Waiting

A friend shared this poem with me today and it really encouraged my heart and I wanted to share it with you too!

"Wait"

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,' wo 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 at 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 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 one 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' my answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, "Wait.'"

Pages 99-100 of Heather Paulsen's book "Emotional Purity"

Isaiah 40:31

"Yet those who wait for the LORD

will gain new strength;

They will mount up on wings like eagles,

They will run and not grow tired,

They will walk and not become weary."

Phillipians 3:8

"More than that, I count all things loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing

Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,

and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,"

Jeremiah 9:23-24

"Thus says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not a

mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;

but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that

I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth;

for I delight in these things." declares the LORD"