Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: WAIT (05/21/20)
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TITLE: Waiting Always Involves Time (W-A-I-T) | Previous Challenge Entry
By Doug Laird
05/27/20 -
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I’m ok with faith, but waiting does not come easy. Never-the-less, I can certainly relate to times when I later wished that I had waited.
If the truth be known, most of us are not willing to really let go and let God act until we have first exhausted all possible humans means to get what we want and/or to get it now.
Just as responsible parents do not give everything that a child may want, God our Father will not give His children everything they want, or at least not when they want them. Timing is everything.
When there is a divine purpose in mind, God may even take away (or allow to be taken away) things that His children naturally holds near and dear to them.
If being good entitled everyone to a long, prosperous life with a comfortable departure, then Jesus really got the short end of the stick.
Job lost seven sons, three daughters, many possessions, social standing, and health, even though he was a man that Scripture defined as “…blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil (Job 1: 1 (NASB).”
What Job was left with in the midst of this suffering was a wife whose only input was to advise him to curse God and die (Job 2: 9). What visitors that did come would tell him to confess the sin (that didn’t exist) that they believed caused the calamity.
In Job's case, God later restored Job's health and increased his wealth to a level that was greater that what was in view before his period of suffering.
It takes great faith to wait for God to act in the midst of great suffering, especially when it is of the undeserved variety.
What suffering God does not take away, He calls for us to endure (1Pet. 2: 21) until it accomplishes the divine objective(s) that He has in mind when He either sent or allowed the adversity to take place (Luke 13: 11/John 9: 1-3/ etc.).
What requires even more faith is when you experience or witness fellow believers around you never receiving (here on Earth) many of the things promised (Heb. 11: 37-39)!
Adding salt to this open wound is the unabated earthly prosperity of the wicked (Psalms 73: 3-9).
Such frustration can easily place an advancing disciple on a slippery slope (Psalms 73: 2). Without having taken up the full armor of God (Eph. 6: 13-17), defeat is inevitable.
Anything short of victory is a relative defeat.
Relative defeats are often the result of abandoning or replacing the marching orders received with an alternate plan or objective. This often takes place after a period of unfulfilled waiting.
The devil will take advantage of every opportunity he is given to offer the same earthly things (or more – Gen. 3: 5, 6) than what God has to offer.
Jesus knew that the plan of God called for Him to reign in glory over the kingdoms of the world (Rev. 2: 26, 27), but NOT before He went through the spiritual and physical agony and death to atone for the sin of Fallen Man.
Satan, being true to form, offered Him the same glory without the cross (Luke 4: 5, 6).
Hidden within bait is the hook.
Abraham waited for years for God to make good on a promise to provide him with an heir through whom a mighty nation and the humanity of the Savior would come.
Going along with an alternate plan that his wife Sarah came up with, Abraham fathered a son through one of Sarah's servants. This plan did not produce the heir, but brought a lot of conflict into Abraham’s home and set the stage for never-ending conflict in the Middle East.
Keep in mind that Abraham, like many others, was an individual that had a reputation and a history of having great faith!
The secret to success?
We are told that the great men and women in the Hebrews 6 Hall of Fame waited patiently!
Waiting always involves time (W.A.I.T). It’s how we choose to spend that time that reveals to us (and to those observing) the quality of our post (after) salvation spiritual life.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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