I’m waiting . . .

Enjoy this insightful guest blog by certified Health and Life Coach Shari Hamilton (bio at end)!

WaitingIn a world where we are impatient waiting thirty minutes for a pizza to be delivered to our door, or waiting eight cars back in the drive-through to have our lunch handed to us, or waiting for a response to a text . . . we have lost the virtue of waiting.

But let’s get real; waiting is difficult. We don’t like waiting in line, waiting for test results, waiting for that right person to show up in our lives, or waiting for the next chapter to begin. Whatever it is, we have trouble waiting.

So isn’t it interesting how many times God tells us to wait. It is mentioned over 100 times in the Bible, depending on translation and context. Wait on Him. Wait on His timing, His plan, His presence. It says our strength will be renewed, we will soar like eagles, we won’t be weary or grow faint. How is that possible by just waiting?

Our culture has conditioned us to believe that our time is our most valuable commodity and that we need to be using every minute productively. We don’t have time to waste. And if we’re not managing our time with purpose, intention, setting goals and conquering them… then we’ve missed the mark. We should be consistently reading and learning, and perpetually bettering ourselves . . . eating well, working out, sleeping, drinking less alcohol and more water. The list goes on.

SlowDownDo we even know how to slow down . . . take more time for people, for relationships, for pondering . . . and for waiting on God?

Sitting quietly alone in a room for minutes or hours . . . waiting on God sounds like a waste of time, doesn’t it?

Unless we’re making lists and figuring out agendas or planning our future . . . then are there really benefits to waiting?

We are too often tethered to our phones, connected to the world at the palm of our hands. But what if all the noise in our life . . . the busyness and mass communication  . . . is what is keeping us from hearing from God? And what if hearing from God is the single most important thing we could ever do? What if everything else adds up to nothing if we don’t hear from God? What if all our plans . . . our successes on paper . . . add up to nothing but zero if those things were never really a part of God’s purpose for our lives?

And what if . . . what if we got bold enough to really, really ask God to lead us in the purpose for our lives? What if we wanted to know what He had in mind for us before the dawn of time when we were just a twinkle in His eye?

Waiting can be painful. We get impatient. We quit too soon. We think we’re hearing nothing so we move on. But what if . . . in the silence . . . our hearts and minds are being renewed? What if that little act of waiting made all the difference in the world  . . . whether we could see the results right away or not?

What if we could look back one day and say . . . “you know, my life started to shift back a few years ago when I began sitting quietly everyday and waiting on God. I never heard a voice, yet it changed who I was and altered the direction my life was taking.”

Imagine if ten years from now we looked back and saw that the last ten years had been the most productive and most satisfying years of our lives . . . and beyond anything we could ever have imagined. What if those were our joyful years, our contented years, our gratifying years? Wouldn’t that make those years the most successful years of our lives?

WhatIfWhat if our waiting on God made us into faithful, trusting, God-fearing individuals . . . in a land where faith is ridiculed and trust is hard to come by and fearing God has been forsaken.

What if waiting made us patient and content and fearless? What if our hearts were softened and our lives were full of love and opportunities to help the next guy . . . and what if everything about us was different, looking back ten years from now.

Instead of making a list of resolutions for the new year, this year I just made one request. I asked God to renew my hunger for Him. I didn’t want to be dry . . . I wanted to be thirsty. I didn’t want to be comfortable sitting in my comfort zone . . . I wanted to be uprooted. He has answered. He didn’t even wait 24 hours to answer… He was pleased to do it, as though He had been waiting for me to ask.

As a result of that, I have made a commitment this year to wait on God in a new way . . . not asking for anything . . . not even expecting anything . . . but just with the attitude that my sitting there with Him . . . contemplating, meditating on the Word, listening . . . is somehow changing me from the inside out. I feel a shifting inside my soul.

Am I still sitting in the same house, doing the same job, going through my same routine? The answer is yes. Everything is the same; yet everything is different. Every day I am letting Him lead me . . . where I don’t know where He is leading.

#faith  #trust  #waiting

Shari Hamilton is a freelance writer in Burbank, CA.  She is a certified Health Coach and Life Coach with SweetSuccess Health & Nutrition, specializing in mycology, brain injury, and relationship coaching.  Shari attends Shepherd Church in Porter Ranch (Los Angeles).

You Say

Have you ever fallen in love with a song only later to notice in detail what the lyrics really say?  That tends to happen a lot with me.  But one song in particular over the past year or so hasn’t fit that criteria, at least for me.  In fact, I think it’s happened in reverse this time around.  The lyrics first drew me in, and then I began especially to appreciate the vocal intonations.

The song is “You Say” by Lauren Daigle, who recently won a 2019 Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song for recording it.

YouSay.LaurenDaigleAnd as beautiful as the song sounds, I tend to believe the popularity of “You Say” has much more to do with the lyrical content, as it seems to have struck a much deeper chord of identity and authenticity with many of us.

Apparently, even in the Christian world, it’s a common thing to struggle between knowing that we are loved by God and fighting the voices all around that say we’re not enough and that we’ll never measure up.

You may have listened to “You Say” dozens if not hundreds of times by now.  But have you taken the opportunity to soak in the lyrics at a much deeper level?  If not, here’s your chance.  Enjoy!

 

“You Say” by Lauren Daigle

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I’m not enough
Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up
Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?
Remind me once again just who I am, because I need to know (ooh oh)

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
I believe

The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity, (ooh oh)

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
And You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
Oh, I believe

Taking all I have and now I’m laying it at Your feet
You have every failure God, and You’ll have every victory, (ooh oh)

You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours
And I believe (I), oh I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
I believe

Oh I believe (I), yes I believe (I)
What You say of me (I)
Oh I believe (oh)

Songwriters: Paul Mabury / Lauren Ashley Daigle / Jason Ingram
“You Say” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC