As I walked through the grocery store yesterday, I noticed a worker perched high atop a ladder putting Christmas decorations up. The department stores had their Christmas decorations up the week of Halloween. Some stores just couldn't wait..
How many times have you heard a young teen say, "I can't wait to turn 16!" I remember being in grad school thinking, "I can't wait to graduate". My little ones are saying lately, "I can't wait until Christmas". When an expectant mother gets in those last few weeks of pregnancy, many of them say "I can't wait until this baby gets here". Sometimes, we just can't wait for fill-in-the-blank to happen!
If we only acted that excited about what God wants to do in our life. Acts 3 tells the story of a man who couldn't wait to see God's power in his life. Verse 1 says, "Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them." God performed a miracle through Peter and John and the man was healed from his crippled state and walked away from the temple.
In order to receive an answer from God, notice what we have to do---fix our attention on Him and expect. Did you see that?
Have you ever taught a dog how to do tricks? If you have, you know the dog looks at his owner with intensity and expects a treat. He has learned to trust his owner so well and knows what the outcome is if he does the trick he's been taught.
So instead of wondering when God is going to answer our prayers, we should fix our attention on Him and expect Him to answer. When things aren't going according to plan next time, perhaps we should say "I can't wait for God to answer my prayer!"
2 comments:
Barbie, yours is the second blog I have read today that was talking about waiting. Do you think God is trying to speak to me???? When people as me how things are going with our adoption, all I can say is "we are still waiting". I know God has a purpose for our wait. He is making a special child just for us, and we will meet our child when His time is perfect.
I hope you and your family have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Wow! I was going to say something about our adoption and saw Melinda was saying the same things! That is just awesome!
This was a great post! We hope to be traveling in a few months to Ukraine to bring home a boy who is 12. Even though we do not have the money yet, we are proceeding and expecting God to provide. He called us to this and I KNOW He is going to see us through!
Thanks for this wonderful reminder. :)
Post a Comment