Unanswered Questions. We all have them. How am I going to pay my bills? Why did this person hurt me? What should I do with my future? What is God doing through this situation? Why do I feel so alone? In college, I read a devotional by Elisabeth Elliot that challenged me to commit each of these questions to God- to leave them in His hands and trust Him.
Funny-
Here I am once again, asking the same questions. My life is full of unanswered questions at this moment. Should I do this or that? Should I go here or there? And if you’re like me, you deliberate. You mull. You weigh the pros and cons, the concerns, the consequences, how it will fit in the “big scheme of things”. And in the end, I always come back to this simple truth.
“I wait for the Lord. My soul waits,
and in His Word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more
than watchmen for the morning.”
Psalm 130: 5,6
So basic. So elementary. But so hard to just wait. To be still and patient- allowing God to work and orchestrate His plans.
I read this short devotional in another book by Elisabeth Elliot- and it is so good I have to put it here.
“Few of us enjoy having to wait for something we want. It is human nature to desire instant gratification, and it is divine nature to do many things very, very slowly. Growth is always imperceptible. But the farmer exercises long patience in waiting for his crop. He has done his work and is assured of the result, hence he waits quietly. He is at rest because the outcome (barring disastrous “acts of God”) is certain. If we could simply remember that is true of everything- that God’s purposes are slowing being worked out for His glory and our good- we would, like the farmer, keep faith and wait quietly.
Lord, take from us all fretting and hurrying and teach us to
rest our hearts in the “ultimate certainty” (James 5:7)
Sometimes we think waiting means sitting around until God writes the answer in the sky. My dad used to say, “We would be much better off if we would get busy doing what we know God wants us to do instead of sitting around and wondering about all the things we don’t have the answers to”. How true. Instead of getting flustered and worried about the unanswered questions, I need to get busy doing the directives that are so clear in His Word.
Love thy neighbor
Be Salt and Light
Trust in the Lord
Obey His Word
Glorify Your Father
Worship in Spirit and Truth
Pray Continually
Get Up- Look Up- and Get Busy doing what you know God wants you to do.
1 comment:
Elis, That's just beautiful. So well written and so perfectly composed. I know EXACTLY what you mean... and what a great reminder that His ways are so much better than mine.
The coolest part is that God's not going to let any decision be the "wrong" one. With God, there is no wrong, because it all works toward one ultimate goal: Us and Him, like we're the only person in the world that He knows and loves. That's so sweet! And whenever I remember THAT, the worries seem about 50% smaller.
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