, but God was waiting for Jonah to agree to do what he was asked to do.

Waiting on God, just like waiting in a line any place, is often anything but fast. What we wait for, however, is

far less important than what God is doing while we wait. In such times one of the things he works in us to

develop is patience and to learn to depend on Him.

Waiting is not something I do well. The reality is, I get impatient pretty easily. I dont like long lines at check-

out counters or traffic jams. Ive been thinking about why waiting is so hard for me and God has been

revealing some things to me about my personality that are really quite true. I like to get things done. Fromexperience, especially when I was working outside the home, most of the time when I wanted something

done, rather than wait on someone else to do it or have to do it over, I would do it myself. If I have an errand

to run I want to get in, get out, and get on with the next thing on my to do list. The darker side of this

struggle with waiting is that it reveals the existence of deep wells of self-centeredness.

There are times when God tells us to wait. We may wait for a long or short time, and God may or may not

reveal why we are waiting. God sees our lives in perspective, knowing what each day holds and how all our

8/6/2019 Waiting Message

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days fit together. When we face times of waiting, we can pray for direction and trust God to guide us. He may

be waiting for us to do something before He acts. That thought hit me hard. I have been praying for my

husbands salvation for years and it wasnt until this message preparation that I began to ask God, what is it

that You are waiting for me to do before You answer my prayer? I should tell you that in the quiet of these

past few days, God has been revealing some things that I need to change in my life. The biggest reminder that

was revealed was that by not letting go of my control, I am limiting God as to what He can do. How many of

you can identify with that?

Why is waiting so difficult? One of the reasons is our get-it-now society. We want, we get; we want some

more, we get some more. Long ago people truly knew how to wait on the Lord.

In our Gospel reading, Simeon was promised that he wouldnt die until he saw Jesus. He didnt know if it

would be days, months or years, but he was willing to wait, trusting God. My prayer has always been that I

would live long enough for my husband and I to worship and serve God together.

God has a plan for each of us and we need to be willing to wait and continue to pray and trust Gods direction.

He will answer our prayers in his time table, not ours.

A few weeks ago, we had a lesson on waiting in a Bible Study that I attend and we had two quotes, Waiting

is hard. We feel as if we are doing nothing, and very often we are tempted to intervene and the other one,

God always has a plan. I made a magnet (show magnet) of these two quotes and between the two, in red

letters, I added, But dont. I keep it where I can see it every day.

Using Lizs words from this morning: Trust in the slow work of God, I need to make another magnet with

that quote.

So, while you are waiting for God to act in your life, to answer a prayer, what do you do blame yourself,

blame God or P.U.S.H.? (pause) AMEN