Waiting - an opportunity

 

Waiting- don’t we all hate it? Waiting in phone queues, at traffic lights, in medical surgeries, at train stations. I just missed my bus. I picked the one department store item that doesn’t have a price tag. The four-lane highway is reduced to one lane due to an accident. This is a time when frustration can build and tempers flare.

Perhaps we can learn something from the wait.  For one thing, maybe God allows some minor difficulties to occur in our lives so that we can practise patience and grace. For another, time spent waiting can also be a time spent praying.

Sometimes Christians can turn prayer into a solemn ritual – it needs to happen at a specified time, in a certain place, even to be conducted in a specific manner. There is nothing wrong with these familiar forms of prayer, but I would suggest that waiting can provide an opportunity to pray, not only for yourself and people you know, but also for the people immediately around you.

You can pray without saying words aloud. A heart and thoughts directed to God is all that is needed.

Have you thought about praying for the person in the car in front of you at the red light- particularly if that person was speeding ahead of you before the lights changed? Did you pray for the people involved in the traffic accident and the emergency services attending them as you waited for the lanes to be cleared? As you wait in the doctor’s surgery you could pray for the health, both physical and spiritual, of the people seated around you.

Time is a precious resource and when waiting, we have been given an opportunity to use it for God.

May God bless you as you serve Him.

 

 

Substitution

 

“When darkness tries to roll over my bones

When sorrow comes to steal the joy I own

 When brokenness and pain is all I know I won’t be shaken,

 I won’t be shaken

 Chorus

My fear doesn’t stand a chance

 When I stand in Your love…”

From “Stand in Your Love” written by Josh Baldwin / Ethan Hulse / Rita Springer / Mark Harris . Bethel Music.

This lovely song has been part of the worship choruses that we sing at my church, Bridgeman Downs Baptist, for a few months now. It’s very meaningful to me. As I sang on Sunday morning I thought of recent circumstances which have caused me to remember certain incidents which are a long time in the past. In this case the emotions generated were not fear as such, rather hurt and pain. God reminded me that I could sing these words, quietly, so as not to distract those around me from worship. “ My hurt doesn’t stand a chance when I stand in Your love.” “My pain doesn’t stand a chance when I stand in Your love.” For someone else it could have been a different word – maybe “rejection” “shame” “pride” “anxiety”.

I mean absolutely no disrespect to the writers and ownership of the song. I do not try to rewrite choruses. I am merely pointing out that in some circumstances you can personally adapt what you are singing to honour God whom you are worshipping. The truth of these lyrics is so powerful. Not only does fear not stand a chance against God’s love, He is sovereign over every lie and false emotion that Satan can use to negatively impact our lives and draw us away from God.

A song can be a declaration of our faith. So can a prayer. So can a spoken or written word. All these things remind us of how great our God really is. He alone overcomes every evil and He does so through what was accomplished on the cross by the love of His Son, Jesus Christ.