{"id":6973,"date":"2021-01-31T20:30:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6973"},"modified":"2021-01-31T20:30:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:30:14","slug":"whats-your-waiting-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/whats-your-waiting-style\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT&#8217;S YOUR WAITING STYLE?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p>Originally seen on Fr Anthony&#8217;s blog (11 March. 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u201cThe Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.\u00a0 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.\u201d (Lamentations 3:25-26)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I HATE WAITING! &nbsp;I\u2019m not alone am I?&nbsp; We all hate waiting don\u2019t we?&nbsp; Raise your hand if you\u2019ve done any of these in the past week\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Honked at the car in front of you the second that the light turns green if they don\u2019t start moving immediately?<\/em><\/li><li><em>Put a plate of food in the microwave for 30 seconds and then stopped it after 27 \u00bd seconds \u2013 unable to wait any longer?<\/em><\/li><li><em>Pushed the elevator button 15 times while waiting for it come \u2013 somehow thinking that if you push it more, it\u2019ll come faster (makes perfect sense in our heads doesn\u2019t it?)<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>WE HATE WAITING! &nbsp;We hate waiting at the grocery store.&nbsp; We hate waiting in traffic.&nbsp; And we hate waiting on God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It seems like such a waste of time, doesn\u2019t it?&nbsp; Life would be soooooo much better if we didn\u2019t have to wait.&nbsp; If we had WHAT we wanted WHEN we wanted it.&nbsp; Right here\u2026right now\u2026 no waiting.&nbsp; Give it to me NOW NOW NOW!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that\u2019s how you feel sometimes, take comfort in knowing that you are not alone.&nbsp; Impatience is the plague of our generation &#8211; it&#8217;s the fruit of living in a fast food, instant coffee, on demand world. &nbsp;We all struggle with it.&nbsp; And we see its ugly fruit all over our lives \u2013 in the form of worry, anxiety, complaining, negativity, fear, and a general lack of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately for us, <strong>God likes waiting.&nbsp; It\u2019s one of His favorite tools to use in making us better people and more like Him.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cSee how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient.\u201d&nbsp; (James 5:7)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like a farmer, God is trying to produce a harvest in our lives.&nbsp; He\u2019s trying to give His children good things and produce in them fruits worthy of a child of the King.&nbsp; And as a farmer, He produces those fruits by planting seeds \u2013 not full grown trees.&nbsp; And seeds take time to produce fruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, a farmer knows that FRUIT REQUIRES WAITING. &nbsp;No waiting = no fruit.&nbsp; It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Examine your own life.&nbsp; Surely there isn\u2019t a soul out there today who isn\u2019t waiting on God for something?&nbsp; An answer to a prayer\u2026a solution to a problem\u2026a light to shine in the midst of a dark dark situation.&nbsp; We\u2019re all waiting for something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The question isn&#8217;t WHAT you&#8217;re waiting for, but HOW you&#8217;re waiting for it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you waiting patiently \u2013 as a farmer knowing that it will take time to produce fruit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or are you waiting impatiently \u2013 like the maniac pushing the elevator button 15 times thinking that the more he pushes it, the more the little elevator elves inside will realize that he\u2019s really in a hurry and bring the elevator faster?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prophet Jeremiah says that our waiting on God should be characterized by hope and quietness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. &nbsp;<\/em><strong><em>It is good that one should hope and wait quietly<\/em><\/strong><em> for the salvation of the Lord.\u201d (Lamentations 3:25-26)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How are you waiting?&nbsp; Patiently or impatiently?&nbsp; Quietly or complainingly?&nbsp; With hope or with despair?&nbsp; It might just be that HOW you\u2019re waiting will impact HOW LONG you\u2019re waiting as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(read that sentence again and let that one sink in \u2013 it\u2019s pretty deep)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I just read a nice quote the other day that said that \u201c<em>even when our problems are over our head, they\u2019re still under His feet<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp; No doubt about that. &nbsp;That&#8217;s the spirit that should characterize our waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>How would you characterize your \u201cwaiting\u201d style?\u00a0 How do you think God feels when He sees His child (YOU) waiting in that way?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>(c) Fr Anthony Messeh (2020). What&#8217;s Your Waiting Style? by Anonymous. Available at http:\/\/www.franthony.com\/blog\/whats-your-waiting-style. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally seen on Fr Anthony&#8217;s blog (11 March. 2020) \u201cThe Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.\u00a0 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.\u201d (Lamentations 3:25-26) I HATE WAITING! &nbsp;I\u2019m not alone am I?&nbsp; We all hate waiting &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/whats-your-waiting-style\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;WHAT&#8217;S YOUR WAITING STYLE?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6974,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6973\/revisions\/6974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}