Waiting on the Lord by Donna L. Watkins - The Herbs Place

Suffering Series: Waiting on the Lord
by Donna L. Watkins

Does it take a life time to gain the patience we’d like to have? Waiting has never been an easy thing for me. As a child I wanted everything NOW! As I look back, most of what I wanted, I laid aside shortly after getting it. I look around and it seems people are still doing that. The item we just had to have while shopping gets placed somewhere in the home and forgotten about not long after the purchase.

Awhile back in life I realized that I was tired of using so much of my time and money maintaining all that I thought I needed or wanted. What we own, owns us. We have to buy it, care for it, even pay all the expenses required to keep a space for it in the home. Randal and I decided we didn’t want our hard-earned resources going to stuff that will burn up in the end with the hay, wood and stubbles of life.

We down-sized greatly and attempt to continue to do so. It’s become a favorite thing of mine to ‘clear out’ whether it’s just a drawer or a chest or a closet. I have been amazed to find how much stuff I kept for so much of my life and yet never had a use for it. I guess as you get older you see how long you’ve had things and they are suddenly not important enough to carrying around any longer. I guess I have no patience for what’s required to keep all the stuff any longer, so we’ve let go and when we moved from Alabama to Virginia, we left 700 square feet behind that we didn’t need here. That was 33% of our home, so we felt very good about it. Now I’m picturing this cabin in the woods [grin].

As I’ve struggled with health problems, I certainly haven’t had much patience in that area of my life either. I wanted to be well NOW. I know God wants us well and healed also, but for whatever earthly reason we stay stuck in the sick arena, God uses it for good in our lives. He has graciously healed me from several serious health problems, whether by prayer alone, with herbal remedies, or with my willingness to confess sin in my life – He led and guided me all the way – even in the pain. This month, I’m going to focus on how we can live better in our pain and suffering, until the time comes when we walk into the victory of healing and freedom from disease.

When I look back on the problems I had that have been healed, I also look at what that illness did for me in my life – what it did good for me. God will always use the evil for good in our lives if we are open to being better and not bitter. As much as I hated those health problems, I treasure what they did for my spiritual growth and walk with the Lord. Here’s something that will make you think….and if you’ve seen it before, read it again. I keep it in a file of my email because it’s a good reminder as life goes by.

Blessings to you!
Donna

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WAITING ON THE LORD

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried.
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate,
And the Master so gently said, “Child, you must wait!”
“‘Wait?’, you say, wait!” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By FAITH I have asked, and am claiming your Word.
“My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to WAIT?
I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.
“And Lord, you promised that if we believe
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply!”
Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, “You must wait.”
So, I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting. . ..for what?”
He seemed then to kneel and His eyes wept with mine,
And he tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens, and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, and cause mountains to run.
All you seek, I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want — but, you wouldn’t know ME.
“You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint;
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint;
You’d not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there;
You’d not know the joy of resting in me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.
“You’d never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of my Spirit descends like a dove;
You’d know that I give and I save. . .(for a start),
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of my heart.
“The glow of my comfort late into the night.
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.
“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’
Yes, your dreams for your loved ones overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss! if I lost what I’m doing in you!
“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
THAT THE GREATEST OF GIFTS IS TO GET TO KNOW ME.
And though oft may my answers seem terribly late,
My wisest of answers is still but to WAIT.”
~Author Unknown~

This article is part of a series that begins here.