Wait For It ... And, Go!

Wait for it ... and Go!

Nehemiah 2:1-6

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/WaitForIt.html

Nehemiah is the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes, the most powerful man on earth at that time. He and his people the Jews are in captivity in Babylon, and their home town of Jerusalem is burned and destroyed, and its walls broken down.

Nehemiah hears and it breaks his heart, he weeps and prays for 4 months for God to do the impossible...to deliver his people and to rebuild the walls, the temple, and their city.

Nehemiah not only knew how to watch and pray and weep and pray...but also how to WAIT and pray.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to wait on God. We get something in our heart and we want to rush out and make it happen. But we should wait and pray first. There's nothing we can do until we pray. There's going to be much to do after we pray, but not until.

Young couples today are in a hurry, and want it all now. We want a big house right now. And we want that car right now. We need furniture and decor like our parents have right now...even though it took them decades to get it. Why wait and save when you can rent to own and buy it 10 times over! They get in over their heads w/ credit cards and the bill collector calling...and he wants his money RIGHT NOW!

I say to our young families today, that the journey is half the fun! You don't need to have it all in the first few years of marriage and then have nowhere to go from there.

We started out in an 800 sq. ft. apartment with no furniture at all, so it seemed huge! We had been given 4 sets of dishes for our wedding so we used the boxes from 3 sets as a table and opened the 4th box to use and sit oriental style. There was room right there beside the kitchen for our air mattress which was nice...I could literally reach into the fridge for something w/out ever getting out of bed! We finally got a few ratty pieces of furniture donated or cheap and we were so proud of those, and then one day at work I got the call that the roof caved in and it was all destroyed by water and tar. Fun times!

We moved to a 2 bedroom townhouse and we thought we had moved into a mansion! Plus, we were driving my '66 Comet convertible which sounds pretty great until you realize my wife's hair was to her waist, the car had no A/C, and we were in Savannah, GA riding the heated highways w/ her hair flowing in the wind the whole time. Good times! I wouldn't take a million dollars for the memories we made there. This covers the first 5 years of our marriage when we were trying to have kids...and failing, but the fun's in the trying...the joy is in the journey, not the arrival. We need to try again!!

By the time we got to Missouri and actually got a real house w/ some space we realized we had like 3 empty rooms once all our stuff was in it. But we got new things little by little, and then finally got our red head and put him in a Noah's ark room, not knowing that soon after more kids would be coming...2 by 2, male and female! Be careful what you pray for. And be patient, because before you know it you'll be pacing the floor at all hours w/ colicky babies in each arm wondering how you're gonna pay for everything and looking for a bottle...and I don't mean for the baby! You'll be wondering why there's no clean clothes and so many dirty dishes and who left that sharp toy right on the top step and how did I manage to hold those kids up in the air safely as I hit every step on my fall down like a washboard?

But I wouldn't trade it for the world. And now we're trying not to blink because we know our kids will be gone before we know it and even the Tweener's class won't allow us to stay forever before we have to move on to the final one at the end of the hall and the end of the line!

Now here we are and the Lord is giving us much more than we imagined or dreamed of, and He is rewarding patience! The journey is half the fun and we love each day of it. Even though there's other things we'd like to do, there's always some greener pasture just over the fence. As soon as I get a phone I like they come out w/ a new and better one. And there's bigger and better campers than ours too ... oh yes, then I'll be happy!