Waiting for Change
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Every year around this time, I get anxious. I’m just done with winter. I’m done with Tennessee’s tendency to waver back and forth between seasons. I saw a social media post that said, “If you aren’t ready to go out in your t-shirt and flip flops to prepare for tonight’s freezing weather, you aren’t cut out to live in Tennessee.” And I couldn’t agree more. This is that time of year. We can have such a variety of weather. It just doesn’t seem like it can make up its mind how it’s supposed to feel outside.
Spiritually, I’ve felt much the same way for a while. As thrilled as I am with what I call my ‘personal revival’, as thrilled as I am with the time I’m spending with my Lord, even as thrilled as I am with my renewed prayer life… I’m ready for more. I’m ready for my brothers and sisters in Christ near and far to get off the proverbial fence and go ‘all in’ for our Lord. I expected, for a while, that more would join me, because I couldn’t imagine that God would do this for me, and not follow it up with many many more who are just as excited to follow and serve Him closer as I am. It didn’t quite happen like I imagined. Lately, my mind has gone to some of those incredible services I remember from my youth. My heart wants to see a line of people joining our church, or multiple people saved in one service. Just last night I watched an old video sent out by a member of a singing group that came to our church when I was a child. He sang several of the ‘old songs’ that I remember hearing in revivals from my youth. My heart was again stirred, just like it was in my youth as I listened to those songs, and remembered God’s mighty hand on our church. I will never forget looking up from the altar area at a revival service in my childhood and seeing an older sister’s husband, for whom she had prayed for long and hard, walking in the door of the church in his work clothes. The whole church rejoiced with her as he gave his life to Christ. I would love to see God again working in mighty ways in the lives of our whole community.
I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. Psalms 77:11
I love remembering the works of God that we’ve seen in my lifetime. But my heart longs for new growth. I have faith that our undershepherd and the ones before him have planted and watered faithfully, but I’m ready for a harvest! I’m ready to see souls saved and renewed. I’m ready to see Christians surrendering their WHOLE self to their savior, and experiencing the return of the joy of their salvation.
I’m not weary of waiting for our Lord to act, and I know He will do it in His time, but, my oh my, I’m sitting on go and looking forward to seeing it. Much like waiting on spring buds and blossoms, I can do little to control it. That may be the hardest part for someone who stays busy ‘doing’. So what can we do? What can we do while we wait on our Lord?
We can make sure our spiritual ‘house’ is tidy and tend to our own little garden. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to look into taking care of your spiritual area as well as we take care of our physical homes. It’s time to get busy doing Spring Cleaning so we can enjoy the summer. It’s time to start planning our garden so that we get the growth and harvest that we want out of it. Let’s take the next couple of weeks and look into the best way to clean up our spiritual lives and prepare for growth. One of the first things we need to do is make plans. So make a plan to spend a little of each day checking up on and cleaning up this area of your life.
It’s time! Time to bloom! It’s time to stop wavering between the world and God. It’s time to come out of the stagnant period that winter brings and put out new growth. It’s time to clean up the mess that we’ve let our lives become and return to our Savior. It’s time to feed the tender shoots of faith that are struggling to burst forth from our soul. Are you ready?
