The Lord gave me this word this morning…

Waiting through pain…

This is going to be kind of deep…

The Lord tells us to wait…

The Lord puts us on hold…

The Lord removes anything from us which we could strive for or distract ourselves with…

He puts us in a straight jacket…

I’m not saying that this is run of the mill for everyone who knows the Lord all the time, no, I’m not saying that but in certain seasons of our lives I believe all of us who know the Lord will have times where He does this to us…

Why?

When we wait through pain, when we wait through unanswered questions, quandaries, perplexing situations, when we feel the pain and it overwhelms us, let’s not shake it off, let’s not suppress it, let’s let it overwhelm us, let’s let it make us cry and get it all out…

Let’s stop asking God to fix things…

What do you mean by that Andrew?

As human beings we look to God to fix things…

That’s what He’s good for right?  To make everything better…

No, actually what He’s good for is making things worse…

What?  Worse?

Yes, because He’s exposing our flesh…

He wants to make things so bad that all we have left is to cry out to Him in a puddle of tears not even knowing why we are crying and what it all means but as we let it out not understanding at all what is happening to us – He hears us – He hears our heart – our flesh – our desire for Him to sort it all out and take away our pain and make us feel happy again and give us understanding so we can know what is exactly happening to us – our control basically – once He gets us to this place of sitting in a pool of tears – we then see He is in complete control…

We can’t make anything happen and no matter how many times we petition Him we can’t make Him do what we want Him to do and we see that we have been using God like a father Christmas or like an indulgent Dad who just always gives us what we want…

That is not what a father is…

I have been learning this with my children…

Sometimes I have to feel the pain which my children are going through in not getting their own way and although it pains me to see them suffering I have to let them suffer…

Yes, you heard me I have to let them suffer…

Why?

Because Jesus suffered and He was the perfect Son…

It is just God’s way of making us like Himself…

It teaches us to trust Him…

So when our lives turn to custard and we know this has happened because we obeyed Him – we followed what He told us to do – take heart – He delights in pulling us apart so that once we reach that rock bottom place of realizing that we’ve been using Him – He can re-construct us for His glory as surrendered servants to Himself…

Why should we serve God?

Because God Himself is a Servant…

He is never asking and will never ask us to do something which He has not already done Himself…

He is the Perfect Leader and I love Him so much…

He truly leads by example and He is my example and I want to be like Him…

He is my Hero…

His Leadership is Perfect…

He leads by example…

Nothing we go through isn’t for our good – no matter what it is…

Forgive others…

No matter how they treat you forgive others and keep loving them…

This proves that you are a child of God…

Because this is how He rolls…

Love,

Andrew