The Waiting Game (Hix)

Joshua 1:10-11-Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,

“Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.’”

A woman who was waiting in the check-out line at a local grocery store , was fuming. She came to purchase a new broom, along with some cleaning supplies, and was in a hurry! The line was not moving fast enough to please her, and she was letting everyone feel her frustration by her body language and loud sighs! When the cashier called for a price check, which delayed her turn at the counter even longer, the woman remarked indignantly, "Well, I'll be lucky to get out of here and home before Christmas!" Picking up on her comment, the clerk replied to the woman, "Don't worry, ma'am. With that wind kicking up out there, and that brand new broom you have there, you'll be home in no time."

No one likes to wait!

But we spend our time waiting in traffic, in checkout lines at the grocery stores and Wal-mart, at the doctor‘s office or for test results.

Waiting for a spouse….Either we are waiting to get one, or waiting on them after we get one…(To get ready to go somewhere).

Waiting for a baby to be born, waiting on them to take their first steps, to say their first words, then we are waiting for them to grow up and leave home, or maybe your just waiting for them to grow up!!

Sometimes we are waiting for job, or if we have a job we are waiting on a better job!

You maybe waiting for retirement!

Hopefully we are all eagerly waiting for Jesus’ return! (A guy said, “I have heard that Jesus is coming back, all my life, and it hasn’t happen yet!” I replied, “You have heard all your life, that one day you were going to die, and just because it hasn’t happen yet don’t mean it won’t!” He said, “Good point!”)

We will always be waiting on someone or on something!

More than often, if something is not happening, then we are attempt to make it happen!

We all know the saying: Don't just stand there, do something.

But God sometimes says: Don't just do something, stand there!

I want you to remember that waiting is not just something we do, while we wait to get what we want.

Waiting is the instrument that God uses, so that we can become what God wants us to be!

What God Does In Us, While We Wait Is As Important, As What It Is We Are Waiting For.

A farmer can wait for weeks and weeks before he sees the results of all his hard work of tilling the land and planting seeds!

Waiting is God's way of seeing if we will trust Him before we move forward!!

When your waiting, Your not waiting for test results, Your not waiting for circumstances to change, Your not waiting the find the right spouse, Your not waiting for healing for you or a love one….You are waiting on God!!!

The One who loves you the most! The One cares about you the most! The One who has given you life in the first place!

Now knowing all that, can you wait on Him?

I believe as the waited:

When they got to the Jordan, they would see…A river with no bridge to cross it, waters that where waging, one mile of water between the bank they where standing on and the bank they wanted to stand on!

The flood waters weren’t going down, they were going up!

The situation wasn’t getting better, it was getting worse!

That maybe like in your life, you been asking God to help you, to rescue you, to deliver you!

But instead of things getting better, things are getting worse!

And you are wondering were God is?

Those three days you been waiting, has turned into three months, three years, but your not the only one who has waited on God and His promises, but that’s what made them great men and women of faith!!

Noah as he built the ark and waited upon the rain to come.

Abraham and Sarai wait for their first child.

Joseph would wait many years to see his dreams fulfilled.

David would wait many years before he would crowned king.

King David was always a man who was willing to wait on God, you find it Psalms him asking God time and time again. Should he do this, should he do that, should he fight this battle, if he does how should he fight it?

Then you have a man like king Saul, who would not wait, he did not wait on the man of God to make the sacrifice before the battle, and made the sacrifice himself, and it cost him his crown!