Waiting on the Harvest- Part 2

Do you ever sense God is weaving a theme throughout your life? I always know when God is trying to teach me a lesson because He repeats His message in sermons I hear, songs I sing, or scriptures I read. Sometimes I think He might as well write it in the sky.

If God hopped on a jet plane today and decided to skywrite me a message, I'm sure the puffy white clouds would spell W-A-I-T.

Now I don't know about you, but I don't particularly like to wait. I wouldn't say I wait well. I can be impatient and irritable while I'm waiting, especially if it's something I'm passionate about. So it shouldn't surprise me that since I wrestle with waiting, God has decided it's time to sow the fruit of patience in my life.

I should have seen this season coming two months ago when my pastor lost my manuscript. Yes, you read that right. That manuscript contained hours worth of revisions splattered in red ink. I hadn't made a copy for myself before I gave it to him, and in an instant, all my hard work vanished.

Five days later, my pastor called me to tell me there was still no sign of my manuscript. I chuckled and told him I thought God was teaching me how to wait. Seconds later, his secretary walked through his office door holding my manuscript in her hand. Astonished, he said, "you'll never guess what Pat just handed me!" As soon as I surrendered, God showed up.

In that moment, God reminded me of an important truth.

There's always a divine purpose unfolding while we wait. God often brings us through a season of waiting to reveal to us something about ourselves that He already knows but that we desperately need to see.

If my manuscript hadn't been lost, I would've turned it in early. But I was forced to re-revise my writing while I waited, and I found mistakes I hadn't noticed the first time around. The Lord also showed me I needed to add an entire layer to my manuscript that strengthened it substantially.

So when I received an email last week from the editor I've been working with, I knew God was weaving His message in my life once again. She informed me that her pre-pub board meeting ran long and told me my proposal's review got moved to after Thanksgiving.

And instead of turmoil or angst, I felt complete and utter peace.

We often desire instant gratification. Immediate answers. Instantaneous results.

But that's rarely how God works. The heroes of the faith all had one thing in common- they waited for God to make the impossible possible.

What about you? Is there something you're waiting for today? Something that seems hopelessly impossible because you feel like you've been waiting forver?

Then let these words from Habakkuk 2:3 soothe your soul - "The vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come. It will not delay."