Trusting Jesus When Doubt Whispers

  For years I would wait for summer to come so we could travel to South Dakota.  I loved it there.  It seems something about the Black Hills just pulled on my heart strings.  I couldn’t describe it, but I knew I wanted to be in the mountains.  Over the next two decades my family would make the two day trip out, (we were younger then!) stay the week and then make the trip back!  Once my husband retired, we would take our RV and summer out there.  It was the dream location.

IN THE MOUNTAINS

Then as God would have it, we made a trip down to the Sevierville, TN area.  We were again in the mountains, and we bought a place.  This became the place we wanted to live.  We began building our house and suddenly life was turned upside down.   Charles unexpectedly passed away.

EVERYTHING CHANGED

I made the decision to continue with the build, even though I’d not have Charles to share our dream.  As a widow, everything changes— sort of.  It’s like I had to start all over again, but I’m still doing the same thing.  In many ways I feel like I’m still in waiting mode!

BIG DECISIONS

There’s no question that building a house takes time.  But I’m not even in TN!  I’m in MD!  So I wait!  I wait for updates, pictures, even the bills which need to be paid.  And I wait for the date on the calendar which will initiate my return.

Many years ago a friend said, it’s wrong to ‘wish for things to happen.’  I asked him why.  And he said, ‘when you are so focused on what you want in the future, you miss what’s going on right now; today!  You’re wishing your life away'.  

WAITING IMPATIENTLY

  I know that’s true and I try not to ‘wish my life away’ or even to wait impatiently for the day to come where I’ll journey to my home in the South!  And honestly, it wouldn’t make any sense to go sooner, the house isn’t finished yet!

Waiting is hard! But someone else said, ‘patience isn’t passive behavior—-it’s trust in motion’.  That struck me because it’s not about trust in the people building my house, or anything a person can do.  It’s about trusting God; his timing and will to make everything work together for His good!

CHOOSING TO TRUST GOD

It means choosing to trust God in the moment even when the outcome is unclear!  I can’t help but recall that Jesus died on the cross.  The disciples scattered for a while and then ended up together in a room while they waited.  They didn’t know what to do next!  Their Messiah, the Christ was no more in their space.  He was in a tomb.  They knew he’d died.  They were at a total loss.   Before the event happened, they were positive he was the Christ!  So how’d all this happen?  And why?

WAITING

The how’s and the why’s are questions we ask, too, especially when we are required to wait for something that seems unclear.  But on that third day, Jesus rose again!  They remembered all the things he’d taught them and suddenly it made sense!

Patience doesn’t mean we aren't doing anything.  We are stretching in our faith and growing into the person God wants us to be.  Waiting refines us.  It helps us meet with God and align our hearts with his.  In the waiting we are uncomfortable, perhaps even agitated, stressed and unsure of how to respond, and want to know what to do next.  

PROMISES FULFILLED

But when the waiting is over, there is healing, storms are stopped, lives renewed,
and promises fulfilled.  There is light at the end of the tunnel—-a shimmer of sunshine through the clouds and illumination driving out the darkness.

The reward of the light is realizing that God was working the whole time!  —-Even when we doubted and became impatient for something to happen!  It may seem that ‘things aren’t moving’; and we’ve been waiting for such a long time without seeing the light. 

But the light does come and God isn’t slow in keeping his promises.  He’s got a plan; a design to strengthen us and ‘grow’ us.  Waiting is hard.  But the prize is perfect, more than we could imagine, and in God’s perfect timing.

Photo Credit: Faith 

Photo Credit: Trust