What?? WAIT???

Okay. So I've said before I'm a "hit-me-upside-the-head-with-a-2x4" kind of girl when it comes to "getting it" sometimes. God usually has to tell me from about 32 different sources what He's trying to get across because I'm so thick-headed sometimes. (No, really...I can be stubborn. I know it's SUPER hard to believe...: )

So for a while now I've had a verse on an envelope crammed into a paper holder at my desk: "WAIT FOR THE LORD. BE STRONG, TAKE HEART, AND WAIT FOR THE LORD."
Psalm 27:14 {in the distance we hear the sanding of wood....hey, I may get hit upside the head, but I don't need splinters!}

Any of you who have known me for any length of time (especially before I got sick) know that I haven't always been the most patient of people. No, I'm serious! Driving. Waiting in lines. At the DMV. (Ug!) One thing that slowed me down a LOT was getting sick. If you've ever been in the hospital, you know that real time and "hospital time" are 2 totally different things. In real time, 2 hours is 2 hours. In "hospital time" 2 hours can be a day and a half! When you're lying in bed, unable to move, tubes sticking out of everywhere, you need to learn patience...quickly!

But alas, how soon we forget! Yesterday I was working on the Bible study I'm doing with my friend Joanna called No Other gods. AWESOME, by the way. The last thing I did was to read Colossians 3:1-17 three times, in 3 different versions. The amplified Bible had this to say about patience: "tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes with good temper." WHAT? With good temper??? You mean after I learn to wait I have to do it without grumbling and yelling? {I'm feeling as if something is heading my way....}

THEN, I get on facebook, and a dear friend sent me a wonderful devotional by Rick Warren. Here it is in part:
How God Builds You Faith: Delay
by Rick Warren

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!" (Habakkuk 2:3 LB).

"Even as you make a decision to follow the dream God places in your heart, you can expect a delay. God will not fulfill your dream immediately because this is another step toward building your faith.

Have you ever been in a hurry when God wasn't? It's so irritating! You're ready, but God isn't. God wants to work on you before He works on the project. Every believer must go through the University of Learning to Wait (ULW). Some of us are still working on our degrees from ULW!

• Noah waited 120 years from the time he started building the ark until it began to rain.
• Abraham was told he would be the father of a great nation and didn't have a child until he was 99.
• God told Moses he would be the leader to lead his people out of 400 years of slavery, but then made him wait in the desert 40 years.
• Joseph spent years in prison before God raised him up and he became the ruler God wanted him to be.
• God had David anointed as king, but then David waited for years until he actually got to be king.We all have to go through these waiting periods.

Even Jesus waited for 30 years in the carpenter's shop before setting out on his public ministry.Why do we wait? It teaches us to trust in God. We learn that His timing is perfect. One of the facts we have to learn is this: God's delay never destroys His purpose.A delay is not a denial. Children must learn the difference between "no" and "not yet," and so must we. Many times we think God is saying, "No," but He is saying, "Not yet."

{SMACK!}

After doing the Bible study yesterday I was saying to God, "But waiting???? Couldn't you pick something I'm a LITTLE better at?? The hardest words in my vocabulary are wait, be still, have patience, be silent...."

So now I just have to say, Okay, Lord, I get it. I understand, and I will try to hang in there. I may mess up, but I will try my best to be patient....WITH "good temper!" And remember, God is NEVER late. But He is never early either! : )