Are We There Yet?

“Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved.
In quietness and confidence is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15 (NLT)

Don’t we all ask that question at sometime in our lives? “Are we there yet?” Don’t children love this question when the journey has been long and they’re just ready to get out of the car and run free? Don’t you think the Israelites were asking that question of God while they wandered around in the wilderness for forty years? How would we react if God sent us out on an eleven-day journey and we still hadn’t arrived after 39 years? I imagine we’d all be pretty frustrated.

How many of us would say we’re in the middle of something—of some journey right now? We’ve seen the excitement of the beginning, but we haven’t yet experienced the satisfaction of the end…and yet God says, “Blessed are those who wait for him to help them.” (Isaiah 30:18) Does it stretch us? You bet it does! Is it a bit uncomfortable! Absolutely! So we may start to move forward and we may start to get ahead of God and then we wonder where He went? “And you have brought this on yourselves by rebelling against the Lord your God when he wanted to lead you and show you the way!” (Jer. 2:17 NLT) It’s hard though, isn’t it? It’s hard to die to all the old laws in our lives, the way we have always heard things should be, and then move on into the new life that Jesus Christ has given us, moving at “God’s Speed” instead of our own! It just doesn’t seem to make sense to our human nature! But the truth is, it doesn’t and it never will because we are a new creation! God is working something new in us, from the inside out!! We literally have to free-fall into His arms, and TRUST HIM! Even Abraham had trouble with this one, which resulted in Ishmael being born before Isaac. What a great example of not waiting on God, but moving ahead because God just seems to be taking much too long when we are waiting, But God has a much better plan for all those who will believe in His Son. And may I add, it includes the best retirement plan ever heard of! Eternity with our Father, all our needs provided for and no burial cost will be required!

We can never go wrong when the One who is in control of the entire universe tells us which way to turn! Our human reasoning and logic is babyish garble compared to the leading of His Holy Spirit! God wants us to soar! He wants us to bury ourselves in His Word, in prayer, and stay there until we are ready to break free from the shell we live in and soar above the laws we have always lived by.

So, while God is working there are times of waiting. That’s just the way it is. There’s no sense in fighting it, and there’s really no sense in running ahead of where God has us! We are called to wait, to listen, and then to go as God directs. When the enemy starts screaming, “Aren’t you there yet?” we need to be still and know that God is God. And then when God calls us to move forward, we move…arriving just where we’re supposed be, at just the right time for what God has planned in our lives.