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Joy In The Waiting Room
Contributed by Marie Harvin on Sep 14, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon tells us that while we are here on earth we are in God’s waiting room and we should make our time useful and joyful.
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If you ever had an appointment with a doctor, dentist, lawyer, etc, you have notice when you arrive at their office, usually the first thing the receptionist say is, have a seat. We will be with you soon. The offering of a seat is an invitation to rest while you are waiting.
While you are waiting there probably will be a selection of magazines to read or television to watch. These things are provided to you something to take your mind off waiting. If we are busy doing something, the time will go by faster. The person you came to see want you to enjoy the wait and not get frustrated by the wait.
When we are offer a seat, we can sit down or we can pace around wringing our hands and checking every few second to see if the person we came to see is ready for us. Or we can have a seat and do something.
Some of us regret waiting in the doctor office so much until we would rather buy over the counter drugs, only to find out they didn’t work because they weren’t the real thing.
Well, I want you to know today that God has a waiting room also. This world is God’s waiting room, and while we are down here in god’s waiting room sometimes we get hurt, we are downhearted, we are sick, broken to pieces and in pain. When when we want instant relief from the miseries of life God tell to have a seat, get busy and wait in His waiting room.
We often experience a lot of disappointment which hinders our joy becaus we were unwilling to wait in the waiting room for God’s blessing. We convince ourselves that it is God will for us to have it when we want it, and the way we want it.
It is hard on this old earthly flesh to wait on God instruction. There have been tim whe we ask God, "Lord what do you want me to do?" And all He said is wait, and He don’t tell us how long, He just said wait.
The Bible tells us that Abraham was in God’s waiting room when he received a word from God about his future. He knew what God had promised, be had no word regarding when it would take place.
The same is true with us today. While we are waiting for our manifestation to come forth, while we are waiting for our breakthrough, it is not always easy to enjoy the time spent in the waiting room.
Once God speaks to us or shows us something, many times it is as though We are inpregnated with God’s word. He planted a see in us, and we must enter a time of preparation. Therefore, we should have joy in the waiting room while God prepare us to handle the things that God has promised to give us or do for us.
Well, Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting. The were weary and began to wonder if maybe there was something they could do to help things move along faster. You see Sarah, Abraham’s wife had an idea to give her handmaiden to her husband that they might have a child. She felt that perhaps this would be God’s way of giving them the promised child. It seemed to her that God was not doing anything, so she would do something.
Trying to help the Lord! Does that sound familiar? During our waiting time, we often get the bright idea and try to be "Holy Ghost, Jr."
Well, Abraham list to his wife, Sarah and did what she asked of him, and the result was the birth of a child call Ishmael. But, Ishmael was not the child of promise.
Ishmael was fourteen when the promise child eas born, but when we give birth to the Ishmael in our lives we have to deal with the repercussions. Once we have the Ishmael in our lives, we have to change the diaper and take care of him.
We like to do our own thing rather than waiting on God. But when we do our own thin we give birth to things that is of our own flesh.
The Ishmael never bring us job, we may love him, because he is the fruit of our labor, but it don’t neccessary bring us enjoyment.We may love him because he is the fruit of our labor. What we struggle and bring forth usually mean a lot to us, but that does not mean it has the ability to bring us joy. For the Lord did not say we we could not build, but the psalmist did say, "except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
Ishamael could not be heir with Isaac, because the work of the flesh could not share in the work of the Lord. The Bible said that Ishmael would be a wild mand. His hands will be against every man and every man hands against him.