Being Content

Go or Stand

We live in a fast-past world. We go and go, always pushing to what lies ahead, straining for that next rung on the proverbial ladder. For the Christian, this means that we are often eager to discover what God’s next step for us is. We want to get moving – ready to go where He wants us to go, straining to understand where the path that He wants us to walk will lead.

God, however, doesn’t always see fit to reveal to us the next step at our moment of inquiry. In His wisdom, God sometimes desires for us to remain where we are – at least in terms of our present circumstance. He doesn’t always tell us – “This is where I’m leading you.” Instead, He wants us to learn to trust Him even when the next step is unclear.

 

George MacDonald stated it this way,

Faith is that which, knowing the Lord’s will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills; neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action. (“The Temptation in the Wilderness,” Unspoken Sermons, Series I)

Did you catch that? If we want to live lives of faith, it means that we have to be ready to go when God calls us somewhere. It also means that when God hasn’t clearly called us somewhere, we have to be content with where He has placed us now. In either circumstance, being faithful means doing what God has called us to do.

It’s a hard reality. We want to see beyond the horizon; we want to know what’s in store. Like children, we are anxious to discover what lies inside the presents under the tree. Sometimes, God calls us to move; sometimes He calls us to wait. In either case, we can be grateful that God calls us at all.

Which is harder…going when God says “go” or waiting when He says “wait”? Why do you think that is?

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Being Content Hope

Joyfully Patient

There aren’t many people who are really good at waiting.

Sure, some of us are better than others, but when it comes to something we really want, something we’re really interested in, almost all of us watch the clock, count down the days, or stare at the inbox, hoping that our persistence will speed up the process.

We don’t like waiting.

Yet life is full of it.

And Scripture is full of instruction that a Christian who is waiting should look substantially different from a non-Christian.

– We are told to be anxious for nothing.

– We are told to wait on the Lord (not on luck, good fortune, or the passing of time.)

– We are told to wait thankfully.

And this can seem like an impossible task.

We will it to happen and yet it doesn’t. We try hard, yet it still seems evasive. We want to be joyful AND patient, but it seems like an antithetical combination.

Until we realize, it’s not in our own power to do so.

As Colossians 1:11 reminds us, it’s His power that gives us the ability to be patient with joy.

– His strength gives us the fortitude.

– His might gives us confidence.

– His sovereignty assures us that the future is under control…His control.

So just as we know we need Him to endure to the end, so we must rely on Him to be patient until the end gets here.

And because of Him, that patience can be filled with joy.

Because we know what we’re waiting for.

 

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