The Waiting Game: Jesse’s Story

As a Christian believer since age 5-6, I’ve had a few seasons where I thought I was being faithful – probably not as many seasons as I would like to tally. And many of those seasons have probably looked more like winter than a full bloom of spring. I could probably write some great tragic annals or plays where I utterly failed at being the man that God wanted me to be feeling like Peter when he chose the sword or denial —not when he walked on water. Yes, my tragedy is letting sin get the best of me (from lust, to gluttony, to apathy). What’s your tragic tale of demise and lost redemption? Even those tales, where we are redeemed in the end certainly have appeal. We want to read those, right?

But I would like to talk about a less glamorous moment in my life probably boring to you. One single thing that God seemed to be teaching me. He didn’t teach me this by helping conquer a mountain, a giant, a fire, a vast land, moving a sea, or seeing a vast number of miracles. No. For me, for whatever reason, God wanted me to go against the instinct I have to jump into something and instead wait on Him. God never promises us that we will have a “perfect” or “happy” life. Indeed, he has told us that we will have trials and tests — a direct connection to the fall of man with the first sin by Adam and Eve that entered human sin and nature’s catastrophe into our world against God’s design. God says consider such “pure joy” and to give thanks even in such afflictions. (James 1:2-3 and 1 Thess. 5:16-18)

What comes to your mind when you think of your tribulations, obstacles, and thorns? What’s that serpent in your sea to be slain? I think God works sometimes not to slay it.

One of my greatest trials in my 49 years of breathing God’s air came when I expected so much and God just said …
“Wait”
“Wait”
“Wait”

The wait probably came on the heels of troubles I had: discouragement with unappreciative and sometimes mentally abusive bosses; low paychecks and insignificant titles; exasperation at sin God rightfully convicted me of but seemed to invade my life in hopelessness; discontent with failing to have a lawyer legacy even though God’s whisper that it was His legacy that mattered; failures as a father and husband.

Agitation fostered resentment and made me a man who just wasn’t who God intended or wanted me to be. Thankfully, that is almost unrecognizable now, but during that discontent, I was lost and shattered in my own winters of discontent.

God, however, intended to warm those winters by changing my heart. As I reached for him even more to his open arms, not just the open arms of a father’s hug but a father who saw all I was, all the grime, all the mess. Telling me to wait there in those arms. In the midst of that waiting, he taught me how to wait His way. He taught me to seek contentment where He placed me … whether in work, a divided family, a new love…in all my situations.

If you’re like me, we hate to wait an extra five seconds at a light that turns from red to green. Yet in life God asks us to wait. I believe he sometimes requires it.

Especially requires it of people like me used to jumping into things without His guidance. I wanted success both financially, professionally, and reputationally. I demanded God quickly fix my sins, my past hurts, and give me my hero saga. God said… Wait.
What? Wait! Sit back and twiddle the thumbs? Not exactly.

When God says wait, this isn’t waiting at a doctor’s office and staring at the clock. You wait according to what God says. When he beat this into my mind, when I searched for His kind of waiting, I tell you I think I hit the jackpot. Here’s what I found and found it first in scripture that helped in this waiting time…

Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Psalm 119:133.
So, I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. … Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:16, 25.
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 1 Tim 6:11

There are many like these but notice what these particular verses point toward … seeking God to guide every footstep. We aren’t talking about worrying about 12 miles down the road. Seek God for the centimeters and inches. When you take that step and the one after, seek to walk by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit. We must run from worldly things but take God’s guided steps toward His pursuits. It’s a very easy dance…one step at a time. One minute. One day. One moment.

In those wonderful waiting moments, we also must let God take us every step by conforming our hearts to Him. Verses that inspired me us to wait in the moment with a godly heart:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Since, then, you have been raised by Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:1
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters. Col. 3:23

God’s kind of waiting is different, unique, “out of the box.” Every step by Him and for Him. Every step with a mind and heart focused on His kingdom and His way not the world’s.

So, what might you try when you are in that waiting mode for that respect, that degree, that job, that raise, that Christian man or woman to walk alongside you, that child you have wanted? Play the waiting game God’s way and this is one way that helped me:

Let God order your steps through scripture, Christian men and women who will walk with you (and provide a bit of loving criticism).
Focus your heart and mind on Him with every painful step. See 1 Thess. 5:16-18 to help.
Have faith that during those times of waiting means God has YOU where He wants you at that moment and in preparation for the real giant you need to slay.

Just remember if you are called to learn contentment in waiting God’s way then you are in some amazing company…

Abraham and Sarah – a lifetime for a child.
Joseph – decades for restoration with his family.
Moses – From around 40-80, Moses languished in obscurity before he delivered God’s people. Oh yeah, he also parted a sea.
David – 15 years before he became King.
Daniel – a lifetime of oppression while being faithful and waiting for answered prayers.
Paul – there was approximately 11 years between his conversion and when he set out with Barnabas to begin his first of many miraculous apostolic journeys.
Jesus – As man and fully God, I have no doubt that Jesus struggled with waiting approximately 30 years to do His Father’s will and yet He did and wow in 3 years look what he did.

That’s a team I want to be on…don’t you? Don’t you want to be on that team that will receive the crown of life that has been promised to you?