The past few months of our life have been a blur of decisions that can’t be made … yet. Not yet on that one … not yet on this one … God hasn’t spoken on this other issue. “Not yet” has become the catch word of the day, the week, the month, the year. From our personal lives to our ministries, we feel like every new day brings another new question, another new dilemma without any clear answers.
I was meeting the other night with the leadership of The Road, the church I pastor. Our discussion centered around a decision another church needed to make that impacted us. We talked from the vantage points of the hypothetical to the factual, and soon went into prayer. But the answer was clear—you guessed it, not yet.
God has given us specific promises from His Word concerning each situation. The problem is nothing has been answered yet. Not yet. Not yet. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas, excited about presents and all the trappings that go with it, but it’s still summer! How long will this wait be?
I don’t like waiting. From the check-out line at the grocery store to red lights on the road, I was a born doer, goer, mover. Waiting is not in my DNA. I doubt patience is in your forte of character desires. Charles Spurgeon said it well,
If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes.
Waiting is hard. “Not yet” still sounds like “not going to happen.” I have to fight the temptation to give up. But waiting is often God’s best means for building patience, submission, and faith. During this “not yet time,” I’m trying to learn to rest in Christ. Rest in His love. Rest in His timing.
The temptation is to think waiting means passivity. For the Jesus disciple, not yet is not passive. Resting is not passive. I’m learning that not yet is an active phrase of the heart. Active waiting means pressing into Christ and contending in prayer. Wholehearted waiting is active participation in a partnership in God’s work, done God’s way, in God’s timing. It’s not easy but it’s worth it.
On the road,
Steve
www.steveholtonline.org
www.theroad.org
www.facebook.com/theroadcs
Twitter @pastorsteveholt
