WAITING

There was a fire on the route that takes me into work today. It was a nightmare journey into work today and trust me I did not enjoy the experience.
I initially thought to work from home but unfortunately I logged on at home and realised I did not have full access to all the files I needed for work. I thought to myself, if this was my company, will I give up just like that. Well I will not so I decided to find alternative routes to work even though I knew it was not going to be easy.

I got to Lewisham station (a journey that should have taken me 15 mind took about 25mins), I thought to myself, well this is not so bad. I decided to take another service called the DLR to a station near work and walk from there (the walk will do a lot of good after all the cake I ate yesterday as it was my birthday).

When I got to Lewisham, there was a huge crowd of people trying to get on this DLR and the platform had to be closed intermittently to reduce over crowding. I thought oh no, maybe I should have stayed home. I stayed with the crowd. Suddenly a man at the very front of the crowd started to push his way out saying he had been at the station for over an hour and could not get on the platform and he’s leaving. At this point, the information board was showing that the next train will be leaving in 5mins. The man pushed his way out and a few people followed him. Just then the rail workers opened the platform and we all rushed on to get the next train. Guess what the man that decided to leave after waiting for an hour did not get on the train but some of us that were there barely 15mins got on.

As I got on, God said to me, the spirit of patience is so important. The man that had been waiting so long decided to give up his space just literally minutes before the next train was departing and gave up his opportunity for others to get on.

How often do we all do this? We get fed up of waiting and we give up and move on to the next thing, not totally sure what the results of the next thing may bring. The truth is the devil always brings this sort of thought just when our breakthrough is around the corner. I have given up on things before and moved on to the next thing only to realise that if I had been a little bit more patient, the reward could have been great.

In Exodus, it took the children of Israel forty years to get to the land God had promised them. A lot of them did not see this land because they faltered along the way.

2 Peter 3 8-9
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God stands on his word and none of his words will return to him void. We have hope in God that anything he has a hand on, in our lives will succeed no matter how long we have to wait.

Isaiah 40:31
But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

How shall we as Christians wait on God? The way to wait and to renew our strength is by being steadfast in our prayer lives. It can be challenging sometimes to pray when we are going through trials. It can be hard to focus, so why not join others to pray and let others lift you up when you are weary. Why not start a phone in prayer group with your friends or even have a praying partner with a friend you trust.

I have a weekly phone in with a few of my friends weekly, I have learnt so much from our prayer group and even when I am weak, its a relief to know there are people that will lift me up in prayer.

To help you stand when you feel like giving up, make sure you surround yourself with praying people and you will not miss the train you are meant to catch no matter how long you have to wait.