The Waiting

A long time ago Tom Petty said that "the waiting is the hardest part," & he's right. When we have a good idea, especially if we sense that God is guiding us, our inclination is to take off & get to work. However, many a good idea has met with its untimely demise due to the excitement that comes with the idea. We get caught up in the excitement & immediately try to get it done, but in the process we forget that many times the difference between success & failure is found in the waiting. Waiting & preparing gives us the opportunity to refine an idea, prepare ourselves & those we need to accomplish it, & to make sure our timing is as good as it can be. We understand this when it comes to business, financial planning, & other areas, but we often overlook this principle in the spiritual realm. However, Scripture is filled with references to the value of waiting on God. In fact, waiting was crucial to the launch of the Church in Acts 1 & 2.

Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gives His disciples the stirring mission found in Acts 1:8. He lays out that they've been called to reach the entire world with the good news of salvation through Him. Like anybody who would have experienced that, I'm sure the disciples were excited & ready to get to work & to tell people all that they had witnessed. However, just before He gives them this exciting mission, Jesus instructs them to go back to Jerusalem & simply wait. Remember, this group was led by a guy named Peter who was a pretty self-motivated doer. I don't think Peter liked waiting. I'm guessing he would have been miserable in a doctor's office or at the DMV, but when Jesus ascended into heaven, Peter led that small group of believers back into Jerusalem, & they waited. The gathered together & waited. Why wait? The simple answer is that they waited because they weren't quite ready to actually accomplish the mission that Jesus had given them because that mission hinged on something: the Holy Spirit. They had to wait for God to move before they could move, but they needed to be ready when He moved. This teaches us a valuable truth:

"We Can't Produce A Movement Of God, But We Can Prepare For One."

Neither Peter & those early disciples nor can we today produce a genuine movement of God. It is totally dependent upon His sovereignty & providence. However, we can be prepared to join Him when He does move. Notice what the disciples did when they returned to Jerusalem. They got away from the hustle & bustle & prayed. What did they pray? We don't know for sure, but I'm pretty confident there was some powerful, worshipful prayers, some deeply repentant confession, & some passionate prayers for the boldness that would be needed when the time came. Perhaps today we need to stop trying to manufacture a movement of God & simply create more opportunities for God's people to prepare themselves to join with God when He decides to pour out His Spirit in a fresh way. Finally, think about this for a moment. Will God move in a powerful & might way in our midst if we haven't prepared ourselves to be a part of that movement? Or will He choose to move among those who have done the work of preparing themselves to be used by God to advance the Gospel & make disciples? 

This episode of the early church's history ends with the disciples gathered to pray. Then the Holy Spirit shows up. They preach the Gospel & 3000 lives are changed as they repent & turn in faith to Christ. How will our little chapter of church history end? Who knows, but perhaps our willingness to prepare will determine how, when, & if God moves among us. We may not like waiting but perhaps waiting isn't just the hardest part, but it's also one of the most important parts.