And We Wait...

And we wait.

In Galatians, Paul tells us that the fruit of the spirit is love, kindness, gentleness, self-control, joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness and patience.

Patience...

Part of being a disciple - living for Christ - is the patience we have.

We wait patiently for God to move.

We wait patiently for God to answer our prayers.

We wait patiently for Christ's return.

And like the disciples thousands of years ago, we wait patiently this Saturday for Easter and the rising of God's Son - Our Savior.

The gift we have is foreknowledge of what will be; of knowing the future past. We know that Christ rose from the grave. We have the freedom and the joy in that knowledge.

Our brothers and sisters who waited two thousand years ago, did not have that gift.

They waited in fear.

They feared for their lives.

They feared they had lost all hope.

They feared the unknown future without their master.

Their patience turned to fear...and still they waited.

True patience is about trust. Trusting that God is Who He says He is and He will do what He said He will do.

And true patience does not live apart from the rest of the fruit of the spirit. True patience is marked by love and by goodness and by faithfulness and by joy and by self-control and by gentleness.

The men in the upper room had their faith shaken on Friday. They waited through the Sabbath in fear.

But Jesus' female disciples were faithful in their waiting. They knew they would need to return to the grave to anoint Jesus for burial. They didn't know that their faithfulness, love, patience and goodness would be marked with the joy of finding an empty tomb - but they patiently prepared.

As we wait for Sunday morning, we must also remember that our patience in preparing for an Easter celebration is only a foreshadow of the patience we need as followers of Christ in waiting for his ultimate return. We are learning patience to help us bear the indefinable wait of his second coming with joy, love, faith, goodness, gentleness, peace and self-control in our hearts. Because, what happens next?

We wait...

Scripture

Galatians 5:16-23

Luke 23:50-56

Quote of the Day

A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

Dutch Proverb

Question of the Day

What can you learn in the waiting?

Don't forget....Easter Sunrise serves @ 7AM at the Log Cabin. Breakfast at the church starting at 8:15. Main Worship Service at 10:30 AM

and... GUMY is BACK next week regular times!

Happy Waiting Day!

Blessing in the Waiting

"When is it going to be my turn?"       "Why don't I ever win?"    "It's not fair..."

Have you ever said these words...thought these thoughts?

Unfortunately most of us have either said or thought these phrases - or something like them - in our lives. Someone else wins the trophy; Someone else becomes prom queen; Someone else becomes class president; Someone else gets your dream job or your dream date or you dream house...

And you wonder - when is it going to be my turn?

Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,    (Psalm 37:7)

We aren't wrong to desire success or to want to achieve goals - but how we go about the desire can be wrong.

When we focus our attention on what we are not getting we miss out on what we already have. We miss out on the purpose of the time of waiting before we acheive our goals.

We miss out on our time to focus on God and His will.

God wants to give us the desires of our hearts. He wants to shower us with blessings. He is our Father and He wants each of us to find hope and joy; but He wants to give us our hearts' desires in His time.

If we place our focus on what and when we are not receiving what we want, we fall into sin. We make the want of something or some goal or someone more important than God.

If we instead focus our energy on being in the moment - on being content in all circumstances (Phil 4:10-12) - we will find the waiting can be a time of unexpected blessing. In the waiting for our hearts' desires, we grow in perserverance, strength, love, hope and peace. When we wait we learn to see the blessings of where we are.

One of the hardest lessons in life to learn is that it isn't yet your time. Patience is a virtue often desired but very rarely shown.

As a follower of Christ, you have the ability to lean on Jesus so that he will make your time of waiting a time of blessing. He will teach you the joy of patience.

Scripture

Psalm 37

Quote of the Day

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

T.S. Eliot

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.

James Campbell

Question of the Day

What is your heart's greatest desire?

Don't Forget GUMY TONIGHT!!!!