“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.'” (Luke 2:10)

Most of the time, we’re waiting on good news of some kind. We’re checking our inboxes, hoping for the call or the text, and scrolling our social media feeds. Maybe we’re waiting on something monumental, or perhaps just a little happy moment.

What good news are you waiting for?

The announcement of a milestone moment in a loved one’s life? The baby to be born? The job offer or promotion? A notification from the airline that the price dropped and now you can afford that vacation? Amazon to say the package has arrived?

Sometimes we wait for a long time for a particular piece of good news. Other times we don’t realize we were waiting until the moment arrives and we feel realize we’ve switched from anticipation to rejoicing.

When Jesus came, people like Anna and Simeon who had been waiting a long time rejoiced in the promise at last come true. Others, like the Shepherds, were struck with surprise.

But the good news was good for all, and it still is.

Whatever good news we’re waiting for or will simply rejoice in when it’s announced, it’s just a small taste of the good news declared on the first Christmas.

We call good news “good” when it:

• Meets a desire or need
• Changes something for the better
• Gives us hope for the future

Considering the criteria, Jesus is the ultimate good news!

Jesus is the ultimate good news!
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His promises and presence meet our deepest desires and needs. His life, death, and resurrection changed everything for the better, making the way for us to have a personal relationship with God. Jesus gives us such hope for the future that whatever we struggle with today, we can look ahead with courage and anticipation that all will be good in the end.

The good news of Jesus can change how we wait today.

Thinking about some good news I’m hoping and praying for lately, the good news of great joy announced back in Bethlehem changes how I wait. I don’t have to wait cynically, because my greatest needs and desires are already met in Christ. If it seems nothing is changing for the better, I can trust God is making everything new in the everlasting way that matters most. Maybe the future looks scary and challenging to me, but what’s guaranteed in Christ is worth rejoicing in!

How about you? When you consider the good news of Christ, how does the way you wait for other good news change?

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LINKUP is open. Join my friend @bethanymcilrath to rejoice in the good news of Christ and consider how He changes the way you're waiting for other good news this Christmas. Share your blog! #RechargeWednesday
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Thank you, Lord.

I hit the power button and waited for the three lights to announce that the machine was ready to brew. I was irritated that it took a whole minute for the welcoming blue lights to start blinking and another 30 seconds to brew my morning delight. “Give it to me now!” I thought to myself.

That’s when it dawned on me: my ability to wait has certainly changed since I moved to America. I remember the shock I experienced on my first American dining experience eighteen years ago.

My husband picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The waiter was at our table in 30 seconds. We were served in 10 minutes. The bill was delivered while our food was still hot on the plates. I felt rushed. Surprised. Outraged, almost. I was used to the Brazilian way, where dining is an event to be savored, enjoyed, relished. We take our time. We talk a lot. Eat a lot. Seize the moment.

Rushing isn’t confined to the United States of America, though. My once laid-back Brazil has also quickly morphed into a fast-paced, impatient society in the past decade. Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God.

Rushing is not the American way. It’s the millennium way. We want it and we want it now. We rush success, we rush intimacy and, invariably, we rush God. #RechargeWednesday
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The problem with the concept is in the very nature of God. God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, he believes in process. It takes time to listen to him. It takes effort and time to know him. And, in my experience, he certainly never seems to be in a hurry to deliver his promises.

God is patient. He can’t be rushed. He does not believe in instant anything. Rather, he believes in process. #RechargeWednesday
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Waiting is a difficult task. Depending on your personality, it’s nearly impossible. If you are a go-getter like me, it probably kills you not being able to control the timing and outcome of your projects and dreams. Waiting on true love. Waiting on that promotion. Waiting to conceive. It stinks, really. Our flesh screams: “Hurry up with the lesson, already. Just tell me what I need to learn. I’m ready to move on!” However, I believe that the reason for the waiting is often beyond our realm of understanding. Because it’s really not just about us.

In retrospect, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.  I also realize how God has used the time I waited to strengthen me. Mature me. Change me. Change others around me.

In retrospect, I realize that I have often waited on something because the people involved in my prayer request were not ready. Or the situation wasn’t ready. Or I wasn’t ready.
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Indeed, when we fully grasp that God is a good Father, and, as such, He seeks to make us better people…When we realize that the process of waiting is one of His tools to accomplish just that, we stop expecting Him to act as a one-cup coffee machine. We understand that the rewards of a life of trust far surpass the gifts we seek.

Better yet, we realize that, as long as we listen and obey, He never fails us and always delivers on time.

For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who acts in behalf of one who waits for Him. ~ Isaiah 64:4
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LINKUP is open! Today, I share a reflection on one of the most important ingredients to be able to follow God's plan: Patience. Join us and share your blog!
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The post Patience = Secret Ingredient to Follow God’s Plan {Recharge Wednesday} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

However, as the worn, torn magazines in waiting rooms around the world can attest, patience in the waiting isn’t a natural virtue.

Waiting makes some of us crazy.

In fact, I’m pretty sure if God wanted to test us before we entered heaven to see how much we learned on earth, my exam would be “Sit right here. He’ll call you when He’s ready.”

I’d be pacing the clouds, trying to get through to the Lord via the prayer line: “Hello God. You brought me here. This is the appointment you set. How is it you are not on time?!”

What maddens me most about waiting is the helpless feeling of having no control over what’s going on. Waiting seems passive, and I am not passive.

Truthfully though, waiting isn’t a passive process.

Much like active listening, active waiting is a participatory activity.

Much like active listening, active waiting is a participatory activity.
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Active waiting looks like:

• Preparing
• Anticipating
• Hoping
• Being brave and courageous
• Watching

These are words God features in His Word. They are spoken by God in reference to His call to wait.

With a brief look at what God says about waiting, I’m finding the idea “godly waiting” means sitting quietly doing nothing while completely at peace is just plain wrong.

We shouldn’t wait on the Lord feigning patience.

We can actively wait, participating as God does with a patience that anticipates.

His example of waiting isn’t glamorous or easy, but it’s clear:

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” –2 Peter 3:9

Waiting isn’t about speed or suffering, but being purposeful.

Waiting isn’t about speed or suffering, but being purposeful.
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God’s waiting is done with the perfect, purposeful patience of One who knows the wait is worth it.

God believes you and I are worth waiting for- that all people still coming to repentance are worth the wait.

In waiting, He does not sit idly by. He exposes our need for repentance and brings us to it. He offers forgiveness. He enjoys transforming every person up until the last one He is waiting on.

With God, waiting isn’t about the end, but about the beginning.

With God, waiting isn’t about the end, but about the beginning.
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We wait as those preparing, anticipating, hoping, being brave, and watching carefully because there are new beginnings brought about by the Lord Himself.

It doesn’t matter if you’re waiting on good news or bad. Whether you’re waiting for dreams to be realized or simply for something to change. Maybe you feel all that’s left to wait for is an end of some sort.

Wait assured: God has a beginning ready for you and your “not yet” time is not a wasted time. Instead, your waiting is participation in God’s plan for your life. No sitting-on-hands required- they have a big job to do praying. No self-muttering needed- you have Someone waiting with you.

He’s demonstrated it for all of time to know: waiting is a purposeful place of peace, joy, and growth for the faithful.

(A version of this post was previously published here)

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LINKUP is open! Today, my friend @BethanyMcIlrath shares great perspective on God's purpose in our waiting. Join us?
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The post Waiting Isn’t Passive {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

The incident happened during one of my church’s recent choir rehearsals, and it made me think about the importance and misunderstood beauty of life’s pauses … and even God’s silence.

There is no music in rests, but they are a crucial part of any song. Any musician knows it: Composers create the rests in music as an intrinsic and valuable part of each piece. By adding dramatic pauses, great composers elevate the quality of any masterpiece. No, there is indeed no music in a rest, but it nevertheless creates music; therefore, when performers slur over or omit the designed pauses in a music score, they crush the melody as it was intended by its creator.

Everyone experiences times when life’s music is broken off by a long “rest.” Times of waiting. Times when it seems like nothing is happening. Times when it feels like God has forgotten us.

To me, personally, when it comes to life’s “rests,” I am naturally tempted to act as that one individual who lifts up her voice when the music is supposed to come to a pause.

“Hurry up, already.”

“Why is nothing happening?”

“Let me do something!”

“Oops, my bad. I should have paused.”

Yes — I have hurried up the music and sped up the tempo many times before. I have been impatient and dismayed at life’s rests. Through the years, however, I have become increasingly aware of God’s hand during those periods of seeming nothingness. We may not understand the silence nor see the growth, but He is nonetheless at work.

Farmers also know this concept. They prepare the soil, plant the seeds, and look at their bare fields for weeks or months, before spotting the first sprouts. They know it’s time for earth to do the growth. It’s time to rest in the assurance that the harvest will come. You will certainly never see a farmer dig up the seed to make sure it is growing properly. They know better — it is!

Patience and trust. Farmers know the concept too well. We must learn from them and not meddle when God calls us to simply wait and trust, and understand that God’s silence does not mean He is not near.

Late British evangelist and author Dr. George Campbell Morgan said it best: “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

In our impatience and pride, we often think nothing is happening unless we are doing something. And so, we speed up the tempo, fail to pause before speaking, or get our hands moving when we are called to be still.
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As we do so, we fail to understand that God designed the “rest” for a reason. It’s not our turn to do anything. Yet we must remember that the music is not over. He is still holding the baton and knows when to call us to sing again. And sometimes, wonder of wonders! Those dreadful “rests” come just before the climax of life’s music score.

This article was originally published in Patricia’s Column for The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Saturday – May 26, 2018.

The post The Waiting Game – NOT Your Turn {The Atlanta Journal Constitution} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.