Delight. Commit. Trust: The Waiting

Earlier this year, I took time to get rid of distractions and spent a lot of time journaling and praying about the direction God was leading me in. I didn’t have any perspective for how I wanted this new year to go, and I knew that the best way to gain perspective was to turn to God and ask Him to show me how He wanted this year to look and what steps I could take to get there. So with an open heart, ready and willing to go wherever the Spirit prompted me, I opened my Bible and was led to Psalm 37. As I read through and studied the verses, there were several that stuck out to me. However, there were three words in particular that really stood out to me and have set the tone for how I choose to walk out the rest of 2019. These three words can be found in the following verses:

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will act (37:4-5)."

Delight. Commit. Trust.

These three words are action words, meaning that these verses are a call to action that also lead to a promise. If we want to obtain the desires of our hearts, then we must first actively delight ourselves in the Lord. And if we want to see the Lord act and move on our behalf, then we must first trust that He is a God capable of doing so.

However, the first action comes with a disclaimer—when our delight is truly in the Lord, then our desires will reflect His desires. When we are truly delighting in His will and in His ways, there will come a time in which our desires shift from our own selfish ambitions to that which glorifies Him. The more you continue to delight yourself in Him, commit your way to Him, and trust in Him, the better you will be able to discern whether your desires are truly ones which honor Him.

Choosing to Delight, Commit and Trust—in the Waiting

“Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land, you will look on when the wicked are cut off.” Psalm 37:34

What are you waiting for right now? Relief from a situation you’ve been dealing with for years? A promise that you have yet to see fulfilled?

No matter what you are waiting on or how small it may seem, if you’re the tiniest bit like any other human out there, you are waiting on something. And chances are, if you are waiting, you are likely facing discouraging circumstances that cause you to question whether your wait will ever come to an end. However, there is hope tucked into the verse above. It's the promise that says when we wait for the Lord, He will deliver us. But in order for us to see God move in our situation, there must first be something we are waiting on, otherwise, how can He deliver us if there is nothing for Him to deliver us from? It's natural for us to wait, especially on God.

This verse is the essence of what it means to delight, commit and trust. When we wait for Him, and keep His ways by delighting, committing and trusting in Him, then we will be lifted up no matter how discouraging the wait may seem.

So what does it mean to delight, commit and trust in the middle of your waiting?

When we DELIGHT in God, His desires become our desires. When we choose to COMMIT our way to Him, it does not matter the direction of our path or the order of our steps, He will get us to where we need to go in HIS perfect timing. And When we TRUST in Him to lead us through the fire and chaos of life, He will use that very thing to bring hope, healing, and renewed strength that can only be refined and developed through the fire. He promises to always be with us there (Daniel 3:25).

The Fire Of Refinement

Fire is intense. Walking through “fires” in life is difficult and often discouraging, but God promises to be with us in each moment. And when we come out on the other side, we come out stronger, knowing that because God has led us through it before, He can and will lead us through it again whenever we face difficulties in life. There will always be some sort of fire in our lives. There will always be things we are waiting on. But each time we endure, we come out stronger and more refined than the last time.

There are a few things we can remember and live out when the heat intensifies and we feel like we are in an endless period of waiting:

1. Don’t let your waiting time be wasted time.

We learn in and through the process. The time that you spend waiting can be time that you spend learning and growing. You can spend your time wondering how long before the wait is over, or you can spend time learning new things along the way.

What are some areas you can focus on while you’re waiting? You can use that time to develop your character, learn new skills, or focus on developing your existing skillset. Take time to pray and ask God what it is that He wants you to learn and focus on during your time of waiting, and do those things. Invest your time and energy on resources that are going to grow you in the direction you are wanting to go.

2. Patience is an attitude.

"And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Hebrews 6:15

Let patience be the attitude you take on during this time. Discouragement can lead to bitterness. If you allow yourself to grow bitter during your time of waiting, it will eventually build up and affect the purpose of your waiting, resulting in you missing out on learning some pretty important life lessons. Bitterness and resentment can disillusion you, causing you to doubt God, and result in you giving up on the promise altogether.

3. Let the fire of refinement shape your waiting. There are things we learn in the process that can only be learned through a season of shaping and refinement. Your character is being strengthened as you learn how to not only wait, but to wait well. When we endure patiently, we not only obtain the promise (at the proper time), but we also learn patience, how to rely on God to be our strength, how to trust in Him, and how to endure in trying times. We learn how to build endurance and how to persevere instead of giving up.

4. When we put our hope in God and not in the thing we are waiting on, we find renewed strength.

"But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

Delight in Him, commit your way to Him, and trust in Him. When you allow those three actions to become habit as you are waiting, your perspective of your wait will be transformed, and your strength renewed so that you may continue hoping and trusting in Him.

---

Thank you for joining part one of this series! Over the next few weeks of posts, we'll be exploring what it means to "delight, commit, and trust" when it comes to our dreams, in our personal and spiritual growth, as well as explore some practical ways that we can continue to live that out in every area of our lives.

What are some ways or some areas where you are needing or hoping to "delight, commit, and trust" God more? Let's talk about it! I would love to hear from you in the comments below or in the IG comments section of this post.

With grace,

Celina