How To Wait on God Part 6
I had a great day on Tuesday. When God said He was going to teach me how to Wait on Him, I was a little skeptical. I envisioned long lines, traffic jams, and frustration. But instead my day was full of revelation from my Father. Hearing His voice is the sweetest sound.
That is why I was surprised when a sudden wave of negative and anxious thoughts began to flood over me as I graded my student’s tests.
I quickly asked God, “What is going on?”
He quickly responded, “What are you watching?”
When I come home from work, I decompress by watching mindless TV. This day, I was grading papers with Judge Judy playing in the background. I was barely paying attention but apparently my soul was at full attention. Because the strife on television caused strife to rise up in me.
God then revealed my 6th lesson of the day:
“Melissa, as you are waiting on me, guard your heart and your mind. Feed your soul good things.”
I am not one of those super spiritual people who will tell you TV and movies are evil. I enjoy several TV series and I am probably too excited about the new season of “This Is Us” starting tonight.
But nonetheless, I also have to make sure I am not feeding my soul strife, anger, and fear. So I must guard what I watch.
Our souls are sponges. If we immerse our souls in fear, anxiousness, anger, and profane language, when life squeezes us with trials and difficult situations, what will come out of us is fear, anxiousness, anger, and profane language.
For me, watching the adversarial Judge show was causing me to manufacture strife in my imagination.
God’s words to me were not condemning. My words to you this morning are not meant to condemn. God’s love for you does not vary by your TV watching choices. Nor, do I believe God withdraws from us if he doesn’t approve of our choices. David said, “if I make my bed in Hell, You are there.” Surely, God can handle a little cable or network TV.
So please don’t read this as a condemnation. It’s not. It’s an invitation. An invitation to heal our emotions. An invitation to break alliances with fear. An invitation to be free of the emotional roller coaster our souls like to ride.
Let worship Music be your background noise.
Pray in the spirit when you have a few minutes of down time.
Meditate on a scripture while you are on hold.
Ask God for an encouraging word for the person standing next to you in line.
Listen to the Bible or a Christian book while driving.
Saturate your soul with good things so that as you wait, and when life squeezes you, the Jesus in you come out!
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”
Philippians 4:8 NKJV