In God's Waiting Room...

Every mile I gain with God teaches me one thing consistently.  This one thing is relentless in its pursuit of my heart: He is the best Teacher and He's my favorite. I have come to learn that He is my favorite Teacher because He is endlessly patient, exceedingly kind, and outrageously good to me.  I adore walking this life with God as my Partner and my Source.  He makes everything so much richer.  With every lesson He brings into my journey He asks me a question and He gives me a choice.  The question He asks is, "Lauren, Will you partner with Me in every circumstance you face and in every season of life that you walk through?"  This question may be a hard one to answer but my answer comes quickly and without hesitation. "Yes, Father, I will partner with You in every circumstance and in every season."  This question and its answer really come down to trust. Will I trust my circumstances, the seasons in my life, and my future fully and completely to a God that knows me better than I know myself? My answer to that question is a loud YES because of my history and track record with a good, faithful, kind, trustworthy Father.  Honestly, I cannot grasp how people walk without God.  I wouldn't last a second without His counsel, His love, or the intimacy I enjoy that comes out of a relationship with Him.

Recently, He and I have walked through a lesson on waiting.  Let me just be honest.  Waiting is hard.  As hard as it is, I have come to find that seasons of waiting are rich.  Waiting with God requires that I rest.  When I say rest, I mean He wants me to rest actively.  As I think about how to actively rest, the word that comes up in my spirit is TRUST.  I think that is the definition of waiting actively on God.  I have to choose to trust that He will not waste this lesson or season of waiting.  I also trust that His timing is different than mine.  And His timing is so much better.  He's also teaching me that as His daughter, I am not in charge of His timing of things.  Wow, that takes so much pressure off me.  My job is to believe, to trust, to pray, and to partner with Him in the waiting.  I've made a decision to do all of these things no matter how long the seasons of waiting last in my journey.

Through this lesson on waiting, God has shown me how important it is to choose to wait well.  I want to wait in a godly way.  I want to wait in a way that honors Him and makes Him smile.  I've learned that waiting well requires me to believe God has something good in store. I need to trust that He formed me and He knows every single yearning and desire of my heart in a deeper way than I do. I need to pray about my dreams, desires, and needs and release them into His care. I need to partner with Him so that He can cultivate, form, and create mature fruit in me throughout the process of the waiting.  Here's the thing that I know that I know that I know: God does indeed have gold in store for me.  I've made a decision to hold out for it.  Here is a quote that the Lord has authored in my spirit that I repeat often as I wait on His best for me:

"Keep confidently believing for it; ruthlessly trust Him; and never settle for less than His best for me."