Faith means waiting on God

I've been re-listening to a series by James MacDonald on Faith. It's a series on Hebrews 11. There's a sub section of the series called "Faith= Waiting on God." So I pulled it up in my podcasts last night and began to listen. It's no doubt extremely relevant for this season in my life. This week was rough, the waiting seriously got to me. I began to fuss but was quickly reminded as I listened to the series that I have to be careful not to fall into the traps of unbelief that can arise as we wait on God. James MacDonald looks at the life of Abraham as an example of someone who waited in faith. So most of his sermon really comes out of Genesis. J Mac always uses a clear delivery that I can completely identify with. God has given him an incredible ability to just lay it out there- no frills, no trills just truth.

"The no.1 tool in God's tool chest for forming our character is the chisel of waiting."

"Waiting is the process by which God makes us spiritually fit to receive what He has all along determinded to do. God's love is not a pampering love, it's a perfecting love and the decisions that God makes in His sovereignty are for your ultimate good and for the good of His kingdom purposes."

"If you're waiting on God for something, don't you think that God is off some place else, or that somehow everything is in neutral and that you're just flipping pages on the calendar, Not at all!! God is making you spiritually fit to do the thing that He is determined to do in your life!!!"-

- Waiting is not passive or standing still, it's active. Faith allows us and requires us to do things. ( Call of God to Abraham. Everything God promised was about the future, yet Abraham still got up immediately and went - Gen 12)

- Waiting does not mean that we should put our minds in neutral. God is teaching us while we wait. We shold be learning things while we wait on God (Why didnt' God give Sarah a baby earlier? - to heighten the miraculous and to prepare her to recieve.)

Three things we do instead of learn while we wait:
1. Force it. -I'm tired of waiting so I'm going to do it myself (i.e Sarah & Ab brought Hagar into the picture - Gen 16)
2. Fake it. (Ab asks God if Ishmeal can be the descendant to receive the special blessing-Gen 17:18)
3. Fuss about it or get bent. (Sarah laughs in her old age when God tells her that she would have a baby. Gen 18.)

- Waiting is not looking around at the moment, it's looking ahead by faith. It means dreaming a dream for the future and making choices of integrity that will reflect a generational obedience.

- Waiting is not clinging to the promise, it's clinging to the provider by faith. (Ab got attached to the promise, Isaac, the evidence of the miracle rather than the provider of the miracle. God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, to remind him that He must cling to the Provider. Gen 22. ) God doesn't want anything to take his rightful place of priority in our lives. God will not compete. God doesn't want us trusting in the things He has done, he wants us trusting in Him.

"Don't get attached to the way you think that God is going to do it, but always keep your eyes on the Lord. Any place else is a dangerous place to be. Look to the Giver Himself and trust that He will do it His way."

I am thankful to be in a season of waiting. I'm not so much enjoying being "chiseled at" these days :) but I do know that like Abraham and Sarah, He is making me spiritually fit to receive His incredible blessings.