In a recent blog I wrote about how this month has been rather slow as far as scheduled ministry and how that has been challenging for myself and my team. Sadly we only have about a week left in Werda and not much has changed. We still don’t have a lot of scheduled ministry and the few things we did plan didn’t get a lot of participation. The town is still seemingly a ghost town who inhabitants only appear for moments at a time before disappearing and the children we were playing with in the afternoons have stopped coming because they have exams this week. Oh and we still have no water.
However challenging and boring this has been at times the Lord has been teaching me something incredibly important. A lesson that seems like a simple lesson but it is the simple lessons at times I feel like are the ones we tend to need reminding of the most. That lesson is to not just simply wait and do nothing but to actively wait with expectancy on the Lord. No matter where we are in life I feel like we can all relate to a season of waiting. Wether we are waiting for the boy to call, waiting to hear back from a job interview, waiting for the next promotion, waiting to figure out your next move, waiting for a baby to arrive, or simply waiting for the next paycheck. We all have been waiting on something in our lives. This waiting can be the hardest. It is the when we doubt ourselves the most, it is when we make list after list after list in preparation, it is where we prepare ourselves for rejection, or crunch the number and stretch ever last penny.
For me this month has been a big waiting game. In seeking the Lord and what he has for me this month and ministry this month He has been showing me the importance of waiting with expectancy. Last week the Lord really pressed on my heart that the church body we are working with in Werda dose not need to be evangelized more. What they need is encouragement in the faith and active community that pours truth and life into them. I shared that with my team and to my great encouragement several of them felt they were hearing the same thing from the Lord. We set out with excitement planning and inviting people to two bible studies that would take place the following week. We were excited to meet with them, to build them up and encourage them with scripture, and have a space to the to them and have them get to know us. We had one person show up to the first bible study and none to the second. I happened to be leading the second bible study and in my preparation in the days before the Lord began to speak to me again. He began pressing on my heart telling me that this month would be a month of intercession and prayer.
We only have about a week left in Werda so I was a little discouraged that I was just now hearing this from the Lord with so little time left. It also occurred to me how much harder a ministry of intercession and prayer is than a ministry where someone tells you where to be, when to be there, and what to do. There is so much intentionality that comes with a ministry of intercession. In this small moment of panic God began to remind me of all the time in my life I have interceded on behalf of friends, family, and ministries. Each example was a different amount of time. Anywhere form a few days to a few years and each time the Lord was faithful to come through. He faithfulness didn’t fail me then and it wouldn’t fail me now. Even if I never seen the things I am praying for come to fruition to pray with faith and expectancy and trust in His faithfulness. Time spent in prayer and intercession is just as important as actually doing the physical labor and time spent with the Lord is never time wasted.
