Waiting on the Lord, a test of patience

Patience, a big word to learn especially in this generation where everything we want has to happen now!  The highway of information and new technologies make a lot of things come faster.  But as life moves faster, we become more and more impatient.  We do things on our own without consulting God about our plans, as if we can do better without Him.  The thing is, we can do a lot of things on our own, we can give our very best, but without God’s guidance, it may still lead us nowhere.  Then doubt will start to grow.  We become tired, discouraged and unsure of God’s blessings in our life.

Today, the pandemic has shaken the world.  It broke our rythm of a fast paced lifestyle. It made us uncomfortable.  It made us fearful. It brought a lot of dissapointments, uncertainty and scarcity in people’s lives.  Most of us, did our best to move up, but it’s more and more challenging.  Our today’s situation reminded me of Simon’s story, the fisherman, and one of Jesus’ disciples.  The Bible tells:

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!

Luke 5:1-6 NLT

We are now in the waiting time, at that point of transition.  Before the pandemic, we were running everywhere.  We were busy with our own plans, our own ways, in our own strength and knowledge until the pandemic hits us.  Then we realized, there was nothing to chase better than God.  Now we need to wait. Simon had to wait for Jesus to finish preaching after He had instructed him to put the boat back to the water.  After waiting, Jesus revealed to him where to find the fish.  Simon even told Jesus that they have worked all night and got nothing.  He doubted but obeyed anyway, and he got his reward.

In Isaiah 55:8 God says:

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are beyond anything you could imagine.”

We limit the possibilities of our future to our own experience, thought, knowledge, ressources and circumstances.  We forget that our Father, was the One Who created the world and everything that is in it.  He can bless us in an instant and do exceedingly beyond our expectation.  The key is to wait, pray, be patient and to expect for His miracles.  We call it Faith!

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”

Hebrews 11:1 NLT