The Fullness of Time...continued

Matthew Berry's comment on my posting last week was right on; the aligning of my own heart and mind to His ways and thoughts is a huge part of what God is preparing as He meticulously sets things and people in place for the sending of His salvation! In the time of waiting for His visible answer to my prayers, He is changing my way of thinking and feeling related to many things. I've watched this happen to me and to others when there has been a long waiting time in prayer.

The more I learn to pray and to persevere in prayer, the more I realize how my thinking is not aligned with His. He uses the pain of unanswered prayer to lead me into His light and truth, and His light and truth lead me to His "holy hill" (Psalm 43:3,4), the place of His dwelling where I am transformed by His loving presence.

This is motivated by His love for me, because He knows that without my soul (my mind, will, and emotions) being increasingly aligned with His mind, His will, and His emotions, I cannot pray rightly (James 4:3), and if God were to answer my prayers before the "fullness of time", I wouldn't even be able to enjoy the answer because of wrong thinking and feeling and desiring. I wouldn't know how to properly "steward" that which God had given me.

I'm learning that it's so worth trusting Him with the waiting time...and it's worth being willing to yield to His ways as I wait. In other words, I'm learning to wait actively rather than passively. To wait actively is to persevere in courageous prayer and to aggressively go after God with an attitude of willingness to change my way of thinking as His light and truth penetrate my darkness and deception by the working of His Spirit.

So once again, take heart that God is at work in you and in your circumstances; give Him your heart each day and purposely submit your mind to His. It's painful to give up old ways of thinking about Him and His kingdom, but in the long run, it's more painful not to! If you will persevere in "sowing to the Spirit" through intentionally yielding to Him as you wait for Him to move, in due time (the fullness of time), you will "reap" His life in you and in many others.

God bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine on you and be gracious to you and give you peace!