The month of May is, for many, a time to celebrate graduation! This special time in one’s life\u00a0signifies\u00a0the closing of one chapter\u00a0in order to enter\u00a0a new chapter.<\/p>\n
Recently, I had a conversation with one of my children. In the midst of our talk, this child said something like:<\/p>\n
“Mom,\u00a0a few\u00a0years ago I THOUGHT I was ready for __________ (the next “chapter” in their life). I now realize I was NOT ready at all!”<\/p>\n
They continued to explain their reason for saying this – their spiritual and mental immaturity would have lead them in making some serious mistakes. Although this child was not saying they felt “ready” now, they had come to realize an important truth. GOD knows! God knows when each of us are ready to\u00a0“graduate” and enter that\u00a0next season of our life – whatever that may be.<\/p>\n
That conversation left me\u00a0thinking back on\u00a0times in my own life – times when I was anxiously…and even impatiently waiting to begin a new season. Can you relate?\u00a0Does today find you anticipating\u00a0the next chapter? Can I assure you that God knows when you are ready? Please don’t get ahead of Him by barreling through “closed doors”. Please don’t begin to ignore Biblical guidelines while leaning on your own understanding. God knows us much better than we know ourselves. His reasons for what we perceive as delays may be a variety of things. We may still have some growing up to do. We may have issues in our hearts that need resolved. We may just need to be brought through some hardships that will cause us to appreciate the next chapter – instead of taking it for granted.<\/p>\n
Today, “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…”\u00a0 Psalm 37:7<\/strong><\/em> Did you see that? Our waiting time should be restful. There should be a peace and contentment in our hearts – knowing we can completely trust the Lord with our future. If there is anything else in our hearts – restlessness, impatience, discontentment, even bitterness – then we are not waiting patiently, are we?<\/p>\n Then, as we patiently wait\u00a0for the Lord to\u00a0turn the page, we must remember that God has not closed the current chapter we are in. Let’s stay busy! No matter what season, we must continue to grow in our walk with the Lord as we serve Him in whatever areas He allows. Luke 19:13 reminds us, “Occupy till I come”. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We may even ask the Lord if WE are the reason for the delay. Is God simply waiting for us to take a step of obedience? Have we pushed aside an issue that the Holy Spirit has brought to our attention? Maybe our prayer should be, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.” Job 6:24<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Resting\u00a0in the Lord;\u00a0occupying in His work and our walk;\u00a0obeying the Holy Spirit\u00a0– that should be our desire\u00a0no matter what season of life!<\/p>\n ~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/strong><\/p>\n “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.” ~ G. Campbell Morgan<\/strong><\/p>\n “If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon<\/strong><\/p>\n “God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him.” ~ Jim Elliot<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The month of May is, for many, a time to celebrate graduation! This special time in one’s life\u00a0signifies\u00a0the closing of one chapter\u00a0in order to enter\u00a0a new chapter. Recently, I had a conversation with one of my children. In the midst of our talk, this child said something like: “Mom,\u00a0a few\u00a0years ago I THOUGHT I was ready for __________ (the next “chapter” in their life). I now realize I was NOT ready at all!” They continued to explain their reason for saying this – their spiritual and mental immaturity would have lead them in making some serious mistakes. Although this child was not saying they felt “ready” now, they had come to realize an important truth. GOD knows! God knows when each of us are ready to\u00a0“graduate” and enter that\u00a0next season of our life – whatever that may be. That conversation left me\u00a0thinking back on\u00a0times in my own life – times when I was anxiously…and even impatiently waiting to begin a new season. Can you relate?\u00a0Does today find you anticipating\u00a0the next chapter? Can I assure you that God knows when you are ready? Please don’t get ahead of Him by barreling through “closed doors”. Please don’t begin to ignore Biblical guidelines while leaning on your own understanding. God knows us much better than we know ourselves. His reasons for what we perceive as delays may be a variety of things. We may still have some growing up to do. We may have issues in our hearts that need resolved. We may just need to be brought through some hardships that will cause us to appreciate the next chapter – instead of taking it for granted. Today, “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…”\u00a0 Psalm 37:7 Did you see that? Our waiting time should be restful. There should be a peace and contentment in our hearts – knowing we can completely trust the Lord with our future. If there is anything else in our hearts – restlessness, impatience, discontentment, even bitterness – then we are not waiting patiently, are we? Then, as we patiently wait\u00a0for the Lord to\u00a0turn the page, we must remember that God has not closed the current chapter we are in. Let’s stay busy! No matter what season, we must continue to grow in our walk with the Lord as we serve Him in whatever areas He allows. Luke 19:13 reminds us, “Occupy till I come”. We may even ask the Lord if WE are the reason for the delay. Is God simply waiting for us to take a step of obedience? Have we pushed aside an issue that the Holy Spirit has brought to our attention? Maybe our prayer should be, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.” Job 6:24 Resting\u00a0in the Lord;\u00a0occupying in His work and our walk;\u00a0obeying the Holy Spirit\u00a0– that should be our desire\u00a0no matter what season of life! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.” ~ G. Campbell Morgan “If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon “God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with him.” ~ Jim Elliot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,46,48,24,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-gods-will","category-patience","category-peace","category-quotes","category-waiting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4o6C2-1KG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6739,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6738\/revisions\/6739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthineheart.com\/staging\/8143\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}