Wait, What? Learning to Be Still, While You’re Waiting on God to MoveSample

When Lazarus was dying, Jesus knew the outcome – he had prophesied over it before he went to the tomb and yet he still wept. He mourned. He felt it all, and he comforted his people. He could have avoided all of that and just left on time and went and healed Lazarus before he died. But he didn’t. He was in the middle of the pain, with Mary and Martha. 

God is with us during our trials, circumstances, and pain. Sometimes he isn’t going to answer a prayer in the way that we think he should. But he’s going to be with us in it and through it, to the other side of it.

Our life shouldn’t be consumed with the dread of negative possibilities, or the worry of when the next storm is going to hit, or trying to dodge the bad, uncomfortable, or less than ideal scenarios. God did not create us for that. He wants us to experience His peace in the midst of chaos, his calmness in the middle of the fires, his rest in the midst of exhaustion, his presence at the center of our isolation.

You see, it’s not our trials that define us, but how we seek God and give him the glory, during the trials. It’s about who we can lead to Jesus, based on our response to them. It’s about the faith that we build when we release control of them.

When our focus is how we are obedient to God, it’s no longer about the outcome of the circumstance.

When we are trusting without wavering, we are no longer consumed with the anxiety of the unknown.

When we are walking in HIS truth – we won’t step into a naysayers talk that gets us distracted.

When we proclaim with our voice of thanksgiving – we get the opportunity to show others how to respond to adversity with worship.

And that’s when true growth happens - when our focus is our relationship with the Almighty, and the fullness of what only he can bring when we’re obediently waiting “so that the works of God might be displayed in us”.