Category: Faith

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Waiting

No one likes to wait, yet we do a lot of waiting in our lives. One of the first things we learned in school was get in line—and wait.

While you are waiting, here are seven considerations about waiting:

Do not let anxiety spoil your patience. Waiting takes patience and waiting develops patience. Since you are going to do a lot of waiting in your life, you need to allow patience to grow without the burden of anxiety. Remember the old saying, “A watched pot never boils.”

Pray believing, wait in faith. You should not wait to pray; pray and wait. God can and does answer some prayers instantly. Other times, you will have to wait for God’s answer to materialize. If you have prayed about a certain thing, leave it in God’s hands. Worrying about the outcome is counterproductive to faith.

Stay busy while you wait. Maybe you have prayed about something big, yet there are smaller options within reach. If that is the case, while you wait on God for the big thing, do the smaller things. I believe God will honor those small steps.

Occupy your time, until it is your time. If you are not careful, you can wallow in the weariness of waiting while overlooking the opportunities within reach. “One bird in hand is of more value than two in the bush.”

Prepare yourself during the wait. There are many different quotes about opportunity and preparedness. Here is one I use (not sure if it is an original), “Opportunity is a door that opens for the prepared.” Whatever opportunity you are waiting on, prepare for it today.

Consider God’s timing in the wait. There will always be those who have a purpose from God, but their foolish zeal will cause them to step through the door too soon. They spoil the process and outcome of God’s purpose by their unwillingness to wait on God’s timing.

Is it worth the wait? It is sad but some folks wait for a happening that will never come. Unrealistic desires waste a lot of time and emotional energy on nothing. We need to be realistic about God’s desire versus our expectation. Do not wait on a pipe dream. Godly wisdom will separate the real and foolish dreams.

Do not waste a wait. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. No one has more or less than anyone else regardless of their status, income, education, or location. You should protect your time and current opportunities. It is important to do something while you wait, whether it is a short wait or a long one. Don’t miss the bus waiting on a plane.

My final word, I never have regretted waiting on Jesus, His timing is worth the wait and His purpose is eternal.

Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! (Ps. 27:14 NKJV).

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt

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Goodbye Ole Okra

My old lover of hot summers is about to fade as the sunny hours grow fewer and the hot begins to turn toward cold. I am a son of the South, so I love okra, that odd vegetable that fills our summer plates and occasionally takes some space in our soups. Our Louisiana cousins put it in gumbo, and we love it too.

Our regional preferred dish is breaded and fried. I am one of the odd ones who also loves it boiled, leaving it slimy and slick. It chews easy and goes down quick.

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Yesterday’s Door is Shut!

Regret is a bad dream on a never-ending replay loop. I think most of us have some of those past events or choices of which we regret. “I wish I hadn’t done that!” or “I wish I would have made a better choice there!”

I know this is a rhetorical question, but I must ask it anyway, “Can we go back and change it?” Of course, the answer is an emphatic, “NO!” There is nothing we can do to change the decision or the action of the past. That door is shut and cannot be opened.

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Something To Live For

If you look around to the craziness around you, you could easy get depressed and say, “What’s the use?” People in every era and in most lives lived could say at one point, “What’s the use?”

Throughout every point of history there have been people who have given up even though they had it relatively easier than most people around them. The difference was their lack of hope and purpose.

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True Conversion

If I remember the story correctly, a man in conversation with the famous evangelist D. L. Moody, pointed to a drunken man on the street and said, “Moody, isn’t that one of your converts?” Moody replied, “Yes, that looks like one of my converts.” Implying that the work of man does not change an individual but only a true work of grace by Christ can convert.

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Suffering and the Kingdom

I remember some of the old timers from our valley and ridges talking about folks who were going through difficult times and using the rhetorical phrase, “I don’t know how they have ‘walkin’ around sense?”

That’s the truth. When you look at the suffering of some folks, you think, “How do they keep their senses about them?” I am amazed how some people go through horrific things and seem to weather the storm with supernatural strength. Well, it is with supernatural strength. God gives the that extra “Umph!” to get them over the line.

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Simply Put

Simply Put

Put me in a family to love
Put me in a community to serve
Put me in Your Kingdom to sacrifice

Put Your Word in my ear to hear
Put Your Word in my heart to believe
Put Your Word in my mouth to speak

Put something in my hand to give
Put compassion in my heart to heal
Put bread in my hand to share

Put me in a place to trod
Put me in Your field to work
Put me in the world to shine

Put me in the line to stand
Put me in the battle to fight
Put me in the war to win

Put me in Your altar to pray
Put me in Your heart to worship
Put me in Your hand to die

—Harry L. Whitt

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Old Men

I remember when I was a boy looking at old men in wonderment. They were either my grandfather or someone else’s grandfather. I knew my granddaddy was once a farmer and he still dabbled with farming. He helped my Daddy with a few things, had a garden, and sometimes had a little patch of corn. He got a few dollars every month from the plan put in place by FDR.

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