THE WAITING ROOM…

Life continually leads us to waiting periods… like an aeroplane circling, waiting clearance and permission to land.  To land too soon would be dangerous, even catastrophic – the pilot must wait for instructions from Air Traffic Control who has the bigger picture in view.

We wait for that greatly anticipated holiday – even though we may say “we can’t wait”, just try turning up at the airport 3 months early! You’re tickets are only valid for a certain date. Life is full of waiting so we may as well learn to wait well! Waiting is preparation time so let’s wait wisely. In the mundane moments invite heaven to invade and impact your life.

Whilst writing this I’m in a ‘not so pleasant’ Waiting Room at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, a place I’ve frequented often over the last year with my pregnancy and birth of Judah. This time I’ve been waiting patiently and a little anxiously, if I’m honest, for a CT Scan of the heart and then there will be a further wait for the review and results with the Cardiologist Consultant in 3 days time. We never like the unknown and the unexpected. What is a CT scan like anyway? Well I was about to find out… All I needed to do was lie down, rest and listen to the voice in my ear and follow their instructions – right down to when to breathe and when to hold my breath. As the machine moved me into the ‘dome’, besides meditating on scriptures that came to mind, I felt like Jonah going into the belly of the whale! I was reminded in that moment ‘no fear here’ – even the whale, which must have been terrifying for Jonah, was sent by God not for his harm or alarm but for Jonah’s protection and perfection.

What are you waiting for….?  To board a flight with a fear of flying, for a hospital appointment, a job interview, exams, perhaps you’re waiting to meet Mr or Mrs Right or for a positive change in your financial status…. wait well, wait wisely, wait fear free, wait patiently, wait proactively!

As I arrived at the hospital, I opened my Bible and read Psalm 34 before going in.  I smiled as I confessed to my amazing husband, David, I had been feeling uncomfortable about it and didn’t like the thought of the radiation from the X-Ray/CT scan, particularly with feeding Judah. That was until I read God’s timely promise to His children that ‘His kids’ (at that moment this became very personal for me) would be only “radiant with joy”!! I’ll take God’s radiance over radiation any day. That was all it took to comfort me and totally counteract any radiation crazy concerns I had – God’s Word always has the final say in my life.  I love that we can daily bring our fears to the Lord, large and small, and He transforms them into faith!  We can bounce away free boasting about what our “Daddy God” has done and will do for you and me!

Psalm 34:1-10 (NLT)

“I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt his name together. I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.  In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles.  For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear [honour, trust and revere] the LORD, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.”

Now that I’ve been through ‘the belly of the whale’ I have to wait for my blood pressure to come up again to a level they are happy with, following my fourth set of observations. Waiting, waiting, waiting…. I figured I’m going to wait fear free, patiently and wisely by being efficient with the gift of this waiting time I’ve been given, hence this ‘blog message’ as a reminder of God’s promises to me and to encourage any of you who may be in life’s waiting room right now! That hope and dream you are longing for will come through for you, the divine delay is necessary to prepare and mature you for when the time is right! There is nothing worse than picking fruit from a bush or tree and tucking into it before it’s ripe, prematurely.  A vision, dream or miracle has an appointed time – wait patiently and prayerfully for it and you will nurture it to fruition!

Sitting in the hospital waiting room brings back so many good memories. I call them good, although to many you may think them traumatic, but you see God came into my trauma and consistently worked His good plans out on my behalf. He always gave me hope and a future.

 

I remember a number of weeks before Judah was born receiving the telephone call at home to say some heart related blood results had come back abnormal and I needed to come straight in. Further tests had me admitted to Delivery Suite with a  view to birthing the baby that night. In simple terms it was explained to us that with this particular level they had been keeping an eye on: “5 was high, 5.5 critical, 6 you’re dead” (charming!) and I’d just hit 5.8! Whilst hospital staff whirled around me and an early delivery looked inevitable, I simply trusted and rested in God.  I was told this level would only go up until they got the baby out. A final blood test was being rushed through. As family and friends at Soul Church prayed and believed with us for a miracle, within an hour surprised Doctors didn’t deliver an early baby but the surprising news that my blood result had remarkably and in the most unexplainable manner  returned to normal! I enjoyed relaying to them ‘heaven’s explanation” and my source of hope and peace I held onto in the midst of panic.  With the emergency averted there was now miraculously no need to prematurely deliver our baby and nothing else for it but to let me go home.

I love the meaning in the Greek and Hebrew for the word ‘hope’, we lose the context in our English language. Hope as God gives to us is not wishy-washy, maybe it will happen and maybe it won’t, but biblical hope is a certainty, “a confident expectation of good and a confident expectation of God”.

What are you expecting whilst you are waiting? The worst? A negative outcome? Fear is a form of faith – only it is not faith in God and good but faith in the negative! Faith is a powerful force, Jesus Himself said:

During the waiting periods of life when the outcome is unknown I choose to trust in a known God – He is tried, tested and even bullet proof – not even the grave could hold Him back!

The world says you get what you deserve, well, that simply isn’t true. In reality, and there is science behind this fact, ‘you get what you expect’! Raise your expectations, yes you, I’m talking to you; raise your expectations and raise your sights higher, to the One, the only One, you should be expecting from!

During the times we find ourselves in life’s varying waiting rooms, let’s exercise faith – use it like a muscle, grow and strengthen your faith… nothing you face will ever outgrow God’s capacity and capability! Choose with me to be faith’full’ and be a God pleaser! Believe when you come to God that He is who He says He is – good, all-powerful, loving – the miraculous is His speciality! He will reward you as a loving Father loves to reward the child He adores! Let faith rise while you wait!

Moses and the children of Israel were waiting for God to show up! With an enemy army chasing them when they looked behind and the Red Sea in front of them, they needed a miracle. With Moses’ faith firmly in what God could do in the face of impossibility and adversity; the waters parted, the enemy pursuing God’s kids was destroyed and a way was made through the sea, beyond where the natural eye could at first see! God says to you today “I will make a way through for you too – I am the way, the truth and the life, trust me – my name is ‘Victory’!”

“When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths. The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook. Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters- a pathway no one knew was there! You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.” Psalm 77:16-20 (NLT)

The children of Israel praised God when they got to the other side! God’s miraculous power blew them away and caused the raging sea to stand to attention like walls and pillars of protection around them! What’s raging against you today? It will stand to attention and serve the purposes of God for your life as you trust Him to lead the way! Let’s go one better than the children of Israel! Praise and thank God for your miracle on the troublesome side of your raging sea – remember in the waiting room where doubt and unbelief whirl around you – His name is ‘Victory’!

This may not be my favourite of waiting rooms to be in but some of the most outstanding displays of human kindness are here to be seen when we look outwardly and not inwardly. I watch a nurse lovingly sitting and waiting with an elderly patient, reassuring her and stroking her hand. An elderly gentleman has his next appointment explained to him then stumbles as He stands to leave. “Oh, I’m getting old and I hate it”, he says to the Doctor who reaches out a caring hand to steady him. The Doctor responds with a smile “the alternative is far worse,” he says! Everything inside me wanted to wrap my arms around them both but I was being led away to a cubicle to have a cannular placed into a vein, and say “but there’s more – God takes us from glory to glory, better to better, life to life, there’s so much more than you’re expecting, yes so much more than negativity and strife”!  Sadly, the world seems to live in and celebrate the negative as the ‘norm’ in the waiting room of life! I’m not waiting to grow old, striving to survive or waiting to die but to thrive, in reality even a ninety year old is a youngster in light of eternity!

“They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing.” Psalm 92:14

 Well, three hours after arriving and multiple trips in and out of the Waiting Room, I’ve been given the all clear to go home. This message and blog kept me company and my faith up in my ‘not so pleasant’ of waiting rooms! Whatever you’re waiting for, let God’s Word keep you company, fill you with faith and hope in your Waiting Room today! I bring you good news: Your miracle is on the way!

Oh and for the record, I won’t be losing any sleep whilst waiting for my CT scan results next week… other than feeding, cuddling and enjoying my gorgeous Judah through the night – I can rest in knowing God’s got this! I’m expecting a good report! It never ceases to amaze me what God can bring out of every situation, even a Hospital Waiting Room, when we invite Him in, listen for His voice, follow His instructions and make Him our choice. Jesus is continually the peace and inspiration within – quite simply my life would daily be a very different story without Him. God says to you today, “Rest in the reality that you are blessed, raise your expectation upwards and get what you expect – heaven’s best is yours for the taking!”