When You Desire God’s Presence
There is a deep desire within all of us to Know God and to know his love. Yet this world is so noisy, and we tend to do whatever we can to get by without leaning into Him. When I finally lean in, be still and wait, that is when transformation happens. We ought to lean in, we ought to know God’s love, but that requires some waiting and well, we are not good waiters.
We live in a world that glorifies hustle, busy, even restlessness yet, as believers we are called to be still, to surrender, and to rest. Each of these are postures of waiting.
Waiting.
Oh friend, we have lost the art of waiting. Waiting is defined as: “to stay in place in expectation of” (Merriam-Webster). To many of us waiting means delays. To be delayed at an airport means you are stuck in the waiting. Sometimes we have to stop what we are doing in order to tend to something else we didn’t plan or expect meaning we are neglecting something in order to wait on another.
Yet, Jesus was a waiter. He waited for the Lord, he went into secret places and did not move until the Father said so. Jesus was a waiter because his posture of waiting was in service to His Father and to his people. He waited. He served. He transformed lives.
Be still. Rest. Surrender. Wait.
In stillness you pause, in rest you retreat or lie down, in surrender you lift your hands and wait before you move. If you are a believer, you are part of the beloved, he has called you, he has purposed you and all you have to do is be still and wait on God.
“Transformation happens after stillness and soon your waiting will turn to a welcoming! ”
Throughout God’s word we see this pattern of stillness and then the transformation. In the stillness of the mountains and after waiting 40 years, David becomes a shepherd king. During a time of stillness, fasting and waiting to move, Esther becomes a courageous voice and shield for her people. In the stillness, the darkness and the waiting, the scales fall from Saul’s eyes and God's truth of the Messiah is revealed and then, Paul preaches the gospel.
Transformation happens after stillness and soon our waiting will turn to a welcoming!
In Galatians 5:5, Paul writes, “For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.” On our own, waiting feels weakening, but it is through the Spirit of the living God that we are equipped to “eagerly await” that “for which we hope!” In other words, we separate ourselves from our flesh, from our past, from what held us in bondage, and we welcome righteousness. We believe, because of Jesus’ work on the cross, that transformation isn’t just possible, it is welcomed into our lives daily! That is our hope friends! You and I are being transformed into the very nature of our Lord and savior. And as the Message states, “…our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” 2 Corinthians 3:18.
After the stillness and waiting, David welcomed a heart like His.
After the stillness, fasting and waiting, Esther welcomed the celebration of her people saved.
After the stillness, the darkness and the waiting, Paul welcomed the Gentiles as children of God.
We desire his presence and his love. We want to know God. We want to feel him. We want to revel in being his children and the best way to do so is to lean in, get still, and eagerly wait for His face to shine upon us.
In the stillness of his presence, we are transformed into his likeness. We can be waiters. We can wait on the Lord. We can serve his people. We can experience his presence and the abundance of his love in our everyday, ordinary lives.
