Waiting on a prayer..

Recently I have been thinking a lot about Joseph, you know Joseph coat of many colors Joseph. So his dad gives him this great coat, Joseph has a great vision and we are set for incredible things to begin to happen. But as the story goes , Joseph gets thrown into a pit , traded into slavery, works his way up the ladder , falls down because of a woman and finds himself in jail trapped again. So if you do the math from the time he first has his vision /dream /gets a cool coat/ and ends up in jail years go by. Can you imagine waiting years to go by waiting for an answer to a prayer. Honestly I do not like to wait 5 seconds for God to answer my payers but to wait years. Or like Abraham and Sarah or Zacharia and Elizabeth, the scriptures are full of people who wait. Me on the other hand short change the system and when the answer is not right in front of me, I answer my own prayer. By the way this never works out well. So often in life we settle for good when God wants to give us great. Really waiting on the answer to a prayer is the core of what it means to have faith in God. Putting our trust in the knowledge that God wants what is best for us and that God's love for us never stops. It is the living out of Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. And maybe that is why it is so difficult to be patient, being patient requires trust. So as you are waiting remember that God is faithful and trust that what God has in store for you is a future Hope. Happy Waiting !

You ever wonder what is next ?

I am not real sure why I am thinking of this now but do you ever wonder what is next in your life ? Or maybe not even that big of a question but thinking while you are eating lunch , wonder what we will have for dinner? Not sure about you but I feel like I spend a lot of time asking the question what is next. And not just asking the question but actively seeking an answer or actively making up an answer. If I am honest a lot of my time is spent thinking of the future or at least what I would like the future to be and maybe it is pointless. Perhaps the real point is the waiting, perhaps the real point is sitting and being present in the now. But that is really difficult for me to do because I just want the answers. When I was in middle school I was not a huge fan of Algebra so when it came time to do my homework I did what any 8th grader would do, I turned to the back of the book to find the answers. It worked out great, I did really well in Algebra 1 and made it past 8th grade. Well it worked really well until I got to Algebra 2 and the answers were not in the back of the book anymore. Needless to say I struggled with Algebra 2 a lot , in fact I loved it so much I did it twice. The point being had I have really taken the time to learn Algebra 1 , Algebra 2 would not have been so difficult but I wanted to get to what was next. Once I got there I only found that it was not so great because I missed the stuff that would have made the next great , better, easier. As we leave the Advent season , the season of waiting I have realized I have missed the point, I just wanted Jesus to hurry up and get here and I missed all of the lessons you learn while you are just waiting, persevering and learning what you need to learn in a particular season. I am at next and missed the things that would have made it great. I do not want to wonder what is next and miss what is here now. So that is my prayer. Lord help me to be present today , help me to see you where you show up today, lead me by the still water today, teach me what I need to know just for today. May your next be filled with waiting today.