Waiting on God - Day 7

Read: Psalm 25:21

"Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You."

Integrity: noun

1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.

3. a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition

Do you walk in integrity? Even when no one else is watching, and no one else will ever find out, do you make the right choices? 
I know every single person struggles with this... no one is perfect. One of the ways that I have dealt with making the right choices is to battle it with Scripture. Kind of like what Jesus did when Satan tempted Him. The hard part about this is you have to memorize Scripture; if you're good at memorizing - Great! If not, then take it one day at a time. Keep sticky notes with verses in different books, and places around your house. Put them on the bathroom mirror!
Have a friend or mentor pray for you. Its hard, you don't have to be on your own!   


Challenge: Make the right choice, even when no one else will know.

Waiting on God - Day 6

Read: Psalm 25:3

"Let none that wait on You be ashamed!"







During the summer three years ago, I was teaching 5-day clubs with CEF. I've always worked alone, so I had no partner to "back me up" if I forgot something. Usually I was prepared, I had my check-list, I'd leave early, do my devotions in the quiet of the car beforehand, and be ready to go.
On one particular day, this was not the case. The Bible lesson for the day was the Centurion's servant. (rare one, huh?) Such a fitting day for it too, because I realized I left my Bible with my lesson notes on my desk. The night before I had been putting together a special project for the girls in a later club, and I never put my Bible back in my bag. I always keep an extra Bible in my car, but really? How on earth was I supposed to teach the lesson on the Centurion's servant? This was the lesson that I used my notes for the most; all the other lessons I basically had memorized. I had no clue what I was going to do; I was embarrassed and ashamed that I wasn't prepared.
I had 10 minutes before I had to be inside. So there I sat, in my car, on the verge of tears and prayed. I texted my mom and asked her to bring my Bible to the next club, got out of my car, and went to the back to get my bag out. I was heading in to teach kids, completely unprepared, with no back-up plan. I sent up another silent plea asking God to help me. As I opened the back hatch of my explorer, my teacher's manual fell out of the car. The binder opened to all the lesson plans. I almost fell over with relief. God answered my prayer and had given me everything I needed to teach the Bible lesson that day.  

Challenge: Do you take your problems to God? Do you allow Him to show His awesome answers to prayer in your life?

Waiting on God - Day 5

Read: Psalm 25

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; 

Teach me Your paths. 

Lead me in Your truth and teach me, 

For You are the God of my Salvation; 

For YOU I wait all the day. 

v. 4-5

I know I didn't write much for today, but I feel like those verses speak for themselves. 

Challenge: Have a teachable spirit today. 

God, I ask You to give me a humble spirit. 

Break down any walls of pride that I might have constructed. 

Teach me Your ways today, tomorrow, forever.

Waiting on God - Day 4

Read: Psalm 145

 The focus of the passage is waiting on God for supplies. He supplies all we need, not necessarily all we want. I think many people forget that when they ask God for things. He sees the big picture, He knows the future, He knows what we need.
Whenever I hear of God supplying our needs, I immediately think of an army waiting for the necessary equipment required to complete their mission. They cannot complete the mission unless they have the needed supplies, so they wait.
We wait on God to supply us with the necessary "supplies" in life so that we can complete our "mission" here on Earth.

Challenge: How much time do you spend on your needs rather than focusing on God? 
When we wait in quiet peace, we hear that still small voice. If we're constantly focusing on our own needs, and more often than not, our own wants, we sometimes miss His voice. I'm not saying it isn't okay to pray and ask God for things, but He has already promised to supply our needs, so why not take more time focusing on Him.

The Lord keeps all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
v. 20-21

Waiting on God - Day 3

Read: Psalm 104

I have always loved the Psalms and God's power and His creation never ceases to amaze me. The lady I am a caregiver for loves to walk. Almost every day we'll go for 1-2 mile walks around her neighborhood. Such an awesome way to see evidence of His creation! I've often asked how people can look at the world around us and say there isn't a God. That all of this around us, came from nowhere, all by itself. That, for me, is harder to believe than a Creator.

O Lord, how many are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of your handiwork.
vs. 24 






Challenge: How does God take care of His creation? 
As soon as I read this question, my mind immediately went to verse 28, "You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good." As I said in my previous post Sparrows, God provides and cares about even the littlest things in life. 
Verses 14 through 23 talk about what God gives to us. The little things that we don't even think about, God provides. The big things that constantly weigh on our mind, God provides.

Yesterday I started off my day on a down-note. For some reason I was in one of those "Debbie-Downer" moods. At a really young age I learned to hide my emotions though (that will be another blog post possibly) so not many people, if any, are able to tell my true feelings at a given time. I had gotten home at the end of the day, and was still not in a happy mood. Company was over, and that was all find and good, but I still wasn't "feeling it." I sent up a quick prayer asking God to get me out of that funk I was in because I knew it wasn't right. I texted a friend, and not 3 minutes later, they said they were on their way. I am so thankful for the way that God provides friends at just the right time. He knew what I needed.  
Thanks guys! 

Waiting on God - Day 2

Read: Genesis 49

I'm going to be completely honest here. I was slightly clueless about how this chapter pertained to the devotional, but I still read the entire thing anyway thinking maybe a light bulb will turn on. Surprise, it did. To clarify, I will be the first one to tell you that I am certainly no Bible expert, just a girl posting her ramblings online for others to glean from. I'm not a theologian, or historian, so here are my thoughts...  

All throughout this chapter, Jacob is blessing the twelve tribes of Israel and in vs. 28 it says, "he blessed them, every one with the blessing appropriate to him."  Each tribe of Israel was known for something specific. Reuben was the firstborn and very honored, but he defiled that honor by sleeping in his father's bed. Simeon and Levi were known for their violence, Judah for waiting patiently like a lion with its prey, and the list goes on. The tribes, as different as they were, did not receive the same blessings. Jacob blessed them with blessings appropriate to each tribe. God didn't necessarily take away the blessing, but the consequences of the tribes choices affected the type of blessing they received. 

Challenge: How do you see blessings? 
The way I've always seen blessings is like this... 
Say a woman is pregnant and uses street drugs and smokes, she is not a believer in Christ. Now, it is pretty much common knowledge that street drugs will harm an unborn baby. However, at some point during her pregnancy, she becomes a believer, stops using the drugs, and changes her life around. She goes into preterm labor because of the drugs and smoking, the baby is fine, but they have to do surgery to save mom. She is unable to have any more children. 
Now, did God take away the blessing of children? No, I don't believe so. She (the mom) made certain choices prior to becoming a believer, and there are consequences to those choices. She has one baby, but she cannot have any more. 
The choices we make determine how much of the blessing that we receive.  

Blessings - Laura Story

Waiting on God - Day 1

To start out this blog post series, I'll give you a little background. I'm doing a 31 day devotional challenge in a series called Waiting on God by Andrew Murray. The devotional parts are written by Jeff and Brigitte Ritchey. Over the next 31 days I will try to post the devotional every day, but because I'm not always at a computer every day they might come one or two at a time. I'm hoping to be able to go back through these at the end and see how much I've learned throughout the challenge. I also hope that you as a reader will learn something as well.

Day 1
Read: Psalm 62

This is one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament. It continuously reminds me that God is in control. He is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be greatly shaken. 

At one point in the devotional portion for today the author says,

"Waiting becomes the only way to experience a full salvation, the only way, truly, to know God as the God of our salvation."  

 At first I was taken aback. Salvation does not depend on me waiting. Salvation is a gift. But then I read the statement again, and again, and again. I didn't get it. So I reread the entire paragraph; once, twice, three times. It finally hit me. The author isn't saying that  if we don't wait we are not saved. The author is saying that by taking things into our own hands over and over again, we are not trusting God and His perfect plan; therefore, we do not experience the full benefit of our salvation. If you don't trust someone, how can you have a real relationship with that person? Taking things into our own hands is saying that we don't trust God. If we can't trust God, the Perfect One, the Creator of the world, who can we trust? 

Challenge: Type your definition of what it means to wait on God. 
I feel like most people, when they hear "just wait on God" automatically think that they need to put their lives on hold. Just sit around and wait for God to drop it in your lap. I've found this is especially true with relationships, and jobs. I'm waiting for God to bring me the right person, or to give me the right job; and they complain that they have to wait so long. But those same people are not doing anything about their situation. How are you going to find "the one" (I don't believe in 'the one') when you're sitting on your duff and not going out? How are you going to get the perfect job - if you're not even applying for any jobs? Don't miss out on life, experiences, and relationships because you're "waiting on God." I don't believe that is what it means. 


Waiting on God means trusting Him to bring the right person, or job, or experience into your life at the right time no matter what. By sitting back and 'waiting' for everything to happen, that's almost like saying 'God can't bring the job or the person into my life unless I'm sitting right here.' No matter where you are, or what you're doing, if you're trusting God, and following His will, THAT is waiting on God. If you say you're trusting God, but then not living your life, you're really putting limits on what you think God can do. Of course don't make rash decisions. Pray, Pray, Pray. But as my mom always tells me...

Keep going through the doors until God shuts one.
Then find the new door that He has opened,
And Walk Through.