Wait

"I wonder if I'm talking to anyone today who is feeling frustrated. Is there some issue in your life that just doesn't get solved? Have you prayed as much as you can about it and yet it doesn't budge? If that's the case then it's no accident that"1 you are reading this Victory Call today. Today we will set a spell and ponder waiting. Not waiting for resolution of a problem, but waiting, simply waiting on God. How, you may ask, will we ponder waiting? Well, today we'll do it in the form of a poem which communicates more line by line than I'm capable of.

This poem was recently given to me as comfort for my soul from a sister who herself is suffering and wondering and in the midst of it all learning to "wait".

Wait
"Desperate and helpless and longing, I cried.
Patiently, lovingly my Lord replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate;
And the Master so gently said, 'Child, you must wait.'

"'Wait? You said wait?' my indignant reply.
'Lord, I need answers. I need to know why.
Is Your hand shortened or have You not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming Your Word.

"'My future and all to which I can relate
Hangs in the balance, and You tell me wait.
I'm needing a yes, a go-ahead sign,
Or even a no to which I can resign.

"'And Lord, You promised that if we believe
We need but to ask and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry,
I'm weary of asking, I need a reply.'

"Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied once again, 'You must wait.'
So I slumped in my chair defeated and taught,
and grumbled to God, 'so I'm waiting for what?'

"He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, 'I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun;
I could raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.

"'All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depths of My love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

"'You'd not learn to see through the clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence were all you could see.

"'You'd never experience that fullness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove.
You'd know that I give and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart,

"'The glow of My comfort late in the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight,
The depth that's beyond getting just what you asked of an infinite God
Who makes what you have last.

"'And you'd never know, should your pain quickly free,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dreams for that loved one overnight may come true,
But oh the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you.

"'So be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft may My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious of all is still, Wait.'"2

Dear sister, are you waiting? Then know this there is a God in heaven and He cares for you!

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth...Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." ~ (Isaiah 40:21-22a, 28-31)

Stephanie Paul

Stephanie Paul, wife and mother of two grown children. An "instrument of change" in the Redeemer's Hand, in the lives of wounded and hurting women. Currently serving as a part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America's Keswick as Woman of Character Program Administrator.

1 Lisa Barry http://www.backtothebible.org/index.php/Gateway-to-Joy/Waiting-Quietly.html


2 Poem wait by Russell Kelfer http://www.backtothebible.org/index.php/Gateway-to-Joy/Waiting-Quietly.html

May is here and we will be hosting our 4th Annual Family Freedom Walk on Saturday, May 12th. YOU can help in two ways.



ONE. WALK - call guest services (732.350.1187) to obtain a walk package, solicit sponsors and come to the walk.

TWO. Sponsor Victory Call for the walk. We are having a friendly competition between the 2 groups of devotional readers (Freedom Fighters and Victory Call). Go to Family Freedom Walk Support . Be sure to designate your gift to FFW: VC

Our goal is to raise more funds by the Victory Call team than the men raise for the Freedom Fighter's team. Last year Victory Call subscribers raised $5,350.00 and Freedom Fighter’s subscribers raised $100.00. Victory Call WON, by ALOT! In reality, the Addiction Recovery ministries won because together we raised $43,136.00!!

Come join in the fun. Please?