This morning was such a blessing in our Friday Morning Prayer group. We all of us have needs pressing down on us…worries overwhelming us both in our personal worlds and in the world at large. We talked about waiting. We shared moments of waiting and what we learned in those lessons and I realized with God’s help that nothing is wasted. Time is not the same for God. Time, for us, can be a burden, a race, a slow slog. And yet…how much we need time to grow, to learn, to experience a lifetime of experiences and choices.

“Waiting is not just something we have to do until we get what we want. Waiting is part of the process of becoming what God wants us to be.” John Ortberg.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. Habakkuk 2:3.

Verses and quotes we contemplated this morning as we related them to our personal journeys; and in thought to what I read this morning in Revelation 16. In this chapter the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath are poured out and affect every person on earth. The most startling thing is that people will curse the name of God and not repent. The commentary below warned we shouldn’t be shocked by the hardness of those hearts, but Lord, I am! I am shocked by the events happening in the world today. I am shocked that anyone would raise their fist to you in anger. He reminds me the world is racing toward destruction and I can’t save it. Nothing is wasted. God is in control. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Romans 8:19. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. v. 22.

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14. As I learn to wait quietly trusting God, I begin to grasp that He has everything in His hands and nothing is wasted. I can look back on my life and realize everything was leading me to Him. He lets me choose. How else can I choose Him? What I am in greatest need of now is to trust Him and His timing….let go of needing to control. He has never let me down. I’ve let myself down; others have let me down; I’ve let others down. God sees our beginning from our end and there is comfort in that. I can and do make choices that bring about hurt and He allows me to do that….but He goes with me. He redeems me.

God is love….this I know. I experience His love daily. The 7 bowls will be poured, fists will be raised in anger and God’s name will be cursed. He forgives. He will heal every heart and they will have a choice just as they always have. I would imagine not many fists will be raised then when they meet face to face with the love of God. God has us.