If you have been waiting a long time and have not seen much progress, you are probably getting very tired of waiting. I want to encourage you to take a fresh attitude toward waiting.
The Bible, in Mark 4:20-27, says that we are to be patient like the farmer who puts his seed in the ground and then waits for the early and latter rain. The Word goes on to say that while he waits for the seed to sprout, he rises up and goes to bed, and eventually it comes up. And he, the farmer, knows not how.
God has taught me through these Scriptures to keep living the life I have now while I am waiting for things that are in my heart to come to pass. We can become so intent on trying to birth the next thing that we do not take care of and enjoy the things at hand.
I had a vision from God ten years before I began to see its fullness. During those ten years, I believe I missed a lot of joy trying to give birth outside of God’s timing.
Let’s say a woman who has five children becomes pregnant. If she started trying to give birth to the new baby in the first month, it would seem rather ridiculous. What if she tried so hard to get the new baby to come that she failed to take proper care of the five she already had? We can readily see the foolishness of this scenario. However, in reality, people often do the same thing with other situations.
Enjoy where you are while you are waiting to get to where you want to be! When the Bible says the farmer rises up and goes to bed, I believe it means he lives his ordinary, everyday life while he is waiting for his envisioned garden to sprout.
One day a pastor picked us up at a crowded airport. It was extremely busy. The escalators had lines, and the restaurants had lines. It seemed as if everywhere we turned we were waiting. I could see that the pastor was getting a bit frustrated with the whole thing. Suddenly he turned to me and said, “I guess you can see that I don’t wait well.”
Anytime we haven’t learned to wait well the results are obvious, not only in the way we behave emotionally but also in our physical bodies. Waiting is a large part of life, and if waiting always brings frustration, it creates stress that eventually takes a toll on the physical body and can cause sickness.
This particular pastor who did not “wait well” was very sick at the time with physical weakness that his doctor said had been produced by years of stress. Take a new attitude toward waiting, and it will not have to be so difficult for you,
In all truth we spend more time waiting in our lives than we do receiving. After we receive what we are waiting for, we will begin waiting for something else. If you can see what I mean, you will be able to quickly realize that waiting is a major part of life.
Let’s say you get a raise and then wait for the next one. You wait for a child, then you wait for them to get out of diapers into pants and soon you are waiting for them to be able to buy their own pants!
You wait to buy a house, then wait to buy furniture for your house that you are no longer waiting for. Then you wait to be able to afford a cleaning lady to help you clean your house and the furniture that you waited for. Do you get my meaning?
Learn to enjoy waiting, realizing that waiting is what will deliver your dream. I really should say “waiting well” is what will deliver your dream. The fulfillment, of course, comes from God, but waiting is like the delivery boy.
Sometimes a person starts waiting, and by the time the delivery boy arrives, they have gone off and started something else, and they probably will not be around for the end fulfillment of that thing either.
Impatient people often do not hang around long enough to see the finish of really great things because great things take so much time to mature. My husband, Dave, always says, “Fast and fragile; slow and solid.”
If it is thrown together quickly to suit the impatient and those who do not wait well, it is not likely to be lasting. However, if people are willing to wait on God’s perfect timing, it will be put together right and will last a long, long time.
Occasionally we see “shooting stars” in ministry – people who come out of seemingly nowhere and practically overnight are known worldwide, usually because they happened to get in with a certain group of people who had an ability to open doors for them.
Rarely do their ministries last. They often get into trouble financially or morally because character is built during the hard times of waiting, but they didn’t go through that character-building time.
If a person somehow avoids all the hard things and shoots up overnight, they generally do not last. Mark 4:5-6 says that the seed, which will shoot up overnight withers when the heat comes.
When we finally learn to respect and appreciate the times of waiting, God goes to work in earnest. And even though we cannot see what is happening, the things that will make us happy later on are happening right now behind the scenes.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Joyce Meyer is one of the world's leading practical Bible teachers. A New York Times bestselling author, her books have helped millions of people find hope and restoration through Jesus Christ. Through Joyce Meyer Ministries, she teaches on a number of topics with a particular focus on the mind, mouth, moods and attitudes. Her candid communication style allows her to share openly and practically about her experiences so others can apply what she has learned to their lives.
Joyce hosts a TV and radio show, Enjoying Everyday Life, which broadcasts worldwide to a potential audience of 4.5 billion people. She has authored 100 books, which have been translated into more than 100 languages. More than 12 million of her books have been distributed free of charge around the world, and each year millions of copies are sold.
Joyce conducts close to a dozen domestic and international conferences every year, teaching people to enjoy their everyday lives. For 30 years, her annual women's conference has attracted more than 200,000 women from all over the world to St. Louis for specifically themed teachings by her and guest speakers.
Through her teachings, God has provided opportunities to meet the needs of the suffering and bring the Gospel in a practical way. Joyce's passion to help hurting people every day is foundational to the vision of Hand of Hope, the missions arm of Joyce Meyer Ministries. These outreaches around the globe include feeding programs, medical care, homes for orphans, and programs combatting human trafficking. In her hometown of St. Louis, Joyce and Dave, her husband, founded the St. Louis Dream Center (SLDC) in 2000. The SLDC serves the inner city through hands-on programs targeted at reaching the lost and hurting with the love of Christ.
Over the years, God has provided Joyce with many opportunities to share her testimony and the life-changing message of the Gospel. Having suffered sexual abuse throughout her childhood, as well as just dealing with the struggles of everyday life, Joyce discovered the freedom to live victoriously by applying God's Word to her life and in turn desires to help others do the same.
Joyce is and continues to be an incredible testimony of the dynamic, redeeming work of Jesus Christ.