LEARN TO WAIT WELL

[Dr. Kay]

Sometimes we don't know how to wait, or we don't wait too well. Paul and Silas knew how to wait well. In Acts 16:22, the Scriptures tell us that a crowd attacked them and that the rulers tore off their clothes and commanded that they be beaten with rods and struck with many blows. Afterward, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was charged to keep them safely.
So there they were sitting in this prison all beaten up with their clothes torn off of them. Verse 24 tells us that the jailer having received [so strict a] charge, put them into the inner prison (the dungeon) and fastened their feet in the stocks. He was going to make sure they didn't get out.
But then about midnight, God showed up. Wouldn't it have been nice if He had shown up around three o'clock in the afternoon? Why does He always wait until midnight the darkest part of the night when everything is quiet?
Paul and Silas didn't seem to mind because verse 25 says, But about midnight, as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God...It sounds to me like they were waiting and saying to themselves, "Well, God, if you want to get us out of here, here we are. If not, I guess we'll stay, but either way we are going to be happy."
Verse 25 goes on to say: and the [other] prisoners were listening to them, Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken...(verses 25,26).
We ought to draw a circle around all of the "suddenly's" in our Bible because this is a Word from God for us. Every time we find a descriptin in the Bible of people who were waiting on God in the midst of horrible circumstances, suddenly God broke through. Those circumstances can't stand for one second before the power of God. When God moves, our circumstances don't have a chance. But when we start messing with our circumstances, we will only increase them and make them worse. So let God deal with them.
We talk so much about believing God, but how many of us really, really, really know how to believe God? First of all, the Bible says in Hebrews 4:3 that if you are believing God, you have entered His rest. How many people do we know have really entered the rest of God? Maybe there will be a handful of people here and there, but there aren't many.
Those who have really believed do enter the rest of God. When we are in that place of waiting, we aren't trying to do it. And if we aren't trying to do it, we have time to have joy, and we will be able to wait well because we are resting in Him....Amen