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WHAT TO DO WHILE YOU WAIT FOR GOD
The Christian life would be easy if the space in time was small between when you first believe God's promises and when you receive what He promised. If you could read about it one day and get it the next, Wow—wouldn't that be great!?
But life's not like that.
The hard part is in the waiting between God's promise and His answer; and even harder, when the waiting comes with uncertainties.
Where's this going? Where am I going to end up? What's my future look like? The reality is, we just don't know how circumstances will play out and it's this not-knowing that crushes us. We doubt because we don't know. We worry and despair because we don't know. We falter and sometimes fail—all because we don't know. If only we knew how this trial was going to end, we would be okay. But we don't.
We all have areas of uncertainty where we need to hold tightly onto what God has said while we wait for Him to work. I couldn't go forward another day if I didn't believe what He told me. So here's what we each must do: You must review His promises all the time. You must remind yourself that your faith is in God and not in what He does for you. He knows what He has promised, He can't lie, and He can't forget. He will deliver on time, all the time. Who else can make promises like that?
God knows that it's hard for us to walk by faith. So He assures us, I'm not going to leave you wondering what I'm going to do. I don't want you to be overcome by fear. So I'm going to make some promises to you so that you can get through the difficult days. You don't have to take your view of life only from what you can see happening right in front of you. You're not imprisoned by the crazy talk someone is putting into your head that you know isn't true. Hang onto the things that I told you.
And while we wait, God builds our faith.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5
~ Dr. James MacDonald
For more from James MacDonald on "igniting passion in the people of God through the proclamation of the truth," visit Walkintheword.com.
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On June 15th 2009 MSF had its 5th Annual Golf Outing, Auction and Dinner. It was quite a blessing for us to see how many people came out to support the foundation. The day started off with a shotgun start of 80 golfers teeing off. Former Chicago Bear, Glen Kozlowski, came out to support us by spending time with each of the foursomes out on the course. Although rain had plagued the week before, Monday turned out to be a perfect day for the course! After golf finished up our silent auction began with 303 items to be auction off. After serving 200 for dinner, MC Bob Arosen started the live auction. Once again Bob didn't disappoint his audience as many laughs were shared as he auctioned off 10 items. This year MSF hosted live entertainment by "Splat Experience." Choreographed to music an artist, using only his bare hands, painted an 8 x 8 portrait of Jesus in approximately five minutes. The artist held the room's attention as he layered his painting and his image took shape. The evening ended with Pastor James MacDonald from Harvest Bible Chapel reminding us once again the true meaning of salvation.
