Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.   Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

  (While I use the KJV for my personal Bible time and study, I love the way the Amplified Bible states the above verses.)

Dear sister, WAITING on the Lord,

Do you sometimes grow tired of this time of waiting and wonder what God is up to? What He has in mind? WHEN He will move? You go about your days, striving to please your Heavenly Father, serve your family and friends, and live as the woman He created you to be…yet you can’t help but wonder what is taking so long? If this waiting on God will really prove “worth it”? I believe we all have moments in our humanity when our minds wander. But the Lover of our Soul is calling us to sit at His feet, share the highlights (and the low-lights) of our day with Him, pour out our hearts and tears, and give ourselves and all of our dreams to Him…again…in total abandon in exchange for fresh joy and peace. You see, unless we allow Him to fill us up with Himself and are satisfied, we can never truly enjoy any other gift the way He intends for us to. For, loving Jesus more makes the blessings He bestows all the sweeter. Oh, the work He is performing in you in these times of waiting and trusting! A work He has promised to complete!

I thought you may be encouraged by this little poem.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried:

Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,

And the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait.”

 

“WAIT? You say wait?” my indignant reply.

“Lord, I need answers; I need to know why!

Is Your hand shortened? Or have You not heard?

By faith I have asked and am claiming Your Word.

 

My future and all to which I can relate

Hangs in the balance, and YOU tell me ‘Wait?’

I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign,

Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

 

And, Lord, You promised that if we believe

We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

And, Lord, I’ve been asking! I need a reply!

Lord, I need answers. I need to know why!”

 

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,

And grumbled to God, “So I’m waiting…for what?”

 

He seemed, then, to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,

And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead; cause the mountains to run.

 

All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.

You would have what you want…but you wouldn’t know Me.

You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint;

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint;

 

You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me

When darkness and silence were all you could see.

 

You’d never experience the fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and I save (for a start),

But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart,

 

The glow of My comfort late in the night,

The faith that I give when you walk without sight,

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked

Of an infinite God, who makes what you have last.

 

You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that “My grace is sufficient for thee.”

Yes, your dreams for that loved one overnight would come true,

But, Oh, the loss! if I lost what I am doing in you!

 

So be silent, My child, and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.

And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, “WAIT.”

 

~Author Unknown