What are you waiting for? Ready yourself. Get going. Quit delaying. Stop procrastinating. Quit making excuses and blaming others for your poverty mindset. Live as if today is your first day and your last day. Take action. Hold nothing back. Live for Christ. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Go all-in loving God and His people with your all. Change the world by being you. In Christ you lack nothing. Jesus has given you everything that you need to do His will.
Here’s the back story on the waiting game. Yesterday, I found myself being annoyed by the people around me. They were on their cell phones, and I had to wait to get their attention. People were getting calls and texts and leaving me because they immediately responded to whomever was calling or texting them. I got upset because they lacked cell phone and social boundaries. I even challenged them to set and enforce boundaries so that they can relax and be fully present with God and people and not always being readily available to whoever wanted them.
Then God flipped the script on me this morning. The Holy Spirit convicted me of playing the waiting game. I’ve been giving people around me the message “Wait on me.” You take care of all of the details while I wait on the Lord or while I love on people. You wait until I’m ready for what I’m not ready for.
Wait until I’m ready to confront and get out of my comfort zone. I confessed my sin to God and to my son. Forgiveness was extended. But the message my son Ben gave me was so true. “Nothing changes until we do.” I’m just as annoying to God and to people around me when I make them wait on me. I wonder how many times God has spoken to me, and my response to God has been “wait” or “let’s pray about this more” instead of just doing what He’s told me to do. I confess my need for deep-heart change that leads to obedience.
Waiting isn’t supposed to be a game. Waiting isn’t supposed to be a control tactic, a passive-aggressive maneuver to sabotage, or a strategy to avoid change. God wants us to expand our comfort zones when it comes to waiting on Him. He also wants to shatter our comfort zones and to empower us to go forth in Jesus’ Name and to change the world for Christ. I don’t change any part of the world for Christ while I refuse to change me. I’m terrible at changing me. In fact, apart from the work of God’s Spirit, I remain the same. But when we wait on the Lord, He renews our strength. He allows us to rise above adversity, to see what’s really happening, and to do the part that He’s preparing us to do. (Isaiah 40:31)
The good news is that God is patient and relentless. He doesn’t coddle our comfort zone nor does He leave us alone. God goes after our stubborn, rebellious spirits and engages us in battle. We can dig in our heels and fight against God, but we always end up losing. We’re no match for the power of God.
I’m so thankful for the tender and bold ways that God captures me and changes me from the inside out and from the outside in. He’s the ultimate personal warrior who engages us in battle to change us and to prepare us to fight the battle with and for Him. He doesn’t want to leave us stuck or spinning our wheels waiting on change. The Lord and Mighty Warrior takes us through the battles of surrender and transformation so that we don’t waste our lives fighting against Him, against ourselves, and against one another. He’s given us authority over Satan, and He’s overcome the enemy through His death and resurrection. The same mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us, and He’ll transform us into His likeness. (Romans 8:11)
Instead of resisting change and making everyone wait on us, let’s surrender and let Jesus do the powerful healing and transforming work in and through us. While Jesus is changing us, He’s inviting us to be His change agents in the world. I’ll leave you with a quote that my grandfather taught my dad in German. Here’s the translation:
“I know a wonderful stream that flows wonderfully through me. It’s the Holy Spirit.”
By Clinton Glenn Sprunger