"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14
What a wonderful weekend. We are literally exhausted, but we were so blessed by the words that wonderful people of God brought forth. As the weekend went on, despite all the work we had to put into it, I just felt more and more at peace. And when I saw this verse this morning, it just seemed to fit.
Because I'm almost in a thought pattern of "what's next God?" Truly, we've been waiting for this past weekend for almost a full year, and a lot of what we've been learning has been in preparation for what we were going to hear. This peaceful feeling I have this morning, this state of bliss, just takes this verse from the Psalms and applies it directly to my brain. Seriously. Because maybe I am thinking about what's next. But you know what? God knows exactly what's next, and when the time is right, He will let me know what is next.
So I can wait. I will wait, I will wait patiently, and I will just relish being in this peaceful place while I am waiting. There is no need for me to run frazzled into the headlights and try to find something, anything to do. I think that often times, that's what people do. A season of service comes to a conclusion, and rather than waiting on the Lord, and waiting for His direction, they take a logical look at the options and just thrust themselves headlong into a new task. When perhaps God had been preparing a new place for them, and now they are too busy to see that God had been doing so in the first place. When we wait, when we sit back and wait for God to give us a go-ahead, we can have confidence in knowing that we are doing exactly what He wants us to be doing.
Do you know what else I've found though? That when I truly do wait on God, when He does bring an answer, He brings it clearly. In addition to that, there is usually confirmation through another source as to the correctness of this decision we are making.
When we were thinking about making our physical move for our family, we were really wondering where God wanted us. We had a radius in mind that included dozens of different communities, and it was really important to us that we ended up exactly where God wanted us. When we found this house, even though I felt it was right, I wanted to be sure, and I asked God if He really wanted us in this city. I'll admit, I had dreams of visions of living in the country,and thought maybe that was where God directed us. What God did was bring to mind a conversation that Andy had shared with a good friend of ours. She had had a dream about our family, and in the dream, we were in an apple orchard and we were full of joy, and we were happy. I'll admit that after hearing that, a part of me wondered if God was going to give us an actual apple orchard. But as I thought on that dream further, it didn't take me long to realize that we were moving to a city called Appleton. Appleton also means "apple town" but to take it one step further with etymology, in Old English, aeppletun literally means "orchard". God confirmed for us, through the words of another person, that we were making the right move for our family.
"A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." Deuteronomy 19:15
This verse in Deuteronomy is actually being applied to an issue of men committing crimes, but I find that it is applicable in other situations as well. If we are unsure of the decision to be made, I think that God actually likes it when we ask Him for confirmation, if we ask Him for two or three "witnesses", because then He has more opportunities to talk to us and share His plans for us.
So we wait on Him. We wait and be patient, and when we think an answer has presented itself, we can ask Him for confirmation. God will let us know if we are making the right choice, or the bad choice. We can have confidence in our God, because he is good all the time.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
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