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Quiet Time

    by Kasia Kedzia

Sitting on My Hands to Make Eye Contact
Date Posted: November 2, 2010

Waiting for anything can be challenging but waiting patiently can up the scale of difficulty. I have found that I am more apt to wait if I know what’s coming. If I know I will receive a package on a Tuesday I am happy to wait till Tuesday. However, if Tuesday passes and the package has not arrived I can work myself into a panic in under 60 seconds. Learning patience is learning trust. When I am forced to wait and not act I am forced to pray; to listen and not take control. I am forced to sit on my hands so that they are not elbow deep in something else when God wants to place something in them according to his time and plan.

Job 4:2-6 (NLT) 2 "Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out? 3 "In the past you have encouraged many a troubled soul to trust in God; you have supported those who were weak. 4Your words have strengthened the fallen; you steadied those who wavered. 5 But now when trouble strikes, you faint and are broken. 6 Does your reverence for God give you no confidence? Shouldn't you believe that God will care for those who are upright?

Eliphaz asked Job to be patient enough to listen to him and correlated his impatience with Job’s lack of confidence in God despite of all the things he had done for others in the past. It’s a call to live out what he claimed to believe. I can definitely relate to this. When I am impatient with the things in my life that I think matter most it is a clear indication of my lack of confidence in God. Sometimes the things I don’t want to be patient about are the very things that I need God’s guidance in the most. My singlehood and my career are two examples that come to mind. I can misguidedly think that getting what I want in this very moment will make me happy. However, pardon the cliché, hind site is twenty-twenty. Looking back, many of the things I wanted or tried to make happen in order to bring about my version of happiness did not ultimately lead to happiness. Dr. Don Raunikar put it this way,

“happiness is the by-product of something else, and only a sovereign God who has planned a good work for us can guide us with His eye to that ‘something else.’ Without the eye contact, we will spend our lives pursuing what we don’t have and can’t find. No marriage, relationship, job, education, or hobby will ever be enough.”

Whether in relationship or career the lesson is always the same. The call is to learn to wait and to be patient. It is an exercise in self-control and in sacrifice. Most of all it is an exercise that takes my focus off of me and places it back on God.

In relationships:

Ruth 3:18 (NLT) Then Naomi said to her, "Just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens. The man won't rest until he has followed through on this. He will settle it today."

In career or position:

Proverbs 16:32 (NLT) It is better to be patient than powerful; it is better to have self-control than to conquer a city.

It is about sacrificing momentary comfort long enough to make eye contact with God. It has become a greater lesson for me in love and knowing God.

2 Peter 1:6 (NLT) Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness.

To trust God I must know him and to know him is to trust him. When I am able to trust in God’s love for me it empowers me to be patient not only with my circumstances and myself but also with others. When I find myself not trusting and becoming impatient I have to ask myself what it is about God’s character that I doubt. I can’t love without practicing patience.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NLT) Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

The waiting does not become easier or more comfortable, but I am able to exercise the strength and courage that it takes to continue to wait. Ultimately, it all goes back to our focus on God, to commune with God through prayer rather than try to take things into my own hands or worse, become hopeless. When I wait on God with the things I may want for myself I am able to focus on seeing others needs and be more willing to sacrifice to meet them. Hopelessness robs us of the joy God intends for us to experience that supersedes circumstances. It steels our opportunities to give to others and blinds us from seeing and enjoying present blessings. At the end of the day my role is not to “do good deeds,” it is to stay connected to God and give away what He gives me. So I continue to hand over in prayer the things I may want in order to be better able to focus on giving and sharing the love I am receiving every day. In the end, no sacrifice is large enough as we are still promised more than what we could ask for or imagine.

Hebrews 10:36 (NLT) Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

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Biography Information:
Gods brought me a long way from the New York City Housing Projects. I studied the Bible, repented, and was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins when I was 17 and have been repenting and striving towards heaven ever since. The hardest thing about becoming a Christian at 17 was trusting that God would take care of me, meet my emotional teen needs, and help me overcome my enormous insecurity...what else would a teen girl have trouble with?

Since those first days, I have made it out of the Projects, finished my Masters degree in International Development, and moved  to DC  to work in my field. As a young single Christian woman my struggles today are a little different than they were when I first came to know God, but who am I kidding, not much. It's the every day battle for my heart to be pure before God, to strive to please him, and help others to seek and know Him.

Over my years of a faithful walk with God I have received much grace and compassion and have been blessed beyond my wildest dreams. Through out it all one thing has stayed consistent: God's word. Through His word I have been inspired and it has kept me faithful even when faith seemed like a foreign concept and God seemed deaf to my prayers. I started emailing my Quiet Times which helped me stay accountable as I shared my struggles and fought for understanding. Some wrote back and said they too were inspired and could relate. I hope some of my times can help inspire others who are seeking and fighting just like I am, to get to heaven and take as many as possible with me along the way.

Like what your read? Check out my blog: http://stronggirlforlife.wordpress.com/
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