DEVOTIONS WITH PASTOR BOB 6 practices in Our Christian Life (lesson 1) “Trust in God’s Timing”

DEVOTIONS WITH PASTOR BOB

6 practices in Our Christian Life (lesson 1)

“Trust in God’s Timing”

 

WHILE I'M WAITING - JOHN WALLER 

https://youtu.be/o9DTwLOxzhE

 

 

ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8 (NLT)

 

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

A time to kill and a time to heal. 

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

         

 

The truth is that we all want good things to happen in our lives, but all too often we want it right now and not later.

When things don’t happen that way we want, we are tempted to ask,

"When, God, When?"

Most of us need to grow in the area of trusting God, instead of focusing on the "when" question.

If we are lacking joy and peace, it could mean that we are not trusting God.

If our minds feel worn out all the time, it could mean that we are not trusting God.

The tendency to want to know about, and control everything that's going on can be detrimental to our Christian walk.

Sometimes knowing an outcome of a situation, can be uncomfortable and can even hurt us.

 

 

I spent a large part of my life being impatient, frustrated and disappointed, because I did not know what the outcome would be in situations that I was going through.

God had to teach me to leave things alone, and to stop feeling that I needed to know the outcome of everything.

I finally learned to trust in God, the One who knows all things, and came to accept that some questions may never be answered.

 

 

WE PROVE THAT WE TRUST GOD WHEN WE REFUSE TO WORRY

• Worry only drains the life out of us.

 

• Worrying does nothing to help our situation.

 

God is calling us OUT of a life of worry and frustration, and into a life of trust.

It's difficult to exercise trust if we are always trying to figure everything out on our own.

But when we are willing to say,

"God, I can't figure out how this situation is going to turn out, so, I'm going to trust you with the outcome.”

Then we can rest in trust, even when we don’t know the outcome.

Trusting God often requires not knowing how God is going to accomplish what needs to be done, and not knowing when He will do it.

We often say God is never late, but generally He isn't early either.

Why?

Because He uses these times of waiting to stretch and grow our faith in Him, and to bring about change and growth in our lives.

 

 

WAIT WITH PATIENCE

We spend a lot of time in our lives waiting because change is a process.

Many people want change, but they don't want to go through the waiting process.

But the truth is, waiting is a given, we are going to have times of waiting.

God meets us on the journey, it is where we come to know and trust him.

 

 

THE QUESTION IS, ARE WE GOING TO WAIT THE WRONG WAY OR RIGHT WAY?

If we wait the wrong way, we'll be miserable!

But if we decide to wait God's way, we can become patient, and learn to enjoy the wait.

It takes practice, but as we let God help us in each situation, we will develop patience,

which is one of the most important Christian virtues.

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, which is a character quality of Jesus (Galatians 5:22).

Patience develops only under trial, so we must not run from difficult situations.

 

JAMES THE LORD’S BROTHER WROTE IN JAMES 1:4,

 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

 

As patience grows, we will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

 

 

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD INVOLVES PROGRESSIVE CHANGES

My relationship with God is so much different now, than it was in the early days of my Christian experience.

It is not nearly as emotionally exciting... but yet it is better.

Every change I've gone through has made me more mature, solid and well-grounded.

 

 

WE LEARN TO TRUST GOD BY GOING THROUGH MANY EXPERIENCES THAT REQUIRE TRUST.

By seeing God's faithfulness over and over, we will begin to let go of trusting in ourselves, and gradually we place our trust in God.

It is easy to see how timing plays an important part in learning to trust God.

If God did everything, we asked for immediately, we would never grow and develop trust.

 

REMEMBER, TIMING AND TRUST WORK SIDE BY SIDE.

 

 

ACCEPT GOD'S TIMING

God gives us hopes and dreams for certain things to happen in our lives.

But He doesn't always allow us to see the exact timing of His plan.

Although frustrating, not knowing the exact timing is often what keeps us in the program.

We might give up if we knew how long it was going to take.

But when we accept God's timing, we can learn to live in hope, enjoying our lives while God is working on our problems.

We know that God's plan for our lives is good, and when we entrust ourselves to Him, we can experience total peace and happiness.

We will continue to discuss some more aspects of “Trust in God’s Timing” tomorrow.

 

 

I WILL WAIT FOR YOU (PSALM 130) SHANE & SHANE

HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/8C3WQ1G1USO

 

 

PRAYER

Dear Father, You are teaching us that our timing isn’t always Your timing. You are never late, but you aren’t early either. Father work Your perfect will out in our lives, and help us to be patient, In Jesus name, amen!