Waiting

Casey was listening to a podcast this morning by Paul Tripp about waiting (I couldn't find a link to the exact talk, but I found this article which is very similar in content). I'm sure God is teaching Casey through the podcast, but I'm also 100% sure that He intended for me to hear that podcast, too. In many ways, I believe that's where I am right now -- waiting. 

To be honest, 99.99% of the time that I'm waiting, I wish I were not waiting. I do NOT appreciate the wait. Most times, I'm not even sure exactly what the wait is leading to, but I just want to be there already! But, in this podcast, Paul Tripp reminds us that waiting is, in fact, part of the plan. God is not ignoring us. He is not busy. Because He knows us better than we know ourselves, He knows exactly what we need to endure to become more and more like Jesus, until the day that He comes back for us. 

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure." (1 John 3:2-3) See? We are God's children now, waiting for Him to come back for us, but even in the waiting -- in the hoping for His return -- we are being purified; we are being made more like Jesus. What a beautiful work of art! 

While listening to the podcast, I was reminded of the way that Eugene Peterson paraphrases part of Romans 8. I think it fits perfectly. Here it is:

"All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain through the world are simply birth pangs. Bit it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. 

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that ever detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."

Wow. Amen.