Joseph-The Waiting Room Series

Romans 8.28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

To wait biblically speaking is not to assume the worst, worry, fret or make demands. Nor is waiting inactivity. Waiting is a sustained effort to stay focused on God through prayer and belief. To wait is to “rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Psalm 37.7.

Waiting is easier read than done. It doesn’t come easy for me. I am always in a hurry to get everything done. I am always under pressure to be on time. The problem is most of the time it is really not needed. I need to take a real Sabbath. To slow life down to a crawl for twenty-four hours. The Sabbath was created for frantic souls like me, people who need to be reminded that the world will not stop if you do.

Keith Maines shared this story. My wife's aunt Gladys has always had a little apple orchard at her home. But this year when we paid her a visit, I couldn't help but notice the huge harvest of apples. The branches hung heavy, and some were cracking with the weight of abundance. Never, in many years, had anyone seen such a harvest.

When I asked her why, she told me that last year there was a late frost in the spring, and all the buds froze. When that happens, Gladys said, an apple tree does a miraculous thing: It stores up its energy in thousands of small bumps, or nodules, called scions (pronounced "see-ons"). All that energy pulsates through that network of scions until the spring of the following year, and then, BAM! You have an exploding riot of buds, as an apple tree unleashes all that stored up energy.

Gladys' description made me think about our spiritual lives. Sometimes the harsh frosts of this life—cancer, divorce, bankruptcy, trauma, grief, depression—cause our hearts to freeze. But at the core of the Christian faith we also live with an incredible promise: in and through Christ, there will be an abundant harvest in our lives. God's power is pulsating under the gnarly bark of this world and even our bodies.

1 Peter 1.3-4, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

In Christ, we are being formed into a small nodule of living hope. During certain seasons of our life we feel our hearts waiting, longing, and even aching for those frozen places to burst into life. Our living hope is that one day, all of this stored up glory will be unleashed in a joyful riot of splendor.

Keith Mannes, Highland Church, McBain, Michigan

God will eventually end our waiting and come through for us. The question we need to ask is this. What if you give up? Walk away and lose your faith?

Don’t. For heaven’s sake don’t give up. All of heaven is pulling for you. Above and around in every instant, God’s messengers are at work.

Keep waiting.

Isaiah 40.31, but those who hope in the Lord