Waiting on God

As humans, we all know that having to wait for things is hard. It really is. Depending on what we're trying to wait on and be patient for, waiting for someting can be a real pain sometimes. I've so been there and I bet that many of you guys have too. We hate having to wait for many different things but what about waiting on God? What happens when we ask God something and we have to wait for an answer? What should we do while we are waiting for that college acceptance letter to come in? Are we just supposed to sit back and be upset every day the letter doesn't come? Are we supposed to pray? Well let's explore what we are supposed to be doing while we wait on God.

Romans 12:12 says, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

While you are waiting on Him, God wants to use this time to grow you in your relationship through Him. He doesn't want us to just sit back over here waiting on something and not involving him in the process at all! Because God is a loving God, he longs to see the best in us. It all comes back to the point that God all has a plan and purpose for us(Jeremiah 29:11), and he wants to be involved in our daily lives. While we wait on Him for something, we are being given a chance to give something over to Him that we know we can't do on our own. Let me use an example.

When it comes time to send those college applications off, that is usually a very stressful time of high school. If you're going to college and you applied, usually you have more than one college that means a bit more to you that you really want to go to. This college has a higher level of importance to you than the others, though I'm sure you'd want to be accepted either way. But wouldn't you be excited for all the letters that came in? Yes, more than likely. But say you had gotten all of your letters in but the letter from the college you really wanted, it would be a lot harder to wait for that one, wouldn't it? Of course. That's just the way we work, as humans. We can become very impatient on God.

But actually, in this case above, what would you do while you were waiting on God to give you that letter from the college? Romans 12:12 above says that we should rejoyce in hope. This means that we should have hope for that letter that's coming. We should be trusting of God that he's going to get us that letter exactly when we need it, at the perfect time. It says that we should be patient with tribulation. In this case, the tribulation would just be waiting for the letter. But hey, that can get stressful right? We're supposed to have patience and just wait on the letter's arival. God knows what he's doing. He has the plan for our lives so mapped out, he knows the exact moment that letter's going to arrive. And in your plan, it's the perfect timing. Remember that. It also says to be constant in prayer. This isn't like, some joke. Or some small section of the Bible that we're just supposed to go, "Ohh yeah. I remember that somewhere..." and go on with our daily lives with. It says to be constant in prayer. This isn't because God doesn't want us to do anything else with our lives. Not at all. But we can pray and talk to him, while we are doing the other things in our life as well. He just wants us to continually keep Him in the loop, so to speak. It's so much easier to wait for something while you have God there to wait with you. He's always there with you, but when you acknowledge He's there, everything becomes easier.

So. Just to recap a bit, here are the three steps we should be taking when we are waiting on God, for anything:

1) Rejoice in Hope

2) Be Patient in Tribulation

3) Be Constant in Prayer

I'll be honest girls, this isn't really an easy thing to do. When we're waiting for things, we can often become realy impatient and want our answers now. But when we remember to do these things, waiting on God becomes so much easier. Let's go into this next week here remembering this, and trying to impliment it into our daily lives. I, for one, will be implimenting this into my own life as well. :)

If any of you girls need any prayer, want to talk, have a topic suggestion, comments about any of our posts, or just want to get ahold of us for any reason at all, you can contact us at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly! Thank you guys, we LOVE hearing from you!

~Angelica

The Lord is Close to the Brokenhearted

"We're sorry, but I don't think she's going to make it."

The words stabbed through my heart, and I felt the weight of them crush me like a ton of bricks. Was I even hearing her correctly? Maybe I was just seeing things. Or I could be dreaming. Yes, dreaming would be nice. Then I can just wake up and forget...

"Come on Anna, let's go visit her."

As my dad pulled me into the hospital room where my little sister was waiting, every step felt so hard to take. Every breath felt close to impossible. But still, I was alive. Alive in the very physical sense of the world. But as I sat there in the room with my little sister, being forced to say goodbye, everything felt impossible. In a sense it was like my world had fallen apart. She was my world. And now my world was over. 

Most everyone has experienced the feeling of being brokenhearted. Like Anna in the story, you easily could have had a situation in your past where everything just felt impossible. Breathing may seem labored and hard to manage. You might feel a constant pain or heaviness in your chest. Maybe even doing the simplest things are just hard to manage or even close to impossible anymore. I think everyone experiences the feeling of brokeness or brokenheartedness at some point in their lives. But do we really know how to respond when we feel this way? Most of us, when we get to this point, we have no clue where to turn! I've been there, and sometimes over things that are a lot less big than Anna's situation above. 

If you ask around and try talking to others on their opinion on how to handle this feeling, expecially as teenagers, most of them will say things like this.

~ "Oh, you're just a teenager. It's normal to be emotional. The feeling will pass."

~ "Why don't you try finding things to engage in to take your mind off of how your feeling?"

~ "Well, ya know, time heals everything. Just wait awhile and things will get better."

Now don't get me wrong. Teenagers can and will be emotional sometimes. It can be a really good thing to find something else to do if you are feeling overwhelmed in your emotions. And for most things, time does heal things. But sometimes, these answers just aren't good enough. We want something more. Something to grab on to. Something that will encourage and inspire us. Something to give us hope when all seems lost. Well good news for us, God has given us the answer in the Bible. But firstly, we need to realize that not only does God have everything under control, but he is actually close to us! Look at what this Bible verse states in Psalms.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted 

    and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalms 34:18 

What good news this is for us to hear. To know that even when we feel this way and even when we feel this broken, God has never left us and he actually is close to us instead. This is also worded in another way here. 

 "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

So in knowing that God is close to us when we feel broken, we need to run to Him when we feel this way. He is the only one who truly can understand the depth of the pain we feel or the weight in our chest. He understands the situation and knows every little part of it. The Bible says that he knows exactly how many hairs we have on our head!(Luke 12:17) God not only knows the problem and its extent but because he loves us so much, he wants us to take our problems and worries to Him. He doesn't want us to have to deal with our problems alone and actually tells us to give our worries, cares, and all of our problems over to Him so we don't have to carry them ourselves! He says that when we go to Him with our problems and give them over to Him, he will give us his peace.

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1

So today I just want to encourage you girls. Sometimes we feel brokenhearted. We just feel hurt and crushed and the things of life get us down. But girls, we don't have to deal with this alone! God is right here with us through everything we are going through. Every step of the way. And when we feel like we can't take another step, God is right there to tell us that we can, that we can heal, and we can get better. Remember that all things are possible through God(Matthew 19:26). When we feel this way, at any time in our lives, we need to run to God. He will help us and will give us the strength we need to acomplish anything!(Exodus 15:2)

I found this song the other day called "Hanging On" by Britt Nicole. This song is amazing because in a way, it's a cry out to God. At the end of the song she's saying that she's hanging on because she knows God will take care of her. A beautiful song to listen to for any occasion! I have posted the video below, so feel free to check it out and let us know what you think! 

Girls, if any of you have been feeling Brokenhearted recently, it is our prayer that this post was an encouragment to you! If you need someone to talk to, prayer, or support, please don't hesitate to email us at heistodiefor@gmail.com and we will get back to you shortly! God Bless! <3

~Angelica