let me wait.

Let me wait. Let me wait on all things that He has purposed to give me. Let me wait on the beauty that I see in the morning. And what joys await in the morning. Let me cry, yearn, hurt, but above all else, let me wait. For in the waiting comes the beautiful lesson, the lesson I would never learn otherwise. Periods of waiting come and go, they are hard, so very hard when you are surrounded and engulfed by their arms. As if my eyes are blind to all else, they only see before them an endless waiting. A waiting that is painful and unbearable. "How can my soul bear another single day of waiting, Lord?" This has been the cry of my heart so often. Then, without the slightest hint of what is coming, it ends. It is over, the waiting, the crying out to my God for that which I was waiting for. As I walk forward into this new found answer, I find that it is more wonderful than I could have imagined...and that I miss the waiting.

I only miss it once I have come through it. It has happened so often that finally, at long last, I am beginning to recognize when I am in the middle of the waiting, and I have begun to cherish all that comes with it. If the Lord immediately answered my every prayer when I prayed it, if He gave me every wish I thought I wanted at every whim, if He never let me wait, I would not be who I am. I have found that it is in the middle, in the hardest, darkest parts of the waiting that He can begin to fashion me to be who He wants me to be. I learn to press into Him, I learn that the darkness can never overcome His light, I learn to pick up my sword, nay, to cling unto it and wield it with every ounce of strength that I have in my soul. For when I've waited, when I've been trained in that stillness for the battle that rages all around, it is then I can use the sword He has placed in my hand with more accuracy and precision.

It is in the waiting that I become more in tune with what my God is quietly speaking to my heart. Burdens He's placed there become even more weighted and urgent, yet the joy He gives increases as well. When the waiting has brought me to a place of not seeing where my next foot step will take me, I learn that I truly do not need to see when I'm gazing through His eyes. I begin to understand at a deeper level than ever before that, though my world may crumble into the sea, He is faithful...oh, so faithful! Never does He take me through a place of waiting without giving more than I imagined....often much more.

So, I would learn to savor each season of waiting. Each season of quiet from my precious Jesus does not mean He isn't listening, it means He is teaching me by example to be still and just wait on all the best He wants to give. And I truly do miss the waiting when it's gone, for there is something so sweet about having Him and Him alone to trust in with every fiber of my being.

"My soul waits for the Lord More than the watchmen for the morning; Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning."  -Psalm 130:6

 Imagine, being so certain that our God would accomplish what He's promised to accomplish in our lives, that we were as sure of it as we were sure the sun would rise tomorrow morning. We do not question if the sun will come up, we do not say, " I don't know, that's a pretty big thing for the sun to rise ...I'm not sure he can handle it tomorrow." No! To even voice such a concern would be utterly foolish. Why then, do we question and doubt the One who created that very sun to rise in the first place?! Why do we complain and lose faith when we're in the night, waiting for His promises to dawn with the morning in our lives? For, as sure as He will command the literal sun to come up tomorrow morning, the periods that we wait in will come to a close as the night of our waiting fades away in the light of all that He is.

So, take courage if you happen to be in the night of waiting in your life. Do not begrudge it, but press into Him more and more and know with certainty, He is faithful. Gaze up at the stars He will place in your "night sky" and treasure every moment, for soon, the waiting will come to a close.