Word: Watch
Series: The Word
Matthew 24:42 ESV
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
Micah 7:7 ESV
Psalm 37:7 ESV
When I was a young lass I would hear people talk about the Lord returning soon and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that yet. I wasn’t sure what it meant.
All I remember is that I wanted to live. I wanted to marry and have children.
Scripture tells us in Matthew 24:42, “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
Many many moons later God did grant my prayer to marry and have children…and grandchildren.
My focus on life has changed.
My children and grandchildren are nearly spread out from sea to shining sea. One lives in the Midwest, two live out West, and one lives about as far East as you can go without being in the ocean.
My focus on God has changed as well.
While I did pray when I was a young adult, I was the focus of my prayers and requests. “I” wanted what I wanted when I wanted it.
In a sense, God and Santa Clause shared some similarities.
Fortunately, that is no longer the case. That’s because after I turned fifty years old, I experienced a major shift in my life.
That seismic shift catapulted me into a new reality that set up a chain of events that changed how I view God.
I was hurt and angry at first, but gradually I was able to breathe again.
For a long time I didn’t have any words for God. Because I didn’t have any words I would sit in silence with God.
I was finally able to begin to understand the nature and character of God.
Twenty years down the road I can look back and see what God was doing.
God wanted me to experience the silence.
God wanted me to know the presence of God.
God wanted me to step into the holiness and absorb everything that was part of God.
Once I realized there was a whole new realm behind a hidden curtain, I knew my purpose in life was not to pray for what God could give me (like a house, or a car). My purpose was to sit in the silence with God and open my hands to what God had for me.
Please understand this didn’t happen overnight. It was a process.
One great “gift” God gave me was to be in a place where I could sit with a Spiritual Director for about ten years.
He helped me to see things I didn’t see.
He helped me to see how I view life and how God wants me to view life. He did not give me answers, but rather month after month, year after year he challenged me to let God be God.
In other words, there is a God and it’s not me.
I was no longer the center of the universe.
I was no longer in charge.
And so, today do I “watch” and wait for God to come?
You bet.
I give God space every day and I sit in silence with God waiting and watching for God to come rock my world.
God never fails to show up.
Am I waiting for what we commonly call the Second Coming?
I wait and I watch everyday for Jesus to come.
I no longer have expectations for what God will bring. All I know is that I want God.
Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
Micah 7:7 says, “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
Psalm 37:7 says, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!”
For today, watch and wait for God…
Spiritual Practice: Watch
Sit in silence, watch and wait for God.
In God, Deborah