Where do "Waiting" & "Faith" Converge?
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about faith. It seems my whole life is a battle between Faith and Self, and most of the time it's extremely "not fun".
Hebrews 10:38-39 says, "'But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."
Obviously, Faith is something that God values highly, and something that He will reward. But, how much Waiting is in Faith? Is Waiting a definite part of Faith? Does living by Faith necessitate Waiting? Or is Waiting what those of us who are trying to live by Faith do in order to play it safe? Are there even answers to these questions?! It often seems to me that Faith should involve "jumping", and doing tremendously huge things - taking "leaps" for God. So, do we need to wait for instruction to know what to leap into? That only makes sense... Why must it take so long? And how will we really know when it's time to leap?
Psalm 27:13-14 says, "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."
Okay, so maybe the the Waiting is what takes Faith...being confident that God is good and that He will answer our Faith. Waiting takes patience and endurance and is often accompanied by Suffering. Perhaps the Waiting and Suffering are there to create Faith. There to make us ask questions that draw us closer to the heart of God...
2 Corinthians 1:5-6 reminds us that, "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer."
So, it would seem suffering brings us closer to Christ - or closer to an understanding of Christ - and in Him we can also gather comfort - all of which produces Patient Endurance. Is Patient Endurance synonymous with Waiting? I suppose it's at least in the same family as both Patient Endurance and Waiting take Faith. And also produce Faith. Whoa. Okay, I'm making my head spin - in a good way...
Well, there aren't any profound answers in here, but there is a lot of truth - something the Bible is really excellent for. I'll leave you with one of my favoraite passages:
Ephesians 3:14-21 "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowlege - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever! Amen!"
