From weeds to blossoms

Below is an excerpt from my She Reads Truth study that I am doing on the book of Nehemiah right now:

"Sisters, there is so much work to do. We see need, pain and injustice all around us and our knees quickly buckle under the weight. We long to make our lists and check them twice and fix it all right this second. But we dare not make a move without God. As Ian Hamilton said it, 'Beloved, our great and pressing need today is to give ourselves to waiting upon God, because waiting time is never wasted time.'" 

Wow, "waiting time is never wasted time." I so often do not view being patient as being productive. I am often not content to simply sit in the presence of God because I can't cross anything off my list. Read devotional? Check. Journal a prayer? Check. Be still... this is much harder to "check off."

Especially when I see the needs all around me in our city: neighbors who are hurting, Atlanta being one of the top 14 cities in the U.S. for sex trafficking, the unemployed, the children playing basketball down the street without a father... these needs are overwhelming and I want to know what I can start doing. I want a list to follow.

From weeds to blossoms. Waiting produces fruit. 

Yet we won't have the strength and willingness to act in these difficult situations without reliance on God and the willingness to wait first. 

Waiting requires trust and relinquishing my agenda of getting things done for God's priority of seeking Him first.

For me a recent step toward this trust was reflecting on a truth that my Dad told me not long ago: What an incredible God that we worship who desires to use us for His plan. We get to be used for His good purposes. We simply need to be available and ready to be used by Him.

It's hard to be aware of when God is graciously allowing us to enter into His plan if we're pursuing our own agendas. The stillness comes first and we wait so we are prepared to act with our full energy and devotion.