Waiting With Wisdom

This is my grandson Ezra! One of the things I love about going to see him and his brothers is when I get to the door and knock. I can hear him running to the door as I call his name and excitedly announce "Ezra it's Nana!"
He will pull the curtain back and this is the face I see! My heart immediately melts and I can't wait to hear him tell me all about his day and any other thought he cares to share. He has my complete attention.

It got me thinking about the Lord and His relationship with us. Gems do you understand how excited He is when we take time out of our day to call on Him, to tell Him all about our day and any other thought that's in our head. When our face pops up in the throne room of God how does it look?

My jewel today is about waiting on God....... 
There are times when we are in the waiting period that seems to go on FOOOR EEEVVVEERRR ! Our image may look more like the picture below than that smiling face above. 

The only thing harder than keeping yourself encouraged during these times is keeping other people encouraged. Sometimes those who are watching or judging your life are more work than the waiting itself. I'm sure Job can relate to that. His friends were all to eager to tell him what he was doing wrong. I can tell you  from my personal experience lately it can mess with your self esteem. It can make you second guess your whole journey with the Lord when the waiting continues but the circumstances don't change.


But the Bible actually gives us some guide lines on how to handle the waiting and the wondering and for me a lot of times the wandering. That is what I want to share with you today.

There is a wonderful promise complete with a blessing when we wait properly.

Isaiah 64:4 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 the one who waits for Him.

If I succumb to the should haves and what if's I'm saying that the Holy Spirit wasn't in complete control of my entire life. He was with me in my past, my present and my future and He works in my behalf when I wait on Him.

So how do I wait in a way that brings God glory?

Not gonna lie the first way is probably the hardest. Psalm 37:7 

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him

I'm not even going to comment on that, you get it.

Psalm 62:1 My soul waits in silence for God only.

I think this is just plain good advice. Advice I should have taken sooner. The truth is friends, we, I talk to too many people asking what they think God is doing. Well how the heck do they know! That's a lot of pressure to put on someone, unless they have been on their face before the Lord praying for you their guess is as good as ours, a guess.  We have to be silent at times to even hear the Holy Spirit.

Psalms 27:13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.

We have to believe what God told us or trust me you will despair! We have to expect it to happen when the Lord decides it's the best time for everyone involved.

Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord;

Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait,
And in His word do I hope.

Waiting is not for wimps! You have to be relentless in your commitment to stay strong and have courage. Depression, defeat and doubt are definite blows that will assail you. You have to remind yourself daily that your hope is in the Lord not yourself, your friends or your family. You need to STAND on God's word. 

Sometimes the waiting is because other people who are part of the equation are not listening to the Holy Spirit which can cause a clog in the whole pipeline. UGH how frustrating is that! 

The thing to remember Gems is in the end God's will happens it just may take a little longer. 

Psalm 119:74 May those who fear You see me and be glad,

Because I wait for Your word.
I'm doing my best to wait for God's word in a way that pleases Him even on the days, especially the days, that I feel more like the skeleton than Ezra. Trust me I have them but my hope for those who are witnessing my life, the yay and naysayers, that in the end you will all be glad because I waited for the word of the Lord. I want to be encouraging to all that I meet that God is faithful. That when I truly trust, His load is easy and His burden light.

In the meantime I continue trying to do everything as unto the Lord. I don't stop living or existing as I wait. I get up every morning and ask the Holy Spirit what He wants to do with the day He's given me. I try to be Jesus with skin on to any one I encounter each day. I give a smile or a word of encouragement. I write a Gena's Jewel and try to be real with my Gems so they don't feel alone. I'm not allowing waiting to replace living.
This is my life verse for this season and I remind myself as often as I need to, feel free to use it in your waiting ....

Get A Glimpse

So I got yet another glimpse into myself a few weeks ago....

I was at a conference with a friend I won’t tell you which one to protect the innocent :)

There were a lot of amazing Godly speakers and praise music so you would have thought I would have been Christ like for the entire event.  Not the case.

There was also a photographer there as you would expect during a conference. The photographer was doing her job taking pictures.

I don’t know if you have ever paid attention to that but if you have attention deficit like me you can’t help but notice what others don’t. As she took pictures, many one after the other you could here the camera click as she was snapping the photos.

After a while it got on my nerves and I said to the woman sitting next to me (you  think I would have learned by now to keep my comments to myself but NOOOOO) “that photographer is so distracting.”

The woman gave a polite smile and went back to listening to the speaker.

There was a break between speakers and I went to get a drink. When I came back the event had started and I was in the back of the room.

At this time the main speaker gets up to share and as she walks across the stage I notice the friend who invited me waving her hand at me to come up to the front where she was sitting.

I thought to myself how sweet she saved me a front row seat and doesn’t want me to miss the amazing testimony that was getting ready to be shared.

I made my way through the sea of people and sat next to my friend. This is where what I call the Holy Spirit hokey pokey comes in.

My friend leans into me and says “the photographer had to leave and the Lord told me to have YOU take the pictures.”

She then mentioned this was the main speaker so make “sure you get some great shots.”

WHAT!!!!! I could here the Holy Spirit say “let’s see what you got.”

Gems I truly cannot make this stuff up.  

First of all it was one of those cameras that you had to self focus, you know the ones with the long lens.

That would have been hard enough but it was also digital so I had to look and see if the pics were clear which would have been kinda OK if I had glasses on and could actually see them.

I was freaking out! I now understood why the real photographer was taking so many pictures. The subject was not standing still and of course was talking the whole time so you had to shoot a lot to hopefully get one good picture.

I had become the distracting clicking away camera woman.

This of course got me thinking about how quick we are to judge others when we have no idea what their going through.

Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

It’s so easy to run your mouth about someone else until you’re running in their shoes. I know this isn’t a new teaching, more of a reminder for me that I thought I would share with you.

We have to be careful about even our thoughts. True, I didn’t

really say anything mean about this photographer but somewhere in my mind I obviously thought I could do a better job.

Did I mention the first picture I took the lens fell off the camera and hit the floor?

It was a humbling moment and Gems, I’m happy for them.

They keep me real and hopefully from becoming self righteous.

I’m so thankful that when my Father asks me to get a glimpse of what’s inside my head He does it to correct my thinking. He does it so I don’t lose my love walk for my brothers and sisters or more importantly His sons and daughters.

Thank you Jesus for giving me a glimpse into my head and heart and for loving me anyway. Thank you God that you don’t keep the bad pics of me on record because all you see is Jesus. Thank you Holy Spirit for the new portrait you took of me that day.