Archives For Waiting

Follow Your Heart—Why That’s a Bad Idea

It’s the mantra of today.

It’s the moral lesson of most movies. It’s the guiding light of many lives. After all, it sounds so right, doesn’t it?

Follow your heart.

Follow Your Heart—Why Thats a Bad Idea Follow Your Heart—Why Thats a Bad Idea

(Photo by Photodune)

“Follow your heart” is another way of following your feelings. Even as Christians, our feelings often lead us, don’t they?

  • “I don’t feel good about this.”
  • “Am I comfortable with this direction?”
  • “I don’t have a peace about this decision.”

Following your heart is a popular, but unwise, way to make decisions.

Although our feelings are real, they may not represent reality. And even if what we feel does have some connection to reality, it is never all of reality.

God offers a better way.

Continue Reading…

Waiting on God in a Weary Land

Sometimes waiting on God feels like you’re dying of thirst.

That’s what David thought as he wandered in a thirsty wilderness, running from a problem he couldn’t solve.

Waiting on God in a Weary Land Waiting on God in a Weary Land

(Photo: The Wilderness of Judea. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Chased by the jealous King Saul, David took refuge in the Wilderness of Judea and prayed, “My flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

This barren land is a picture of our own challenge with waiting on God.

It also pictures the place of refuge God provides for us while we wait.

Continue Reading…

Pain in the Body—A Lesson for Your Soul

Not long ago, my body gave me a little gift.

I awoke suddenly one night with a smarting pain in the body. No matter how I fidgeted and adjusted, the hurt in my lower back only intensified.

Pain in the Body—A Lesson for Your Soul1 Pain in the Body—A Lesson for Your Soul

(Photo by Photodune)

The best way I can describe the discomfort compares to having a doctor insert a three-inch hypodermic needle just to the left of the spine, exactly where the kidney sits. Occasionally, just for fun, the doc then twists the needle in a slow, clockwise motion.

The pain literally nauseated me.

Never before had I experienced such an inescapable ache.

The most frightful part was I had no idea what was happening.

Continue Reading…

God’s Red Light, Green Light

Not long ago, my jaw dropped as I calculated how much I had spent on tolls that year.

This painful revelation forced me to reexamine my commute. I decided to take the access road to work each morning instead of the highway.

But I discovered I pay either way.

Gods Red Light Green Light Gods Red Light, Green Light

(Photo by Photodune)

I pay in time or in money. In angst or in cash. Unfortunately, I seem to have more of time.

So I pay my time at stoplights.

After two years of navigating stoplights and memorizing their patterns, I have concluded that someone, somewhere, is smiling at me behind some camera.

Maybe it’s God. (He’s smiling at you too.)

Continue Reading…

When God Asks Impossible Things of You

We tend to expect God to act in ways we can understand.

We work, and so God provides money. We pray, and so God answers prayer. We do this, and so God does that.

In other words, we see God as the effect and ourselves as the cause.

When God Asks of You Impossible Things When God Asks Impossible Things of You

(Photo by Photodune)

Life is all about God responding, it seems, and if we do nothing, neither will God.

This isn’t true, obviously. But it’s how we feel.

So what if we’re in a situation where we can do nothing? What happens when we can no longer be the cause?

When God asks impossible things of you?

Continue Reading…

Trying to Understand God’s Plan for You

Tough circumstances of life always change our minds about God.

They either tempt us to doubt what He’s promised, or they draw us closer to Him in faith. But we never stay the same.

Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You Trying to Understand Gods Plan for You

(Photo by Photodune)

God’s plan for your life is revealed and tested in times of struggle.

If you’re struggling today, don’t miss the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of God’s plan for you.

Joseph shows you how.

Continue Reading…

The Ideal Life You Want Isn’t Enough

Most people live for dreams. It’s a quest, really.

Clinging to ideals of how life could and “should” be, they chase those dreams like a carrot on a stick. Always within reach, but never gotten.

The Ideal Life You Want Isnt Enough The Ideal Life You Want Isnt Enough

(Photo by Photodune)

I guess we’re all wired to pursue the ideal. The world calls it following “your heart,” and we Christians refer to it as “the will of God.”

But in truth, we generally settle for nothing less than our version of how life ought to be.

Any search for the ideal needs only to look at the Garden of Eden to see the futility of that pursuit.

God points us a different direction.

Continue Reading…

Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places

God will lead you places you would never choose. Unwanted places.

Because the Lord is much greater than you and I can imagine, it makes sense that He wants for us more than we ever dreamed.

Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places Why God Will Lead You Unwanted Places

(Photo by Photodune)

God wants you to trust Him, and you’d like to do so. He wants you to glorify Him, to know Him, and so do you. But really, you often want to trust God only when you understand Him.

Too often, that desire to know the Lord slices His list of attributes in half.

When you and I settle for anything less than all of God, we also settle for less than all we can become.

Continue Reading…

Never Settle for Second Best with God

Their request seemed like commonsense. But it wasn’t.

“Let this land be given to your servants as a possession,” the people of Reuben and Gad said to Moses, “do not take us across the Jordan” (Numbers 32:5).

Never Settle for Second Best with God Never Settle for Second Best with God

(Photo: Land of Gilead, overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

The tribes of Reuben and Gad had huge herds, and the land of Gilead and Jazer had lush pastures.

So they settled east of the Jordan River instead of crossing over into what God had promised.

Bad idea.

Their choice shows us why we should never settle for second best with God.

Continue Reading…

Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

Taking the path of least resistance is a fact of nature.

Rivers always flow around a mountain because it’s easier than going through it. Electricity will always move through a circuit along the “easiest” route. A car is designed aerodynamically for the least resistance to wind.

Human nature is no different. Unfortunately.

Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance Why You Should Avoid the Path Of Least Resistance

(Photo by Perry from Ottawa, Canada. Fading. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

We tend to do that which is easiest, often to the neglect of that which is best.

  • It’s easier to read a magazine than to read your Bible.
  • It’s easier to sit in front of the TV than to spend time with your kids.
  • It’s easier to lose your temper with your spouse than to control it.

Following the path of least resistance can become a habit that guides our lives. We make choices based on what is easiest, most pleasant, or least painful.

But God has a better plan for you.

Continue Reading…