00:03Waiting with Joy
00:04I made a decision when I gave my life to Christ that would lead to 8 years of waiting.
00:11I told God I did not want to marry just anyone.
00:14I asked Him to blind every man from seeing me who was not the one He had ordained for me,
00:19and to blind me from seeing them.
00:22I said I would wait.
00:23The result is that I went approximately 8 years without going on a single date.
00:29There were moments of doubt, moments of wondering if I had prayed the wrong prayer.
00:34And somewhere around year 5, God began to show me who my husband would be,
00:39but we were professional friends for years before we ever went on a date.
00:44Knowing, but still waiting.
00:46One day in prayer, a question dropped quietly into my spirit.
00:50What do waiters do in a restaurant?
00:52They serve.
00:53And I understood immediately what God was saying.
00:56He told me, Serve me as you wait.
00:59And He also gave me this warning, Don't let the thing you are waiting for become an idol.
01:05It should not be an obsession.
01:07The desire for a husband, a child, a promotion, a breakthrough, however good and natural the
01:13longing, must not displace God Himself from the center of your life.
01:17Isaiah 40 31 does not say that those who wait passively will be sustained.
01:22It says those who hope in the Lord, who wait on Him with active expectation, will renew their strength.
01:29Waiting is not inactivity.
01:31Waiting is faith in motion.
01:33It is serving God with what He has given you now, while trusting Him completely with what He has not
01:39yet released.
01:41Every season has an expiry date.
01:43The waiting season will come to pass.
01:45And those who have waited well, actively, joyfully, productively, with their eyes on the giver rather than the gift,
01:53will receive what is coming with a capacity to steward it that the impatient never develop.
01:59Prayer
01:59Lord, I will not pretend that waiting is easy.
02:03It is not.
02:04But I choose today to wait on you with hope, not passive resignation, but active expectation.
02:10Show me how to serve you faithfully in this season.
02:13Guard my heart from making an idol of what I am believing for.
02:17And give me the joy that you promised, the joy that is not dependent on circumstances but on connection to
02:24you.
02:24Amen.
02:26Reflect
02:26What are you currently waiting on God for?
02:30Are you waiting actively, serving, growing, remaining connected to the vine, or has the waiting become a kind of paralysis?
02:38What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
02:41What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
02:41What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
02:43What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
02:45What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
02:45What does joyful, active waiting look like for you today?
