Everyone says, be still wait on Him. Often times we ask ourselves, ‘does God answer prayers, or how do we continue waiting even when God seems silent?’ But do we wait in worship and not in worry?
What we need to know is that our God is always on time, even though the waiting is never easy.
Be encouraged.
Related videos :
My job testimony: Click Here
The promise keeper : Click Here
Three weeks ago, my friend Annelies shared how her baby cries for milk and how she wants it then and immediately, and it is exactly what we do we our heavenly father.
We cry help Lord! When actually we needed the help yesterday and any wait longer drives us into worry. We are told several times to trust the promise keeper and way maker, but nobody tells us more about the waiting time.
It is easy to lose faith when it seems to take too long mostly in our eyes. Sometimes, we are so trouble and lose hope in it even happening.
I am here to encourage you that just like Annelies was ‘briefly’ in the kitchen making her daughter some milk, God is preparing something for you. It might mean that He may need to close many doors right in front of you, but keep the faith.
The promise keeper has promised, that’s all matters. Know that it will come to pass. This week’s guest blogs are all about waiting on God and how He is never late. You can walk in the confidence that God’s timing is the best and your testimony is coming.
God bless,
Click here to watch the video on youtube,
Nelly.
There are some things babies do that we just cannot comprehend. Though she gets four full bottles and two solid meals a day, somehow my lovely six-month-old will turn into a fire-breathing dragon whenever I *dare* to lay her down for a minute in order to prepare her bottle. A process that will take less than a minute, but to her, the world is ending right there and then.
The room is once again sandblasted by the bone-piercing cries and screams of a baby who believes I put her down for fun. When I get back to her and pick her up, she will be all red, and two huge tears will be on her cheeks. With a big sigh of relief, she’ll stretch out her little arms once she sees the bottle and grabs it as I bring it closer.
Two weeks ago, during a moment like this, I was just shaking my head and thinking why my baby was still displaying this behaviour. My heart actually kind of hurt because of the sadness and drama each time. I kissed her forehead as she drank from the bottle, the tears still on her cheeks, and said: “There’s no need to cry. Don’t you know that I will always feed you?”
And I meant what I said. Hell would literally have to freeze over before I’d wilfully let my own child starve. But if my baby knows that I love her, which I hope she does and feels safe with me, then why the disbelief and impatience every time she has to wait for a minute?
As I pondered this, I realised it’s probably pretty much what God must be experiencing when we express our needs to him. When we need or desire something, we must have it on the spot. Right now, preferably. And if not now, then at least next week. Or next month. Maybe even next year. But that’s as far as our flexibility goes, usually.
Now I don’t mean to make light of the things we ask from God, because, as you and I both know, the human heart can suffer greatly through unmet needs. We ache.
I’m thinking of those who are living off welfare programmes and benefits and trying to keep a roof over their heads. When will that job come around, Lord? When will we be able to save up for something instead of see our accounts drained deep into the red? The 41-year-old man who has been praying to finally meet and marry a kind, loving, caring partner, but to this day is still falling asleep to the noise of a quiet house.
When and where am I going to meet her, Lord? Come on, is she even out there? The mother sees her grown son still addicted to drugs and praying for him to turn around and find the Lord. When will you help him out of that ditch, God? When will he finally be safe?
The woman who is holding her gazillionth pregnancy test, hoping that this might just be that month, but after staring at it for ten full minutes realizes that the second line is just not going to appear, even though she could have sworn that she saw the faintest of lines on yesterday’s test. I can’t do this anymore, Lord. I just can’t. But I have to. I am losing it. When are you going to step in?!
When is God going to step in, exactly? I don’t know about you, but some of the most gut-wrenching pain this world has to offer will occasionally stop me in my tracks and make me tear up. When, Lord, when?! This plea, this cry for intervention in our broken lives, reminds me of the current uprising in the US against white supremacy and racism.
It also the words of Martin Luther King in his famous speech ‘How Long, Not Long’: “Somebody’s asking, ‘When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, and truth buried?’
I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’ How long? Not long, because you shall reap what you sow.’”
1965 was the year this speech was delivered. 55 years ago. A long time. Do you think Martin Luther King had expected racial injustice to have stretched far into the next century? And yet, full of faith and hope for change, he spoke of ‘not long’. What was his secret? Was it his faith in the goodness of man? I think he may have known better than that. It may well have been the goodness of God that MLK was lifting his eyes towards.
Perhaps it is exactly our faith in the goodness of God that still makes us cry out. That still has the tears run down our cheeks. That still captivates us with strong chains of disbelief that our deepest desires have not turned into reality. Perhaps my daughter was crying so hard because she couldn’t believe that I was putting her down when she was so obviously hungry.
And even worse, I didn’t just put her down and delay the feeding, I even disappeared out of sight. Isn’t that what God does, too? When we start asking for the things we want, he suddenly seems to be off the radar. Not only do our deepest needs go unfulfilled, the One we cling to for comfort in our time of need decides to leave the scene altogether. Or so it seems.
An eternity of tears to us, maybe only a minute to Him. To quote scripture, 2 Peter 3:8 says: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. Now surely, God understands our world and our perceptions and knows that our wait can seem to last forever. Our waiting hurts. And if you’ve ever heard the begging cries of a baby, you know that even a minute is too long.
In Psalms 56:8, we read: You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? God knows, and counts every tear. Jesus got his fair share of waiting pains too. Firstly, he had to watch this broken world do its damage for the first 30 years of his life before He could step in and openly do something about it.
He witnessed his own people misuse God’s commandments on a daily basis and twist them so as to justify their own misdemeanors. And let’s not forget, He lived his entire life in anticipation of an excruciating physical death and the darkest battle our realms have ever seen.
So I just want to encourage you. I don’t know where you are right now, but I know that God cares. And He does make himself present in your situation, even if you don’t feel it. When you’re faced with an empty bank account and don’t know how to feed the family, He is there. When you don’t know if your heart can handle another loss, He is there.
When your child comes home bullied and beaten, and your own heart bleeds with agony, He is there. When your neighbor proudly shows off her new baby and you outwardly smile, but inwardly are about to break down, He is there. He will not leave you or forsake you, no matter what happens. Don’t you know that I will always feed you? Dry your tears, and be on the lookout. Surrender as best you can. Something good is coming your way.
Lamentations 3:25-26 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
God bless,
Annelies.
Click here to watch the video on youtube
Finding the ‘new’ normal while I wait ~ for healing’
Losing a baby at any gestation whether through miscarriage or stillbirth is a life-changing experience. The pain is unbearable and though it settles down, the sadness really doesn’t disappear. There is something about grief and sadness, one moment you are totally fine and then one petty thing makes your heartache and you feel like nothing will ever cure your sadness.
Such losses because of their intimate nature, cause the couple to mourn alone, and mostly it’s the women who go through the silent grieving moments and this is never talked about in public. This is even harder for those who miscarry even before they get to announce to the family that they were expecting.
How do they come to terms with sharing the devastating news especially when they just found out they are expecting it. Or for some, how do they find the courage to come back and tell people that they are no longer expecting just days after breaking the great news. For mamas like me, who meet friends and you try to explain the flat’ tummy but empty arms and empty cradle. Where do we start from?
How do we start a new normal? Especially when mother nature hits you hard. Waking up at night not because the newborn needs a diaper change but because you are hurting from the breast engorgement and you need a new ice pack and milk pad to stop the leakage. You have all the signs of a new mom but the physical pain you are going through does not make it worthwhile. You feel that it would be worth it if there was a baby next to you then all the pain you were going through would be justified.
To add more emotional pain, you come to terms with the fact that you will never get to nurse that baby, that you will wake up at night the first weeks postpartum not because they woke you up but because of your body hurting. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I will not experience any season of ‘’firsts’’ with Olivia Amali.
Never will watch her tag with daddy or tell her to eat her veggies. I always knew she would be a better eater than her older sister IJ but I guess we will never know and this is a hard reality I like most mamas will have to face.
Did you know that the hardest place to be is between what you have seen God do and what you are waiting for him to do? We are encouraged in His word to cling to his ‘unseen yet eternal promises’ 2 Cor 4;16-18
16 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Just like the sun is absent in the night, His promises are revealed at the appointed time.
We only need to hold on to the hope that darkness which is the sadness and the pain, no matter how they seem to be winning, they can not extinguish the power of the light. John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Where His presence is, there is light and His light breaks every yoke of fear and sadness.
We as His children ought to walk right into that freedom with the confidence that He is the God that moves all mountains in our lives and calls to existence promises that were unseen and did not exist before.
I would like to encourage you, that in the stormy days and cloudy days, you have never doubted the existence of the sun. Instead, we run the race and fix our eyes on Jesus trusting that the stars we see at night are a glimpse of what is coming in the morning ~ his joy and sunshine. So what do we hold on when darkness and sadness creeps in? we ought to cling to :
* Scripture : which is Gods’s truth and we can remind ourselves of His promises and what He said.
* Prayer; This is where we pour out the raw emotions to Christi and let him take control.’’Father, this is beyond me, take control of my emotions an give me with joy where there is hurt and sadness.
* Community : Find your tribe and allow yourself to soak in the love and care from those around you.
Friends who will sit with you in silence, pray with you, take walks with you and even confront you as the Spirit leads to asking how you are really feeling and also be ready to listen to your response if any. We are so grateful for our community both here and far. We have friends visiting from way out of town just to pray and talk for an hour and then have to travel back again.
What we need to cling to is His promises in His word and when sadness hits you, wait for God. Call out to Him …”God/ but you promised!!”
You Promised ~ Corey Voss
Everything is temporary
God, You’re never ending
Though it seems You sometimes hide
You rise in perfect time
Bread of heaven, Living Water
God of our salvation
Like a shepherd, You will lead us
To the other side
You are who You say You are
You are who You say You are
In this moment and forever, You will surely be
Everything You’ve ever promised
You promised
In this moment and forever, all sufficiency
Is who You are, it’s who You are
You promised
Through the valley to the mountain
Everywhere we go
Still, the clamor, fill the quiet
Peace be still, my soul
Peace be still, my soul!
The week Olivia was born, IJ was attending the VBS (Vacation Bible School) and she would come home each evening with memory verses they had learned. She danced away joyfully to the songs of praise they had learned. With tears in my eyes watching her, I thought “what a timely word of encouragement were they to our grieving hearts”.
As she danced away while giggling, I paused to be grateful for the great blessing such as family in my life and most specifically the enormous comfort my almost 6year old daughter brought and stills brings to us. In that same moment, my heart broke for the many women and families who are grieving like myself but lack the sweet comfort and sweet craziness of their own healthy child.
You might be reading this and wondering how do you grieve with a friend who has lost a baby. These are some of the support we have received and would like to share :
* Time and space to grieve
* Give them your time and presence ~ I loved when friends just showed up without appointments and said ‘’ Shall I sit with you?”
* Show up in whatever way you can ~ ring their bell, send something or card by post, a message and remember that your love , prayers and support are the most important.
* I remember, i had moments i was so numb and did not want to speak on the phone but appreciated messages or emails from friends who mentioned “Take your time to respond”
* Don’t stress to do anything big~ just be present in their pain and ask questions in wisdom 
;).
* Apart from sending cards, you can note down the monthly anniversary to send an encouraging message , remember the holiday season too ~ Christmas or mothers and fathers days. This is because , just like any child, milestones matter whether they are in heaven or here with us.
* Food- we have been so blessed by the ‘meal train organized by our local church. So, yes, send them a meal or if you are out of town you can organize a takeaway delivery from a restaurant.
* For some families, medical bills could be leading them to a financially stressful time. So, small financial gifts go along way.
* Child care for the other children. I remember, the first weeks postpartum, I couldn’t give IJ the attention she deserved, and having friends drop by to pick her up and bringing her back after she had had dinner was a huge blessing.
* Help at home like cleaning and laundry. I am a control freak in cleaning my house and I want to do it alone. However, in the last weeks, I had to allow myself to be helped in the house especially because the body needs to heal.
* Gifts to keep to help remember the baby. Does not have to be a major. I remember we got simple yet powerful gifts from friends. It could range from handmade items, tea, picture frame, flowers, prayer cards, plants, or even personalized jewelry.
* Books to encourage, journals and music. I have received music CDs and several links to encouraging songs in the past weeks.
* Offer to go for walks with them or something they love to do.
I would like to hear what else you could add to the list 
Love always,
Nelly.