Waiting and Patience...a silent soul

Well Well Well

I know I have gained weight, as many do this time of year, and plan on gaining much more in the next month. Next week is the big Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Chicago Bears matchup - I will of course be at the game in the lower levels with my brother, wearing my Chicago Bears jersey, trying to restrain him (who can be very vocal) from saying too much and try to make it out of there alive!

Every day when I drive to work in Cranberry (About a 20 minute drive from Sewickley, where we live) I listen to Dr. Charles Stanley's "In Touch" - You may know the jingle ("in the morning light, it darkest night...He is there, and will always be there for you....") Yes? well, anyways...

Dr. Stanley, with his southern accent of course, was talking about Patience in the Lord, a concept that we hear over and over again. Obviously we have to be patient in listening, asking, wanting, what God wants for us. Often in our lives we find our selves wanting things, and Much of this time God wants the same thing for us...But where there is a discrepency is the "when." God will bring us things we want if we trust in Him and Him alone, but not necessarily when we want them, which is where trusting and waiting come into play. These two things cannot be separated...I will come back to this in a minute.

Dr. Stanley referred to Psalm 62:1(NKJ): "Truly my soul silently waits for God;From Him comes my salvation." The key word here I have italicized...

Silently...

What does it mean for our soul to wait silently? It's not that complicated. How many times in our lives to we find ourselves praying about the same things night and day for an extended period of time? What is our soul saying in between these times? I know for me these are the times in my life in which I become frustrated with God (impatient!) and find my soul whining and crying like a 9 year-old who's older brother had just taken away his pack of Gushers [Which I'm sure my brother did all the time =)].

"Truly my soul waits silently for God..."

David, God's loyal servant, said it right. Who am I to complain? This precisely means that I am not FULLY trusting in the Lord...I am asking Why not now? When? The Lord looks after my best interests, and when waiting for Him to answer prayers or to open doors for me my soul must do what David writes here...wait silently. Basically, this means God is saying to me "SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!!" You know what God, as usual, you are right my friend.

In looking at other versions, I see similar translations: (Message) "God, the one and only--I'll wait as long as he says. Everything I need comes from him, so why not?" Isn't that what I just said? Exactly - WHY NOT??

NIV - "My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from him." This leads me to the same conclusion - WHY NOT?? My soul will only find rest in God alone.

Now I come back to the statement I made earlier, to waiting and trusting not being separated. We will never learn to trust until we learn to wait...and by learning to wait, we will learn how to trust. It's so simple.

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"
That famous passage from Mark 12:20 telling us to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul, mind, and strength is about Love...but how can we love something we don't trust? TRUST MUST COME FIRST, and this comes only through learning how to wait.

We (the pittsburgh fellows) have our roundtable tonight - we are doing a series by Dallas Willard entitled "Renovation of the Heart" - its a spiritual formation class. I am very excited about it, it's been going very well.

I'm always excited about the weekend. This weekend my tentative plans are to go down to the strip on Saturday morning (If you're in Pittsburgh and have never been down there you have to go, its amazing) with a friend, then that's about it as far as concrete plans. Hope everybody had a great thanksgiving. These pictures are of the wonderful city of the 'burgh facing point state park, and of the Strip.

- Seal, out