THE ANTICIPATION
Do you like waiting? Well, in the natural world it is hard to wait, isn’t it? We like things to happen just when we want them. However, the Bible talks a lot of about waiting.
I remember growing up as a child. I didn’t think we were poor. We had everything we needed but we didn’t have excess. We didn’t expect to get what we wanted each time we went to town with our mother. We received gifts for birthdays and Christmases and that was it. To get an orange in our Christmas stocking was a gift from Heaven. A little packet of raisins was heavenly!
I can remember waiting with agony for Christmas to come each year. It seemed like an eternity to wait. But with the waiting was incredible expectation.
My husband was sharing this morning how he received a bottle of pop for his birthday. He remembers it being called Orange Crush. He said he thought he had gone to Heaven. It was so precious that he would take two sips each day and put it back on the shelf to make it last. It didn’t even bother him that all the bubbles depleted as the days wore on.
This is unheard of today. An orange or a bottle of pop is like nothing! Most children get what they want when they want it. They have never learned the expectation of w a i t i n g!
In many ways, this is sad. I think that if children do not learn to experience this emotion of waiting when they are young, how are they ever going to learn to wait on God and wait for His timing when they are older? The Bible says, “First that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual.” Nature prepares us for the spiritual.
It is sad when I hear someone say, “OH, I prayed, but God didn’t answer, so I don’t believe in Him!” I wonder how many times they prayed. I wondered how long they waited. I am sure it wasn’t long. They have not learned this very important quality. Don’t deprive your children of learning it.
And let’s all learn to wait on God. He is not in a hurry. He does not live in time. He will work when it is the right time.
Lamentations 3:26: “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
Psalm 37:7: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself . . .”
Many blessings,
Nancy Campbell
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