Perfect Timing

 Sometimes the thing that is most prayer-consuming seems to fall on deaf ears.

My devotions the past few days, in perfect timing 

remind us they do not!

Sometimes we seek but cannot find

We knock but no one opes the door

Then we who are answer-inclined

Wonder what we are praying for

The hardest part, for you and I

When waiting is misunderstood

Is to believe that God’s reply

Is always working for our good

The scope of God we can perceive

Is but a glimpse at very best

Hope is the courage to believe

While faith is enduring the test

Then keep on seeking; knock once more

Yield self to God, then pray and pray

The answer we are waiting for

Is His perfect timing away

© Janet Martin

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

 

The 'Wait' Weight

Grand-daughter is already 4 weeks old, 

while a month ago we were anxiously/eagerly waiting to meet her!

(some small endearments...one dimple in her right cheek 

and she only wrinkles the left side of her forehead, 

and she LOVES being rocked!)

Right now, in this province, waiting for spring is everyone's common ground!

On a personal note I'm still waiting for someone to fix our internet issues.

It flicks on for a minute then it's gone and I have to wait for it to reboot

(or whatever it does.)

I have re-discovered a whole new-old way of life this week...

 a paper dictionary,

... a cook-book,

 work-out DVDs,

...no weather-forecast updates

... a telephone! (can sometimes see my e-mails but can't reply!)

...and last but not least, a record-player 

since we have no working cd or cassette player...

(or no music which means listening to my rusty singing voice :-/

‘Wait’ is a weight that can wear patience thin

‘Wait’ means the gate is still barred

‘Wait’ tries the trust we must muster within

‘Wait’ even when it is hard

‘Wait’ wafts in whispers of worlds held at bay

‘Wait’ is the bud full of flow’r

‘Wait’ is a word that teaches us to pray

‘Wait’ is a long-winded hour

‘Wait’ tests the will of the woman, man, child

‘Wait’ is not ‘yes, dear' or ‘nope’

‘Wait’ is an order that can drive us wild

‘Wait’ is the foothold of hope

‘Wait’ is the prelude to ‘if’, ‘then’ and ‘when’

‘Wait’ for the good of the ‘want’

‘Wait’ is the ship that has still not come in

‘Wait’ is an internal taunt

‘Wait’ is the lad wishing to be six

‘Wait’ is the babe before birth

‘Wait’ is a sleeve full of endless tricks

‘Wait’ is the way of this earth

© Janet Martin

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 27:14

Worth The Weight/Wait

Those things truly worth having often take their time, it seems

While we of hurried nature tug at morrow’s soldered gate

But time cannot be rushed or pushed; it teaches us that dreams

And things truly worth having are after all, worth the wait

The weight of waiting can be hard on human-hearted us

We tend to think that sooner would be better than so late

But we would never taste life’s full sweetness without it, thus

Those things truly worth having will always be worth their weight/wait

© Janet Martin

What are you waiting on?

Spring?

 Summer?

Tomorrow?

I'm dying to tell you what I am no longer waiting on... as soon as I have permission;-)

Waiting is Hard

Waiting is hard
Its want inspired
By something Now does not impart
Through its request
Waiting will test
Endurance of both hand and heart

Waiting is hard
Its passage barred
With no peek-hole from Here to There
A wall of sorts
Where Time cavorts
While we resort to fear or prayer

This waiting game
Is much the same
For young or old stayed in its Must
 Then some of us
Will fret and fuss
And some will learn patience and trust

Waiting is hard
But its reward
If we learn what waiting can teach
Will make us far
More thankful for
That Something still beyond our reach


Janet Martin~


 Wait on the Lord:
be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart:
wait, I say, on the Lord.
Ps.27:14

That Season Twixt White-as-Snow and Green-as-Grass

We are in this season now,  spell-binding in its sweep of sod unbroken...
Earth a picture of Waiting

How stark and still the sweep of hill and rolling mead unbroken

A sterile sketch of Waiting etched on Nature’s steeped ahoy

Beneath the awning of time’s stabile dawning-dying token

Prelude and postlude blend like death and birth in strange alloy

How vast the sky where eons vie and draw the eye unbidden

To ponder heaven’s ocean mirroring Forevermore

The dark and light of day and night within its tide is driven

It ebbs and flows above us like a sea without a shore

How brief the interlude twixt white-as-snow and green-as-grass

Earth yields its subdued fallow to a Lordship preordained

As He imbues the furrow and the morrow; seasons pass

In pictures of submission and fruition unrestrained

How lithe the writhing hours plead and bleed with need and flowers

Our hope-dread intermingling like a landscape on the verge

Of what remains as grace sustains and unchains sun and showers

To break the bud as barrenness and benediction merge

© Janet Martin