Don't wait

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." Ecclesiastes 11:4

If you are like me, sometimes I find myself waiting for all the right conditions before I do what I know the Lord has called me to do. In truth, I may be waiting a long time. How many times have you said something to the effect... I'll do it when my children are grown so I'll have more time; or I'll do it when I get a promotion because I'll be in a better position it give; or when my husband feels called as well so then I'll have the support that I need; or when I get a better education I'll be better equipped to handle the task; etc? Too often we put off the important things...the things of God in our lives because everything is not just perfect around us- we want things to be just status quo before we'll make a move. God doesn't work that way. What we don't realize is that only in our human brokenness are we fully able to "drop our nets and follow Him."

I am a firm believer that the Lord gives us trials to groom and shape us into the godly servants that He has called Christians to be. This process is certainly not comfortable or enjoyable most of the time, but the results in the heart are worth every moment of pain endured. In my experience I wait to submit myself to the Lord's plan for my life out of fear and lack of control, but what I now realize is that God will work in my life as He sees fit with my approval or not! So wouldn't it be more becoming of me to submit to His authority in my life FIRST? I am very much a planner and a perfectionist. I can honestly say at times that these traits have hindered me as a Christian, a wife, and mother. No one expects perfect: not God, not my husband, and certainly not my one year old daughter. Why do I feel such an intense need for perfection? I do not want to submit unless I know that I can complete the task perfectly...which is impossible.

So, I would encourage you to give your heart and your soul to the service and the purpose that the Lord has for you. As I look for new opportunities in my life I am earnestly seeking His will. I pray that God will show me where he wants me to be. When people ask what I want to do I say" What ever the Lord will have me do." There is so much freedom in submission of my life to the One who created me! He knows the number of hair on my head so I think that He is MUCH more qualified to make those decisions that me. What a blessing it has been for me to endure a difficult grooming process. I would not take a minute back because I know that God is using the trials in my life to make me who He wants me to be. There is no greater joy in my life than knowing that I am living in His will, wholly and completely.

I was reading this week about Joshua and I really connected personally with his encounter with God. When God told Joshua that it was time to enter into the promised land, He told him to send the priest out first. The priest was suppose to step in the water of the Jordan River to cross over. What if they had waited for the conditions to be just right? What if their attitude had been, "We'll go into the river when God rolls it back, or removes the water, or builds a bridge, that way we won't get our shoes wet." As we look in the Bible we see that many of God's servants did not always have all the perfect conditions to work in, but they did it anyway... they took a step of faith. The right condition for Gideon would have been to have a big army with him, but the Lord cut it back to 300.... not the right conditions to win a battle.

Waiting for the right conditions means we are waiting on the conditions that we have chosen- we want to do it our own way, in our own time. God chooses the conditions and they may not always seem favorable in our eyes. Stop waiting for all the right conditions- conditions of your own choosing. Because even if the conditions did change and they became exactly like you wanted them you would still wind up finding another "reason" to go down your own path. Don't wait for everything to be perfect; don't wait for things to change; because in both cases... it just may not happen.