A Time of Waiting

"Then the Lord answered me and said: 
'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, 
That he may run who reads it. 
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; 
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by faith.'"
Habakkuk 2:2-4 (emphasis added)

Last month I wrote a post about Taking a Leap of Faith. In that post I reference that there are four places in the Bible in which the phrase is repeated, "the just shall live by faith". Recently I took a closer look at the first of those verses in Habakkuk 2:4. The interesting thing about Habakkuk 2:4 is that it is not referencing taking a leap of faith at all, it is actually referencing waiting on God.

Sometimes it takes more faith to stay still, do nothing, and wait on God.

This is especially true when God has given us a vision and we want it to come to pass right away. A common example of someone who had to wait a long time on God's vision to come to pass was Joseph. If you read Genesis you find that Joseph had two very clear dreams from God in which his parents and brothers all bowed down to him. This was probably an intriguing and exciting dream and I am sure he was eager to see it come to pass. However, things took a very different turn for him when he was thrown in a pit and then sold by his brothers to a slave trader. When he got into Potiphor's house things seemed to start to get better as he became head of everything in the household when he again was treated unfairly and thrown in jail for something he didn't do. 

During his time as a slave and as a prisoner it required a lot of faith for him to hold onto the dream God had given him.

It would have been easy for him to give up on God but He knew that God was faithful. Eventually God brought him to a place of being second only to Pharaoh, in the most powerful country of the time, and used him to save millions of people during the famine. Even then Joseph held on to grace and mercy and told his brothers, "what you meant for evil God used for good". 

So what do you need to do when you find yourself in a time of waiting? 

1. Write the vision down - like God told Habakkuk, write down the vision or dream that God has given you and put it somewhere that you will see it every day. Keep it before your eyes so that you can continue to build your faith and know that it will come to pass. 

2. Stay faithful to what God has given you - Joseph was faithful everywhere he landed and this allowed God to use him even when He was still waiting for the ultimate vision. "There comes a time for every person where faith requires faithfulness. If you are faithful in what you have said you were going to do, God will make it happen." - Pastor Sherwood Vegsund

3. Develop your gifts - "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them..." - Romans 12:6. Even though you are in a time of waiting it is important that you use the opportunities you have to develop your gifts. This is true even if there is no one else benefiting from those gifts at this time. 

4. Trust God to complete His work - "being confident of this one thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." - Philippians 1:6 Trust that God will bring the vision to pass that He has given you. No matter how long the waiting period is God's promises will come to pass as long as you are faithful.

Learning to Be Still

"Be still and know that I am God."

Psalm 46:10

"In the secret,

In the quiet place,

In the stillness you are there..."

In today's society there is so much noise...

Through the internet and out smart phones we have constant access to limitless information, movies, music, and games. We are always connected to our friends, our family, our jobs. There is constant noise, constant stimulation, constant information. 

All of this "noise" can make it difficult to truly connect with God.

When I was in high school a new version of the above song was put out by sonic flood. In this new version it was sped up and a little "punk flair was added to the song. Many of my friends in the church loved this new version but I always thought it was contrary to the song itself. Even in a song that talks about meeting God in the "quiet place" we feel like we have to speed it up and, ultimately, make it louder. 

Yesterday I went to a coffee shop in order to get some work done and I couldn't get over how quiet it was. I should have been happy about it being quiet because I was there to focus in on work but the quiet actually seemed to distract me. It took me a while to figure out why the silence was so unusual to me and then they suddenly out on some music. It was then that I realized how trained I am to hear music in places like that. Even when we want a quiet place to step away and get work done we re used to noise being in the background. 

How often do you truly find yourself in a quiet place before God?

There is a definite time for loud praise, for time with music, as well as for other noise in our life, but there is also a time for cutting off all noise and approaching the throne of our God. 

"Be still..." 

Cut out the noise of your life for just a moment. Set aside your to-do list, your stresses, your challenges, and take a moment of silence, of stillness. 

"...and know that I am God."

Remind yourself of who He is. He is God, He is King, He is Lord. He is also Father, Savior, and Friend. He is all powerful but He is also intimate. He is strong and He is also gentle. He is our protector and He is also our comforter. 

As you take your moment of stillness, of silence, remind yourself of who He is and allow Him to step into your situation.