LBS God Calls Us To... Wait Part 4

   

LBS

God Calls Us To Wait

Part 4

Chinese bamboo is fascinating. To grow Chinese bamboo, you plant a seed. Then you water and fertilize it. At the end of the first year, nothing happens. During the second year, those nurturing the bamboo seeds continue to water and fertilize the soil, but still nothing happens. The third year, they water and fertilize the soil, with the same results. This pattern continues through the fourth year. It’s not until the fifth year that, sometime during the ongoing watering and fertilizing, a shoot of bamboo will pierce the soil. In just six weeks, Chinese bamboo tree will grow to nearly ninety feet tall. 

    How long does it take to grow Chinese bamboo ninety feet tall? Does it take six weeks? Or five years? The answer probably depends on your perspective if you happened upon the seedlings during those thriving six weeks, you’d think the trees grew at an incredible rate. But if you were the one planting, watering, and fertilizing all those years, then you’d know just how much time it requires. You’d also know that if you hadn’t applied all that water and fertilizer for all of those years, there wouldn’t be a Chinese bamboo tree to enjoy. 

    In all of our lives, we have experiences like a Chinese bamboo tree. We may hope or expect God to do something quickly, instantly, or in our expected time frame, but God moves much more slowly. The work He is doing may take weeks, months, years, or even decades. Like anyone who has sat and watched the ground where Chinese bamboo tree seeds have been planted, we may be tempted to believe that God isn’t doing anything at all. We don’t see growth, we don’t see breakthrough. But when God finally responds, He exceeds all of our wildest hopes and expectations.

    As followers of God, we are all called to wait. At times God will use the Scriptures to remind us of the importance of waiting on Him. Other times we’ll find that the whispers  to wait come in the form of sermons, life experiences, and circumstances. Yet God is faithful. He will do more than we ever imagine.

1. What is one thing in your life that you had to wait on for what felt like forever?

__________________________________________________________________

Read Galatians 6:7-10. According to this passage, how do patience and perseverance work together?

1. What kinds of situations cause you to become ”weary while doing good” (v9)? What is the promise to those who persevere in this passage?

  _________________________________________________________________