Then Wait...

 I'm reading a beautiful book entitled Adventures in Prayer by Catherine Marshall

What an insightful, encouraging read!

 ...especially to all who are learning to lean a little more!

Below is a paragraph from the chapter The Waiting Prayer

above devotion from the book Springs in the Valley, compiled by Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman

Then wait; the war Want wages in cages of mortal tent

Could engage us in battles of doubt and discouragement

When heart-felt pleas upon our knees seem adrift or ignored

And we begin to worry while we ‘wait upon the Lord’

Still wait; for on the wheel of faith the Potter shapes the clay

When will is tempered ‘neath a Hand that tests the words we pray

…though fretful tears oft flow for oh, we do not understand

And we are so forgetful when it comes to Want’s demand

...and consequence can deal an immense lesson in remorse

God higher ways oft sent through trusting’s grueling intercourse

For not in the attaining does faith its foundation prove

But as we learn to wait we earn the Wisdom from above

So, lest we interfere with He who works for our best

Wait on the Lord while pouring out each meek, earnest request

For our own perception peers through present's temp'ral grind

Where honour and deception can be subtly intertwined

So then we ought to humbly strive to care a great deal more

For others as we wait upon The Thing Worth Waiting For

How little we can see of Mercy’s mighty Masterplan

How much He cares for you and me like only God’s love can

How He longs to surprise us as we surrender and wait

While clinging to His promises; not compromise’s fate

Oh, how He longs to change us as we yield and yield and yield  

And wait upon the Lord until His Purpose is revealed

…where oft what is withheld is what compels us to let go

While oft our tears soft-meld with answers that appear as ‘no’

Where nothing is quite as it seems in spite of how it seems

And everything we have we owe to He who knows our dreams

But fathers with a vision so beyond our little scope

And authors through Waiting’s Submission purer faith and hope

For in faith’s Waiting Room God grooms us for what waits to be

He strips away the guise of well-worded propriety

And ties our tongues with wordless groans and pride fully undressed

While we examine our hearts for sin not yet confessed

And bow before the throne of God where He our sob subdues

With whispers, while we wait, and find the peace Release renews

© Janet Martin