Sacred Waiting

I'm reading a book called Sacred Waiting by David Timms. I gave it to a friend over a year ago with an inscription saying, "I pray that waiting on God and His timing will be the biggest blessing in your life!" She's read it twice, and now I'm borrowing it from her, and realizing how much my inscription and what this book has to say is really what I need to hear. Interesting how God works, eh?

There's so much good stuff that is speaking directly to my heart that I want to share it - and I've only read the first chapter! Blogging about stuff helps me think through it and grasp it at a deeper level, so this is actually more for me than for anyone else, but perhaps, as I blog about each chapter, you'll be blessed as well! :)

In the introduction, Timms talks about the fact that we live in a society in which we don't wait for anything. We're always on the clock, looking forward to something in the future, and we're always in such a rush that we've even come up with abbreviations in communication such as TTYL, BFF, BTW, etc. "Waiting on God runs against every cultural instinct that we have. We wait for nothing. Yet we find that in Scripture, waiting is not an option but a mandate" (pp.16-17).

To us, the concept of 'waiting' means that we're just 'killing time' until we get what we want. We perceive it as idleness or inactivity, but the Biblical definition of 'waiting' is completely opposite. Timms uses the example of a waiter in a restaurant. His job is to be present with us (welcome us, take us to our table, make us feel comfortable, etc), as well as, serve us (bring us what we need, whenever we ask). "Biblically speaking, this forms the essence of waiting on God: presence and service, which involve drawing closer to Him and responding to His leading" (p.17).

So often we think God should be the waiter, ready to jump to our every wish and command when we have a bit of time to spend with Him. Our prayers even sound like "we're placing the orders rather than receiving them... We use prayer to get His attention rather than quietly giving him ours" (p.19).  We must learn to wait on God - to give him our attentive presence and obedient service.

I love this analogy because it's such a clear picture of how I often treat God and view what waiting on Him means. I look forward to learning how to turn it around and live a life of attentive presence and obedient service, God's way!