I am by no means a lady in waiting with perfect patience and the Lord knows that full well. I’m the kinda gal that will eat her bread half toasted just because she’s too impatient to wait for the 2 minutes to be complete; same goes for my cookies. When something takes patience, my foot starts to tap and my mind starts to race just thinking of the when and the how. When trials hit and patience must ensue then the foot-tapping turns into knots in my stomach….
You know that feeling too, don’t you?
Summer 2015 was one of the most exciting and trying times of my life. I was a newly married woman with an incredible husband and an amazing team of coworkers that helped encourage me in my passions, but it was also a time of ache. One of my dearest friends and I were in what we could call… ‘a rut’. Hearts had been hurt and it seemed like forgiveness was miles away. My heart ached and the tears welled up patiently waiting for God to move.
I’ll never forget when I spoke with a friend about how I was feeling and how desperately I wanted to make amends…they said, “Redemption is coming”. I can almost still feel the chills now that I had then when those words were spoken over me. Yet, I knew that perseverance and patience would need to be carefully practiced while waiting for this truth to become real. There were nights when sleep wouldn’t come and all I could do was fall to my knees and pray. There were times when I said to the Lord, “I am not strong enough”. Yet He always responded with, “You’re right, but you’re strong enough through Me”. This season of waiting for God’s redemption was a time of character growth more than I could ever imagine.
I had to steer away from wanting my own hands to ‘fix it’ and look towards God. I love what God’s word says about moments of trial and the outcomes that follow…
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope – Romans 5:3-4
You hear it all the time, don’t you? To thank and exult God for all He has done even in the midst of trial. I get it – it’s really, really hard to lay down what your feeling at His feet and say thank you instead of I’m mad at you, but please hear me when I say it’s worth it. It’s so worth it to push through the tears and shout praises to His name. It’s so worth it to lay pride aside and say I’m sorry or I love you. It’s so worth it to wait for what He’s promised with perseverance and confidence in who He is.
I met my friend at a cafe one quiet afternoon. She was wearing a polka-dotted shirt and had her hair in the oh-so-familiar bun I remember her always wearing. Three months of waiting out the storm led to a beautiful conversation of “I’m sorry and it’s passed”.
Matthew 8:26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
In that moment, I saw the fruit of what it’s like for God to take a raging storm and turn it into a sea of calm – it just takes obedience on our end.
I am a completely different woman because of the trial that God placed in my life. I am no longer a hopeless, wandering child who is uncertain of His promises because I saw His promises fulfilled right in front of me. Hope is real. Bravery is real. Forgiveness is real.
A few years ago a college friend recently underwent one of the greatest trials of life – the loss of her husband, but that wasn’t the end of her story. She clung to a quote that speaks on experiencing trial …..
“I have learned to kiss the wave that slammed me into the Rock of Ages”. -Charles Spurgeon
Is God taking you through a storm right now? Do you feel waves are beating you on every side and the storm just won’t cease? It’s time to kiss the waves that have slammed you in the storm and remember that God has so much goodness in store for you. It might take patience, endurance, forgiveness, and humility – but you will get through it and you’ll come to see what God intended that ache for.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trails of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4
Be brave,
