“Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.” -Psalm 27:14, Amplified
I’ve been in the waiting for quite awhile in this past season of my life, and even now. My wife and I are eager, hopeful, yet live with much longing as of yet unfulfilled. We are living well in it, but that is not an easy thing to do. Waiting patiently but also passionately, intensely but also intimately. Ultimately, the “stuff” we’re waiting for — the growth of our family a significant element of that — is really a longing for Jesus, for the Father, for the Spirit to abide and for the Kingdom to come and advance in us and through us. That is what is behind the curtain, beneath our longing. And that is the promise and guarantee whispered by God within…
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” -Revelation 22:17
I want to be among the stout-hearted, waiting eagerly and expectantly (Romans 8:19), hoping, anticipating, actively, passionately waiting. And in the meantime? Fan into flames the inner fire of God’s life in me. Stout-hearted, fiery hot, courageous, slaking my thirst in the waters of life. I’ve not had the best balance of this. My posts here have diminished, and with that, I’m sad to say, some of the flames. I’m a chronicler; I write what God shows me, and by doing so I take it in, embrace it, let it do its work in me. Paul tells Timothy to fan into flames himself the gift of God in him (2 Timothy 1:6). That’s his job, his responsibility, not God’s. I’ve been asking God to make me stout-hearted, and so He’s giving me longing unfulfilled. I’ve been asking Him to set me aflame with His life within, and so He gives me the poker of writing and points me to the smoldering embers. He Himself will be the bellows (John 3).
This is vague and general, I realize, but I’m only trying to recapture what the Spirit is breathing in me; refinement comes later. Polish isn’t the point; it’s passion He’s after. The passion is in waiting expectantly, hopefully, stoking all the while, courageously becoming large- and strong-of-heart.
