“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength, but you are unwilling.  Isaiah 30:15

There are so many times in my life that I have been frustrated with the way my life is or is not playing out.  I hear and see others who appear to be receiving the favor and blessings I could only hope for.  Often, I try to analyze whether or not I am doing enough or being enough so God will bless me too.  I envy those around me and make my next decision based on that comparison or my pride; being self reliant yet in desperate need of approval and validation.  It is a crazy train with the conductor being my emotions and the destination uncertain.  We do not and should not be living our lives this way.

In Isaiah God tells us that returning and resting in him is how we are saved. In quietness and in trust shall be our strength!  BUT we are unwilling.

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.  For the Lord is a God of Justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.  Isaiah 30:18

There is redemption opportunities for our moments of unwillingness.  Thankfully the Lord is full of grace and patience!  That is why he stated earlier in returning and rest you shall be saved.  We at any point and time in this journey can stop dead in our tracks and return to the one who has the directions for our life and when we do we will find rest for our weary minds.  Blessings come from waiting on the perfect timing of the Lord.  I don’t know about you, but I am a very impatient person!  When I get a vision or agenda that I want to see played out by golly I want it fulfilled yesterday!!  God waits to be gracious to us.  Let that sink in for a moment.  If God was as impatient as me, we would have been destroyed a long time ago.  If God was as impatient as me, he never would have endured the journey to the cross.  I am so grateful for this character trait of God!  Perfect timing for our best is what He has in mind as he beckons us to wait on Him. It is not to frustrate us or cause stress and anxiety; it is the opposite He wants us to have abundant life!  When we push through and learn patience and believe that God is working everything out for our good and His glory; then and only then do we get to experience the blessing we could not have imaged for ourselves.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us  Ephesians 3:20

The things  you are asking and hoping for and not receiving could be God waiting to be gracious to you.  He has something much greater in store. His ways are higher than ours and His vision far expands ours.  We are in it for the immediate gratification, God is in it for eternal impact and Kingdom glory.  Whatever it is you have been waiting on God to release in your life, be patient and those days when you are feeling defeated and hopeless stand firm on this truth “Blessed are all those who wait for him”