I recently came across a quote by a man I respect very much. John Ortberg, Senior Pastor at Menlo Park Prebyterian Church in Northern California stated that, “Biblically, waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.”
Let me give you some background into my life that will help you understand why this quote jumped off the page. I recently got married and needed a job to provide for my wife and myself. I had been searching for a job since last April and seemed to have a couple of options available but no solid job offers. Needless to say, I was getting anxious, worried, and perhaps even doubting whether or not God had a plan for me. I was in a period of waiting, and my patience was being tried.
This brings us back to Ortberg’s quote. At first glance, it seems like “just another quote” about patience, but let’s dig a bit deeper into its meaning. What does it truly mean to “wait upon the Lord?” as Isaiah (40:31), the psalmist(40:1), or other biblical authors suggest? This is where I find Ortberg’s quote to be more than the average quote, because in this statement Ortberg suggests that we are to employ active patience. In this sense, we are not merely placing our requests before the Lord and enduring a randomly allotted time of waiting, but instead we should be allowing and expecting Him to transform us by the power of the gospel as we wait.
How often do we “plan our way,” only to have “the Lord establish our steps?” (Proverbs 16:9). While this can be frustrating and/or confusing at first, I’ve come to understand this to be a huge blessing! I look back and see many times the Lord saved me from my own foolish plans, or guided me on a path immeasurably more rewarding than I could have “asked or imagined!” (Eph 3:20). The path became more rewarding because I underwent a paradigm shift as I actively waited. So how do we participate in active patience in our time of waiting? As we pray, I’ve found that the Lord aligns our hearts to His own. The Lord allots this period of waiting, in His sovereignty, so that we can be drawn to Him! This is the Lord’s desire for us during this time. This is what Ortberg states: “God wants us to be.” We are not merely to endure this time as we wait for our plans unfold, but instead to seek the Lord’s plan by aligning our heart to His. For when our hearts are aligned with His, then so are our priorities, inclinations and desires. At this point Christ’s glory is the priority, not the temporary pleasures or successes that may have been influencing our previous plan.
Whatever previous desire I may have had on my job search, the Lord had the perfect plan for me, just as He assures me He always will. As I struggled to have patience, the Lord was even more patient with me as he slowly aligned the desires of my heart with His own, and as He did, He placed my current job right into my lap. I’ve been working here for just under a week, and I’m feeling very blessed.
As we eagerly await the answers to life’s hard questions, let us not miss the opportunity to actually bear fruit while we wait. Instead of merely waiting for the Lord to fulfill our desire, let us allow our hearts to be aligned with His in active patience through prayer, reading of scripture, and receiving of guidance. In this way, we can experience the very best He has for us while we wait! For when we are seeking first to glorify Christ in our life, then we will be truly satisfied to wait upon Him patiently. And who knows? Perhaps He will take us down a new and exciting path!
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25
Today’s post is written by Ted Cockle, a new writer for the Inspired Faith blog. He earned his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College (IL) in 2009 majoring in Communications and Businesss. He has chosen to continue his studies and is currently working towards his master’s degree in Christian Formation and Ministry at the same institution. As an employee of Inspired Faith he will be contributing to our blog on a regular basis.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body (1 Corinthians 12:14-16).
Photo by just.Luc (flickr.com)
Have you ever had a friend in the faith who walked away? Maybe they walked away from God, without taking into consideration that they were walking away from His body too.
When I’ve had friends who have left the Church and renounced their faith, it felt like a spiritual amputation. Just because they said they weren’t part of the body anymore, didn’t mean the part of the body they represented magically disappeared with no consequences. Their departure was painful, and it weakened the body.
Sometimes I think our American ideal of individualism transfers too much into our Christianity. For many of my friends, their faith life was about their own personal feelings and choices. If they felt like they believed in Jesus, they would serve Him and participate in their local community of believers. If they decided one day, though, that it had all been a lie, they withdrew from other believers without thinking of the impact of their decision.
Now, I’m not saying that we should hold on to our faith just because someone else is telling us to. We do need to have legitimate, tried-and-true faith in Jesus for ourselves. Playing a fake-it-till-you-make-it game for years probably isn’t the healthiest thing for the body of Christ either.
But if you’re questioning your role in the body or your faith in the Head of the body…don’t act rashly. Your actions toward fellow believers can have ramifications beyond what you might anticipate. You’re part of the body, whether you like it or not. And God did it that way for a reason. He wants us to actively participate in community so that we are all edified and encouraged to grow in our faith in Him.
So when you’re doubting, I can encourage you with my testimony. I can help you remember why you fell in love with Jesus, when those initial feelings of faith have weakened. And when I’m doubting, you can help me to stand in my faith again.
When you walk away from all of that with no questions asked, it hurts you (even if you don’t realize it) and it hurts the rest of the body. The gifts you brought to the table, the personality and communication style and all that makes you who you are – they’re suddenly gone. And the body’s not the same anymore. God will still preserve His body and keep growing it into a healthy community by His grace, but your presence is missed.
LORD, I pray for any who are reading this post today who feel like they have no place in your body, for those who wonder why they even bother to attend church or to fellowship with other believers. I pray that You would speak to them and encourage them. Show them how much value they have to You and to Your body. Bring friends into their lives who will love them through difficult times. Give them purpose, joy, and faith as they serve You. And for those of us who feel confident in our place in Your body, help us to welcome every believer we know into Your body with open arms. Overcome any spirits of jealousy, fear, and busyness that would keep us from sharing Your love and Your purpose with other believers. Make our local churches places where You are glorified in all of our relationships. Amen!
Teach me, Lord, the way of Your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.
Give me understanding, so that I may keep Your law and obey it with all of my heart.
Direct me in the path of Your commands, for there I find delight. Psalm 119:33-35
Faith is a little five-letter word that we sometimes equate with “doing all things right before the Lord at all times, trusting Him in everything, and praying really hard, believing He will answer all of our prayers, though we cannot understand it at all.” Unfortunately, faith is a really big thing that a really big God has asked us to have. Not only are we called to have faith in Him, but we are encouraged to act in faith…faith in the True and Living God. To whom much is given, much will be required and at least for me, this is sometimes a very daunting task.
Thankfully faith is also often referred to as a “gift from God” in Scripture, and we can be certain that it is not all dependent on our “ability” to have faith in Him. But unfortunately, we often forget that God has given us tools to grow our faith in Him. In our waiting for this “gift” and not trying to “work hard at achieving anything,” we often sit still and do nothing. We simply lay at night and “ask” for the gift of faith. This is also sometimes really unhelpful.
So we are left somewhere in the awkward middle, trying to do our best at what we know we are called to do (rightfully so since it benefits us and those around us) and at the same time trying to trust that we cannot do it on our own, allowing God to grow it (somehow in His supernatural mysterious way) deep within us.
Something that has clicked recently for me is the realization that God spent a lot of time giving His people “The Law” to help them live in a way that honors Him. For some reason, I never go back and read that with attention. Maybe it is the whole “Leviticus” thing that does not seem exciting to me. But slowly I am realizing that the decrees God gave His people are very purposeful, and although we live “under grace,” we do not have to throw them all out the window.
I believe that if we choose to follow them, we will be surprised at how our faith grows. There is a direct relationship between understanding and following His decrees and intimacy and trust with our Father. It worked for hundreds of years; it must still work today.
Although we do not usually think of delighting in the day-to-day commands as a way to work on our “faith,” I have found that the little things make a big difference. Even little things like turning on candles in my room to separate the Sabbath from the rest of the week (my attempt to honor the Lord’s command to keep the Sabbath holy) has made a significant impact. Each week I do it even more joyfully, and delighting in His command to keep the Sabbath holy has surprisingly made me trust His Word a bit more each time.
How do you feel when you think of “The Law”? How has your faith in God grown or changed when you have delighted in His decrees? What commands or decrees have you been working on recently? Have you spent time asking God how He wants you to follow them at this time? In what ways can you change your behavior, add or take away things to honor His commands?
Today’s post was written by Cynthia Ramirez-Martinez. Cynthia grew up in a Christian home in Mexico City. She studied Communications at Wheaton College in Illinois and moved back to Mexico last August. She currently teaches high school sociology, research, history and culture in English in Mexico City. Cynthia loves people, traveling, and missions. She gets most excited when she hears/talks about the global Church. You can read more from Cynthia at her blog, Far Country.
Has anyone ever told you to just “have faith” when something’s going wrong in your life? I’ve heard it often. A former pastor of mine used to preach about how we’re always trying to measure and count our faith. Maybe if we have a little more faith, we can get what we want or need. Maybe if we can work up some extra faith, God will be more pleased with us.
The Bible has a lot to say about faith, and people are certainly commended over and over in Scripture for their faith.
But as my pastor would also preach, faith has to have an object. When the object of our faith is faith or ourselves, we’ll never have enough. But when the object of our faith is the Author and Perfecter of faith, the Holy Spirit gives us more than enough faith to please God.
For me, this idea has been life-changing. I used to often confuse faith in God with faith in my own ability to have faith. I wanted to please God, and I thought I needed to do something to work up more faith and to bring about God’s plan in my life.
But when I realized that Jesus should be the object of my faith, “building faith” came to mean building more intimacy with Jesus – getting to know Him better. Not running around, praying harder, studying more fervently, and trying to muster up a stronger feeling of belief in my heart. When the relational trust is there with Jesus, the feelings of faith come naturally.
Have you ever struggled to muster up more faith for faith’s sake? Have you been taught that, in order to receive salvation or healing, you must work up enough faith? How does it help to know that Jesus, not faith itself, is the object of our faith?
