Saturday, December 31, 2016

From Dawn to Dusk: A Writer’s Guide to Recognizing God’s Presence in the Wait



Time ticks on, yet the metaphorical doors leading to answered prayers remain closed, and the hallway between opportunities stretches as far as the eye can see. What else can be done but wait, hope and pray? How can God be actively at work within a place of stillness?
When I speak at schools and other venues, I often tell people my job is to be rejected. I give thousands of hours to a pixelated stack of white pages on an illuminated computer screen. I pour my heart and soul into each sentence, yet I spend as much time waiting for a YES from publishers and accepting countless NOs as I do composing a novel. I’m on a thousand-hour coffee date with possibilities that may or may not become my reality.
Life is a hallway of locked doors. No matter how much someone knocks, unless it is God’s will, the panels will stay sealed and act as protective barriers between the sovereign plan and one’s desires. Some doors never open; those that might have been concealed from sight or kept from consideration unlock at unpredictable moments.
Opportunities come in fleeting gasps, subtle whispers and screeches of celebration. They’re delivered in blinks and extensive spans. They come when we ache for them, when we least expect them.
Rejection is a large portion of my job, but God-glorified waiting is a lifestyle I have accepted, applied. God-glorified waiting is an attitude of surrender, a faith in His promise to open doors—it is a life of knocking and being content in whichever threshold becomes available.
Waiting is not a passive verb.
God is not bound by time.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Our lives are caged into a block of linear years. We exist in a timeline, but God surpasses chronology. He does not abide by the earthy rules that hold our bodies captive. He works beyond seconds, hours and days. If we have asked Him to be Lord of our lives, we have been adopted into His master plan where nothing can happen too early or too late.
The timelessness of God is a truth we can cling to as we wait for His doors to unlock.
God is not bound by dreams.
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” Hebrews 10:36
God cares for the desires of our hearts. He does not toy with us, give dreams and not fulfill His promises. If we are divinely called to a destination, He will pave the path.
Our dreams cannot build parameters around God’s power. He has the ability to change our hearts, replace desires with burning passions. He can do immeasurably more with us when we walk the hallway of life, knock and ask for His guidance.
God is not bound by choices.
“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:13-14
Salvation through Jesus Christ is the ultimate open door—it makes available to us God’s perfect plan. Grace declares victory over the choices we make, and God’s will prevails.

Waiting is a state of motion where God can reveal His truth and mold our hearts. We must be sure to recognize His voice in the perceived stillness, listen to Him above all else and dwell within the comfort of communication with Him.
Dreams can be fulfilled while walking down a hallway.

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin