Oh, how I hate to wait! I will embark upon insanely strange endeavors to avoid doing nothing, often creating quite a mess in the process. I want to DO! Something! Anything!

Standing in line at the grocery? A perfect time to check emails!

Stop lights? A time to return phone calls.

Commercials? A wonderful opportunity to bounce from one pile of clutter to the other, creating a great deal of dust but never accomplishing much of value.

Those ten extra minutes I nabbed between dinner and Lifegroup? Why, that provides a few minutes to clear out my inbox, respond to folks on Facebook, and … get distracted by a video someone posted, causing me to be late.

*sigh*

I wonder if God’s ever tempted to whack me upside the head. “Woman! Sit still! How will you ever hear Me if you keep running in circles and running that endless, loud mind of yours?”

Yes, my thoughts can be quite dominating. Oy.

Today’s guest post comes from a sweet ACFW author, Linda Rondeau, encourages us to indeed make our waiting time productive, but not by running around like a crazy person. Rather, she encourages to use every moment to draw near to our Savior.

While You’re Waiting by Linda Rondeau

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait expectantly (Psalm 5:3 NIV).

 

Are you waiting on God? Perhaps for answers, purpose, or fruit for your hard labor?

After what I thought would be a routine mammogram, the radiologist said, “There are spots. One of them is highly suspicious. You need to have it taken care of right away.” The urgency in the warning promoted me to quick action.

While I waited for results, of course my initial reaction was one of anxiety. It is the natural human response to uncertainty. Yet, the more God reminded me I was His child and that He’d be with me regardless of the outcome, my pleading became prayers of praise. I would not face this alone. And so I moved forward and kept occupied. When the news came that the tumor was indeed cancerous, God had already prepared my heart. He occupied my mind with book contracts and filled my spirit with laughter. I make a very funny bald person.

Waiting need not be a time of anxiety or stagnation. It should be a time of anticipation and activity.

In the song, While I’m Waiting, by John Walker, made famous by the movie Fireproof, the writer states that he will worship while he’s waiting. He will do so by remaining hopeful, even though he is hurting. He will worship in waiting by moving forward, serving, loving, and doing the things he knows God expects from him.

Joyce Meyer lists two important aspects of waiting on God: 1) to expect He has heard your prayer and will answer and 2) be eager with faith. “It’s just like when a woman is expecting a baby…even though she can’t see the baby, she knows it is there.” She prepares and keeps busy. Nine months can be a very long time if she were to simply sit in a chair and do nothing until the baby comes.

Sometimes we must wait through tragedy. During these times of grief, we want God to purge the pain. Yet it is in these times of deepest agony, that God seems the nearest. In the book, Song for Sarah, Paula D’Arcy chronicles her grief through a disappointing pregnancy. When she first learned she’d have a child, she wrote letters to her unborn whom she named Sarah. Later, she learned her baby was stillborn. In her deepest sorrow she continued to write to Sarah and spilled out her honest anger and resentment toward God. “Where are you?” she asked. Yet, while waiting, she moved forward. When the day of her delivery came, she felt God’s power and deliverance from fear. He had never been far away, but made His presence the most powerful when she needed Him the most.

Paul and Silas found themselves in the deepest part of a prison. Perhaps they felt abandoned and forgotten. (Acts 16). Perhaps they wondered why this trial happened when all they were trying to do was God’s work. Yet, they faced the hardest part of waiting by praising God with expectation.

Are you waiting for God? Faith prompts us to action. Doubt paralyzes. Our service and continued commitment during this time of anticipation is our song of praise.

Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:18 c NIV).

LINDA WOOD RONDEAU

Cancer survivor, author, sometimes speaker but always a wife and mother, Linda lives in Jacksonville, Florida where she is able to golf year around with her more than patient husband of 37 years. She has won a few awards in life but her best achievements are her three children and grandchildren. Life is never as we planned but with God at the helm, always an adventure. Linda’s books reflect how God transforms our worst pasts into our best futures. She is always available to speak to your groups on God’s surpassing Love.

Facebook            Twitter              Google Plus               Goodreads                Pinterest

Linda’s Blog: This Daily Grind

Let’s talk about this! How well do you wait? Not just in grocery lines or rush hour traffic, but in those excruciating moments when you’re crying out to God and He appears to be silent? What do you do while you wait? Do you draw near? Do you worship? When facing the unknown, do you focus on the uncertainty and your angst or the known Person and character of God?

Share your thoughts in the comments below or at Living by Grace on Facebook.

Speaking of FB, for those of you who aren’t on it, or who aren’t my FB friend (Um… how come? 😉 ), but who’d like to follow my blog tours/book launch events, here’s where I’ve been this past week.

On Monday I got to chat, in studio, with Greg Vogt, host of KCRO AM 660. You can listen to our fun discussion here: (Note, the interview starts about ten minutes in, after our fun discourse on Veggie Tales.)

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/169021040&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true

Today my article helping the betrayed find blessings, not bitterness, in their betrayal, went live on Crosswalk.com. You can read it here. How To Trade Bitterness For Blessing.

I’m also talking about life-changing fiction on Jo Huddleston. You can read my post here.

And as a final highlight, yesterday I turned in my substantive (big picture) edits for When Dawn Breaks, which means that novel is one step closer to going to print. Yay!