Today I have the pleasure of having my friend Michael Perkins guest post on Abraham Chronicles. He is a husband, dad, Nazarene pastor, blogger, artist, & map maker. He also wrote a killer manifesto, and you can get it for free here: http://bit.ly/startovr. Oh yeah, and his blog is pretty sweet also! Enjoy!
Waiting is tough.
I cannot think of a single person that enjoys waiting.
If a person is waiting for a dream job, they want the opportunity to come now. If a person is waiting for a promise from God, they want it now. If a person is waiting, well for anything, they want it now.
Waiting is an opportunity, but unfortunately many don’t see it that way. Many view waiting as an inconvenience and a hindrance. (I know I have in the past)
But the truth is, waiting prepares us for what’s to come next
We say things like, “I’m just waiting on the Lord.” or “When God wants it to happen, it will happen.”
Those things are most certainly true, but those statements can also be used as a cop-out or an excuse. In other words, they can really mean, “I’m going to sit here and do nothing and wait for something amazing to happen.”
Listen, it doesn’t really work that way.
We should actively wait. We should do the things that will make us better, so that when our time of waiting is done, we are prepared and equipped.
Here are three key things that I have found to be crucial to actively wait:
1. Pray. Ask God what you need to work on. Ask God to give you the wisdom, knowledge, courage to be able to handle whatever it is that you are waiting for when the waiting stops.
You’d be surprised how much you actually hear if you would just stop and ask.
2. Practice. If your dream is to be a professional writer, you don’t just wake up and say, “Today, I’m going to be a professional writer.” Instead, you write…a lot.
Professional baseball players spend hours hitting off a tee. Why? Because they know that if they are going to be able to perform at a high level when their time comes, then they had better do the work and put in the practice.
3. Hope. Hope is a powerful thing. It gives us the strength and power to fight through when things get tough. When we have waited for an extended amount of time.
Races are won in the middle? Why? Because everyone sprints when they leave the starting line and everyone sprints when they can see the finish line, but hope gets them through the middle.
Hope propels us to go forward when we cannot see when and where the dream started and hope reminds us of the reward that we cannot see yet, but is waiting for us.
4. Repeat. Actively waiting is an ongoing process. In other words, if you are in a period of waiting: keep praying, keep practicing, and keep hoping.
Don’t waste the opportunity given to you.
Don’t use waiting as an excuse to do nothing. Instead, actively wait and do the things that are necessary to be the best that you can possibly be.
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What do you do when you are in a time of waiting?