Passed By

Sometimes we feel like we’ve been passed by in life.

We’ve prayed and asked and begged and waited… cried, kicked, screamed hollered… and waited on the Lord, but sometimes He’s still. He’s quiet and we don’t see how in the WORLD He might be working in our lives.

We can’t imagine that the circumstances we are enduring could be for ANYTHING good. NOT one thing! The load is heavy on our minds and hearts. We can’t get away from it no matter where we go! We don’t really understand why He’d allow us to hurt, wait and simply long for Him to “work all things together for our good!’ And we continue to feel as if He’s forgotten.

But then I think about the times…

When my friend waited and waited for God’s answer for a husband.  I mean she prayed and prayed and so did her parents! But after the waiting she met a man and she got married. At 45 she married the man that God had for her and MAN did the waiting pay off!? He loves Jesus! Owns his own business and is VERY well off! I mean serious bling!

When my aunt and our family prayed and prayed for my uncle. For YEARS we asked the Lord to do a work in his, seeming impossible, hard heart and finally… it happened. He asked Jesus in his heart and it’s amazing how transformed his life and heart have become! No more violent outbursts! No more cursing. No more disregard for family! I mean LIFE CHANGING CHANGE!

When several families that I know could not have children and waited and waited on God to send the perfect child for them to adopt! I mean some of those kids look JUST LIKE their parents! It’s so amazing!

When families of kids with special needs pray and pray for their language to start, their basic growth and development to increase or their circumstances to change in some way and then… it happens! Kids start talking at 8 years old! Kids start reading when no one thought they ever would! Kids start doing things that no one ever dreamed they’d attempt much less accomplish!

Maybe today you feel like you’ve been simply passed by.

There have been many days in my life where I have felt that God has simply forgotten me. But you know something amazing? Sometimes I think I am being forgotten in one area only to find out that He’s been working in another that I had prayed about a long time before! It’s so true that His ways are not our ways and FOR SURE His timing is not like ours! His Holy time piece looks NOTHING like our clock!!

Here’s the key. Do not give up! It simply is NOT an option, sister!

Sometimes the waiting is the HARDEST thing! BELIEVE ME! I know!

But everyday I wake up and my old heart is still beating. My sweet family is still here and my Almighty God is still on His perfect throne!

It isn’t that He has passed us by. It’s just that He’s waiting on us to FULLY trust Him with all that we have and all that we are. He’s blessing us beyond measure in more ways than we realize. Maybe we aren’t ready yet. OH! WE think we are, but remember, HE is God! He sees the past, present AND future and He’s already there. We are so finite and can’t see past the noses on our sweet little faces!

If you have kids you know what it means to tell them to wait. Man, they kick and squirm and huff and puff and act like that 5 minute wait is going to be the death of them! Well, I’d like to submit that sometimes we act the exact same way!

I’m not trying to be hard hearted. I know that there are some sensitive issues that we face that really do hurt us deep down inside. I know because I’ve experienced those deep down hurts. Maybe they are different from yours, but they’ve still hurt me to the very core. It’s just that I’ve learned that wasting the waiting is really… well, a waste! In the waiting I could have been noticing that He’s at work in other ways that I never even thought He cared about. Looking back I see that I wasted precious time at His feet that could have been spent in sweet communion with Him… listening, growing, preparing…

… for the time when He makes the waiting go away and He brings

the blessing!

OH! I can’t wait!