SEASONS OF WAITING
Shalom everyone! My name is Alyssa and I am currently writing to you from England where I am on staff with YWAM Holmsted Manor as a leader on their three-month-intensive bible school.
Being back has proven to be simultaneously wonderful but also challenging in so many beautifully hard ways. I feel compelled to share with you what I have been processing the past few weeks:
Waiting sucks.
Shocking, I know. Let me explain a bit, taking it all the way back to Exodus. When Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt and towards the Promised Land, the journey was supposed to be fairly straight forward, only an estimated eleven days of travel. Some scholars posit that with the amount of people with all their supplies/livestock/etc etc, the maximum it would have taken would likely be somewhere around forty days. Instead, it took them forty years.
The Israelites were discouraged by how difficult it was to be out in the wilderness. They were used to being consistently taken care of by the Egyptians (even if they were mistreated as slaves, they were still fed and housed). When faced with the unknown ahead of them, they began to grumble and complain, they didn’t want to rely on God, they wanted the security and safety net of the Egyptians. So God lead them through the wilderness for forty years, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, breaking apart their slave mentality so that they would be prepared to walk into the Promised Land.
Whenever I studied this story, it was easy to be accusatory of the Israelites, but how many times have I acted in the same manner? There are things God has spoken over me, promises He’s made me, and dreams He has set in my heart. Some of these have come to fruition instantaneously, some were promised years ago and I’m still waiting on them. I start to grumble and complain: Where are you? Where is your faithfulness? What’s the timeline here, when will I walk into my Promised Land?
I am incredibly grateful He’s so patient with me. I struggle more frequently than I’d like with waiting for His promises, as I’m sure there’s quite a few of us who wish for the things we’ve been promised. The thing is, my heart posture is wasting my waiting period.
Just as God led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years in order to prepare them for the Promised Land, He is working in our lives in order to prepare us for the fulfillment of His promises.
God is not withholding you from the promise, He’s preparing you to receive it.
Instead of treating my waiting period as a placeholder for what’s coming next, I need to be open to the work God is doing in my life. Allowing myself to learn and grow, be challenged and stretched, face heartache and joy, in order to come out on the other side far more equipped and reliant on Him than I was at the start.
You and I can work on it together. If you’re struggling with the unfulfilled promises, if it’s killing you inside to wait, ask God what it is He wants to do in your life here and now.
Don’t focus on what He will do down the line, focus on what He is doing now, and walk in line with it.
The best thing about God is that He walks alongside us. A pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night; He reminds us that He is walking alongside us, guiding us and sustaining us. He is ever faithful, He keeps His word, and most of all He loves us and wants to see us step into His plans for our lives.
It’s not easy, like I said: waiting sucks. But I find that the more I posture my heart to the things above and not on what I want/what I wait for, the less heart wrenching the waiting feels. I don’t want to waste my waiting period by focusing on what I’m waiting for, I want to live in the fulness of what God has for me right here and right now, certain that He will fulfill His promises in His timing.
If you’re holding onto a promise, I encourage you to hold it with open hands, and ask God what He has for you right here and right now.
I can’t wait to see you all again soon,
All my love,
Alyssa
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR:
Alyssa is a member of the Valley Dream Team, serving in Relate Kids and greeting you at the door on Sunday mornings with a bright smile. She currently lives in England while she serves with YWAM. Alyssa has had many travels in her life so far, so if you ever need travel advice ask her for her tried and true tips!
