It’s Prayer Request Wednesday, and I’d love to pray for you! If you have a specific prayer request or need, please do not hesitate to let me know and I will pray for you. During this time where many are adjusting to a “new normal,” I know times can feel hard. This is where our online communities and our fellowship with other believers can really come into play and help us lift each other up in faith and assurance that God is in control of everything, that He cares for us, and that He will deliver us from this season.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the lessons that can be learned during such a time as this. I’m still working on figuring out what the lessons are that the Lord wants me to learn, but I know that patience is wrapped up in there somewhere...as is learning to work creatively with less.
I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
Psalm 27:13-14
When it comes to patience, I am historically not that great. But, I have been reminded in my Bible studies of all the great leaders and examples of Christian life and nature who spent much of their time waiting. We hear so much about Paul’s ministries, but it’s often skipped over how much actual time he spent waiting—after he began his ministry, he had to be ushered out of the city over the walls in a basket...he fled back to Arabia and waited. It has even been supposed that he spent this time perhaps even alone on or around Mount Sinai in meditation. He spent that time listening to what God wanted him to do. There was another time of waiting where it has been said that he even went back to his occupation as a tent maker and waited for the time where God would call him to ministry again, and at the end of this time is when Barnabas came to get him so they could truly start up the early Christian church in Antioch. Those in-between times were surely a time of growth for him and served to ultimately prepare him for when he was called to active ministry.
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
Abraham waited for children. Moses waited in the desert. Jesus waited to start his ministry. Job had to wait. David waited. The list goes on. There’s so much to be said for the waiting, and we shouldn’t overlook the importance of waiting to even our own ministries.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
Lamentations 3:25
In this time of waiting, it can feel like perhaps you aren’t doing enough. But I encourage you to remember, just as I am motivating myself to remember, that God uses times of waiting to prepare us for times of action. Find your lessons in the waiting, pray, and stay in the Word so you can be ready to be called forward in His time. He’s got this, and He’s got you. No matter how crazy things might seem—no matter how chaotic—He is in total control.
One more thing:
Do you like faith-based stickers??
I do, and I’ve seemingly found myself in the process of covering everything I own with stickers from Elevated Faith As a listener of my podcast and a reader of my blog, if you dig Christian stickers (and t-shirts, sweatshirts, wristbands, and more) you can get a discount if you’re interested. At checkout, just enter code JOrchard15 or head to the site through this link for 15% off of any purchase on the site!
This is just another way you can help support FTJ’s ministry, while also getting some cool Christian swag for yourself. :)
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