STAND STILL

What I love most about Sundays is my cup of coffee, time I get to spend with my sweet friend Mary, and my time with The Lord.  After church today, Mary and I caught up on some much needed in depth conversation.  I mean, we just got back from a 4 day ski/snowboarding trip to Utah so why wouldn't we have some things to catch up on?  Four days straight together and then a few days away calls for a major catch up session.  We always love to share what the Lord speaks to us in church that day and how it pertains to where we are in our lives.  Mary and I have quite a unique story as friends.  We love to challenge each other on an intellectual level and...we have the EXACT same background story...and when I say exact, I really, truly mean it.  Today, she and I were talking about the progression through life and how we are constantly wanting the next thing to happen.  When we were in middle school, we couldn't wait for high school.  Once high school came, it was college we had our eyes on;  then a husband, a home, and of course children.  We found we were asking ourselves, why can't we live in the moment?  Why do we feel like our lives are at a stand still right now?  We both made it through the trenches and are both looking forward to a life with a husband and kiddos, but when was that coming?  Do you fee like your life is at a complete standstill right now?  Nobody wants to wait for anything.  It actually seems like an impossible thing....waiting?  We are a generation of right here, right now, but is that how God works?  No, it's not and I often find God does the most work in me in the waiting period, the "STAND STILL."

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV 

 

While I was going through my divorce, I felt like the pain was never ending and it would never go away.  My life was on hold.  What was I going to do financially and where was I going to go?  I was finishing up therapy school and fighting for my marriage and to physically to stay alive.  My life wasn't going anywhere.  As a matter of fact it was going backwards, or so it seemed.  But I was wrong.  I like to associate my set back in life as more of the leverage the propelled me into the woman I'm becoming today.  If you can imagine an arrow being pulled back and shot at a target.  The arrow would not have enough momentum to make it to the target if it had not been pulled back, but with movement in the opposite direction, the arrow was able to make it to its destination.  Even though this was not God's plan for my life, he has used it much bigger and better than ever.  During my stand still period in my divorce, I learned to love when I felt unloved; I learned to give when I felt taken advantage of, I learned to love who I was in Christ even though I was tossed away like an old piece of clothing.  God gave me my stand still period so I could see who I was through his eyes, and believe me when I say I'm still living it.  The more time I spent and continue to spend with him, I realize I am made a very specific way...perfect...HIS way.  My stand still period allows me to embrace who I was as Wendi, a child of God, and not as my ex-husband's wife.  I finally had an identity as a woman and it was through my heavenly father...I HAD HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. 

 

I came upon a very profound statement today in my Jesus Today book by Sarah Young and it was very fitting for that moment in life when you feel like you are at a stand still:

 

"Waiting with hope is very difficult, but true patience is expressed when we must even wait for hope.  I will have reached the point of greatest strength once I have learned to wait for hope."

-George Matheson. 

 

You will surely see God's goodness if you continue to stay steadfast in prayer and wait for the Lord.  Know that he is God and he is the ruler of your life and nothing can or will separate you from his love.  Never lose sight of his love and stay in perfect step with the Lord because the period where you feel like nothing is happening, that STAND STILL, the Lord is working on something very important in your life.  When you cry out to him, ask him to show you what he wants you to learn in this moment, this period of your life.  Don't miss out on what the Lord is trying to bring to the surface because it is only taking you down the path he has for your life.  Tough times will come.  Living life as a Christ follower is not easy, but it makes the tough times more bearable and eternity in heaven a promise.

 

EMBRACE THE STAND STILL BECUASE GOD IS AT WORK AND PRAYERS ARE BEING ANSWERED.  EMBRACE THE TIME YOU HAVE TO REALLY LISTEN TO AND UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD WANTS FOR YOUR LIFE. 

EMBRACE THE NOW